Overview
The Tōke App has codified the cannabis purchasing journey, facilitating a consumers experience that prompts action based on needs. The iOS & web platforms connect cannabis consumers to premium dispensaries in their area, while providing a unique “digital bud-tender” service that ties strain profiles to an individual's state of mind and environment.
Role
Founder & Product Designer
Research
I began by talking to three focus groups with a mix of new and seasoned cannabis users, each with a different approach to product/experience depiction. The first focus group followed conventional selling tactics, where we depicted the experience and later validated for accuracy.
The second focus group was asked to first test the product and then describe their experience and satisfaction. The third group was first asked two simple questions, “how would you describe your current environment?” and “what mood are you in?". Based on their responses we recommended a product and also asked them to describe their overall experience and satisfaction.
We realized that customer satisfaction was not just contingent on the quality of the product and that there was a missing piece to the puzzle. By first identifying the user’s state of being, we were able to correlate that to specific properties of the product, creating a customer journey where the user felt in control, informed, and thus, fully satisfied.
After identifying desirability and feasibility, we rushed to complete the ideation phase. We began by solidifying three user personas (ranging from new and inexperienced to very experienced users). We then went through three cycles of prototyping and usability testing, each time refining the fidelity (from pencil sketches to fully interactive prototypes) to ensure nothing was getting lost in translation.
Innovation Connoisseurs
After completing the discovery phase which consisted of qualitative/quantitative research, market/customer segmentation, and user persona creation, we worked through various sprints in parallel using Agile Product Delivery & Lean UX.
While refining the information architecture, user flows, and interaction design of what started as a web-app solution, we realized during the brand strategy phase that our customers were looking for an innovative lifestyle brand that was half technology thought-leader and half cannabis connoisseur.
So, we went back to the drawing board and storyboarded an immersive user journey that leveraged natural gestures and haptic feedback which we knew would be better suited in a native iOS application. The final solution is a perfect mix of beautiful aesthetics and elegant intuitiveness where the user comes first.
Lessons Learned
The value of observation and empathy cannot be overstated.
As important as it is to learn from the past and present, it's not always enough to interpret and innovate for the future. Identifying user frustrations and pain-points was imperative in crafting the right touch-points to prompt action and improve overall customer satisfaction in a market where the status-quo is built on misinformation and propaganda.
By connecting the dots between cannabis and technology, while using a human-centric approach, we were able to understand not only the areas where the the industry was failing the user but also how to bridge that gap and ultimately revolutionize the way humans and cannabis interact.
