CLEANPLANTS

UX research for a produce supplier's new website to provide an intuitive and efficient ordering experience

The Background

CleanPlants is a wholesale supplier of different produce (mainly vegetables and fruits) to restaurants. Their clientele is growing, so they would like to improve their order process and build a website where orders can be sent easily online.

The current order process is reliant on emails and phone calls, resulting in lots of manual entries, order errors and other inefficiencies.

Main Goal

The project goal was to design and implement an intuitive, efficient online ordering process that lets restaurants easily find and order the produce they need - including customized processing options, while also streamlining the order management process for CleanPlants.

My Role

As a UX Researcher on this project, my primary responsibilities were to understand user and stakeholder needs, inform design decisions and identify opportunities.

Key Research Questions

  • How do restaurants currently order produce? (Examines workflow, tools used, time investment)
  • What are the biggest frustrations and pain points in the existing process? (Identifies areas for major improvement)
  • What information about products is most important to restaurants when they make ordering decisions? (Helps prioritize content for the website)
  • How frequently do restaurants need customized produce processing, and how is this communicated currently? (Measures the importance of this feature and how to build it well)
  • What are the most common types of errors in the current ordering system, and what is their impact? (Highlights where the new website can prevent costly mistakes)
  • What delivery expectations do restaurants have, and what concerns might they have about ordering from CleanPlants? (Ensures the new system addresses logistics smoothly)

Methods

In-Depth Interviews

  • Scope: 5 participants representing kitchen managers, and owners from a mix of restaurants
  • Focus: Understand their current ordering habits, pain points, ideal features in a supplier website, customization needs, and how they decide what produce to purchase.

Competitor Analysis

  • Scope: Select 3-5 direct competitors of CleanPlants, and other B2B websites with well-designed ordering systems (even if outside the produce industry)
  • Focus: Analyze how they present product information, handle customization, structure their ordering flow, address errors, and provide delivery options. We were looking for best practices to adopt, common pitfalls to avoid, and potential areas.

Stakeholder Consultation

I also did in-depth client consultations with the key stakeholders from CleanPlants to understand their internal processes, challenges faced by them and their insights.

Key Insights

Customization issue

Restaurants rely heavily on customized produce processing, but the current phone and email system is inefficient and prone to errors when handling these requests.

Different order sizes

The website must accommodate both large (restaurant orders) and smaller, individual additions with equal ease.

Easy re-ordering

Re-ordering products and saving different shopping lists is essential. Modifying these orders must be easy and fast.

Forgetfulness

Restaurants frequently forget to include items in their orders, suggesting a feature to notify or re-prompt repeat orders would be valuable.

Smart search

Due to the wide variety of produce and processing options, a robust search function allowing filtering by multiple criteria (type, processing, availability) is essential for product discovery.

Clear inventory

Since timely delivery is crucial for restaurants, displaying accurate stock information builds confidence and reduces the need for follow-up calls to check availability.

Workflow optimization

Restaurants are frustrated with existing supplier websites, indicating CleanPlants has a chance to stand out with a seamless user experience.

Importance of mobile design

A significant portion of orders likely originates from mobile devices, emphasizing the need for a responsive, easy-to-use mobile interface.

Contact

dilyara.seitova@gmail.com