Overview

Freckl is a packaging company which offers 100% sustainable custom packaging. Customers can choose from a range of materials and printing methods (some with a high upfront cost and low unit price, and others with a low upfront cost and high unit price). Explaining these details to prospective customers over the phone was time consuming and costly, particularly if the customer decided they weren't interested. As a freelancer, I was tasked with creating an online box-creation tool, taking the very first step towards automating Freckl's business.
PROBLEMS TO ADDRESS

1. Most of the business was manual, and customer negotiations involved a lot of back and forth, increasing the cost of each order and making small value orders uneconomical. 
2. Time and money was wasted on orders that never materialised - customers called Freckl's sales team just to get a quote for an order because they couldn't find that information themselves on the site.
3. How might Freckl show customers all the different variables they could adjust (and their respective prices) without overwhelming them with choice? Variables included item types, dimensions, materials, printing methods, and quantity.
Process

Firstly, I conducted a workshop with Freckl's sales team to understand the most important things from their customers' perspectives. The findings from the workshop helped me to establish the most logical user journey through the box-creation stages.
Unsurprisingly, box-creation is a fairly complex procedure! I worked closely with the founders to establish accessible ways of explaining the differences between methods and materials, so that each and every person would be able to make an informed decision.
Next, I began to design the UI, starting with pen and paper before moving to Figma to build a high-fidelity prototype. I took the approach of asking one main question on each page (e.g. "How many boxes would you like?" or "What size would you like?") to minimise potential overwhelm. From my research, I knew that price was the most important thing for customers, so I used brightly coloured rectangles to highlight the effect each option would have on the total price. The customer's prior selections would also always be visible, allowing them to go back and make alterations if required.
Once the prototype was complete, I conducted usability testing with three of Freckl's customers, assessing whether the proposed box-creation tool would make their lives easier. The feedback was positive, with participants praising the tool's simplicity and clarity. Both founders were confident that I'd met the requirement of the project, and couldn't wait to build it so they could start saving money!
Feedback

"The brief was to get to a solid MVP which this fits well. The most important thing to get right here was to guide people through a lot of different options without confusing or overwhelming them, and I'm confident that has been achieved." 
- Founder