CannaDex Educational App
The journey of designing a better way for users to educate themselves on therapeutic Cannabis. Every year more adults try Cannabis for therapeutic use and as replacement for pharmaceuticals, but they are uniformed which hinders the consumer’s experience.
Not Everyone is an Expert
Cannabis is a great natural option for finding pain relief, help with insomnia, stress, anxiety, appetite issues, and so much more. The world of Cannabis has exploded in recent years and now with so much new information and options it has become a confusing world for the average person. Many people find this is a barrier to finding therapeutic relief from Cannabis products, and sometimes results in negative experiences from choosing an option that isn't right for them. Often this is due to bad advice from uninformed retail staff, things heard in passing, old wives tales, and general lack of knowledge. There are not currently many options users find easy and trustworthy, and they aren't confident in decision making. The problem of lack of understanding does not currently have a solid solution.
Research
As of September 2023, 40 states have medical only legalized and 23 states have legalized recreational Cannabis use.
The U.S. cannabis market size was valued at USD 13.2 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.2% from 2023 to 2030.
“A report from MJBizDaily showed Americans spent roughly $30 billion on legal marijuana in 2022 while only spending around $20 billion on chocolate. The cannabis purchases eclipsed sales of “feel-good” products, including beer, opioid medications and topical pain relief, the report stated”
Through secondary research and interviewing potential users I was able to use affinity mapping to find the problem statement and user priorities.
The Problem
It is difficult and time consuming for users to find an effective solution with Cannabis.
How Might We Questions
User Priorities
Looking for safe and reliable suggestions
Looking for specific therapeutic benefits
Finding an option quickly
After completing research, user interviews, and creating a problem statement I was able to figure out some how might we questions for the project.
How might we demystify Cannabis for therapeutic use?
How can we help people determine what they need/want to use
How might we educate users on their choices?
How might we simplify the process of research?
How might we help people find relief with therapeutic Cannabis?
Empathy Maps
I identified two main types of users to create empathy maps for:
1. Generally uninformed Cannabis user who likes the positive medicinal effects but feels lost/ intimidated when it comes to actually knowing what to pick and why.
Site Map
The site map is a diagram of all the possible screens to better visualize how they are all connected. This helped me keep in mind the whole scope of the app while designing.
User Flow
Next I used the Empathy Maps and How Might We Questions to decide on 3 red routes of common user scenarios. These red routes are frequent actions a user might take.
1. A returning user logging in.
2. A new user creating an account.
3. A new user entering as a guest and finding one of the quizzes to take.
With these 3 red routes I developed a user flow diagram to further see and understand the journey of the user.
Sketching
78% of cannabis consumers report cannabis positively impacting their overall mental health
Cannabis users believe the plant positively impacts their happiness (79%) & makes them more social (63%)
While more consumers (58%) considered themselves recreational users as opposed to medical users (42 %), the majority – 53% — described their use as both medical and recreational.
Users expressed that they don’t have a go to source for information to help them decide on purchases.
Interviewed users reported that they felt lost an intimidated when making choices in retail situations.
Many users reported that they had little depth or confidence in their Cannabis knowledge.
Sketch Red Route 2
2. Somewhat informed and likes to make decisions for themselves, but does not feel on top of all the information.
I created wireframes to work as a low fidelity digital prototype, like a digital version of the sketches. Wireframes are the next visualization step to start to see the app come together and test its usability.
Wireframe Red Route 1
Site Map
Prototype Testing Round 1
Sketch Red Route 3
Wireframes
Wireframe Red Route 2
High Fidelity Prototype 1
High Fidelity 1 Red Route 1
High Fidelity 1 Red Route 2
High Fidelity 1 Red Route 3
I made sketches of the 3 red routes and then some guerrilla testing of them. For the guerrilla testing I chose to ask friends and family to go through this low fidelity prototype and give me any and all feed back they had. These tests were casual and impromptu. Through the guerrilla testing and feedback I was able to distill down a few changes and things to keep in mind while designing further.
1. Put more options for user control and freedom.
2. Add more navigation for the quiz menu.
Sketch Red Route 1
Wireframe Red Route 3
After developing the high fidelity prototypes the next step was to test them with users and collect feedback. I found 5 people to test all three red routes, I chose people who were of age to use an app like this and were interested in exploring Cannabis for therapeutic use. I chose mainly friends and family who I could easily test with to meet the time constraints of this project.
Findings
With the feedback from the testing I was able to analyze the information and find 3 main issues to fix.
1. The bottom navigation bar
2. The UI was a bit too simple/boring
3. Quiz menu colors + font were difficult to read
High Fidelity Prototype 2
Prototype Testing Round 2
With the feedback from the second round of testing I was able to analyze it into an affinity map. I found I needed to punch up the visuals a bit, make the the FAQ section more self explanatory, and to change the verbiage of the experience log to make it more easily understood. Another issue identified was that having ‘sign up’ and ‘sign in’ next to each other was confusing for some users.
Conclusions
After looking doing user interviews and secondary research I was able to find the key problem: It is difficult and time consuming for users to find an effective solution with Cannabis. I noticed that there did not seem to currently be a way for consumers to easily, quickly, and accurately get therapeutic Cannabis product recommendations that they could trust. I kept in mind the user priorities of ease, accuracy, and trust while designing an app with easy to use and inviting UI to lead to an overall quick and easy user experience. Through multiple rounds of testing and re-designing I was able to create a product that achieved the key user priorities while having a pleasing and trustworthy UI.