Not just a package deal

Rethinking the can ordering process for industry experts and new users

DISCOVERY: KEY POINTS

  • The problem is that the company wants to sell blank cans to its existing customers with as much automation as possible.

  • The use of design thinking and a iterative, MVP driven design process in this project.

  • Market research to support the problem hypothesis.

  • Competitive analysis findings to explore gaps and opportunities.

Roles and Responsibilities: In the early stages of the product, I became the first and sole UX/UI designer on the Los Bucaneros team. Using design thinking and the double diamond, it was a fantastic experience collaborating closely with the founders and developers, actively shaping the product from its inception.

Timeframe: 3 months

Tools: Figma, Adobe XD and Monday.com

The Problem(s) and Project Goals:

The company needed a Ecommerce portal for B2B clients who can place orders for pallets of blank beverage cans.

The portal would be part of the existing site and would need to be easy to use as well as be automated for the business.

To make sure the payment process was secure and efficient, I suggested using Stripe Payments which adhered to the budget requirements.

The business really needed a sales platform for notifications on new orders, tracking the process and doing inventory.

This beverage canning company wanted to expand their business by selling the blank cans alongside their canning line services.

Discovery Interviews

Los Bucaneros is a beverage canning company, with multiple canning lines that work across the EU. As experts in can packaging, they provide canning services, advice, and can supplies to clients across Europe who create a range of drinks, including wine, craft beer, water, hard seltzer, and more. Their goal is to actually sell the blank cans alongside their canning services and they wanted to collaborate to find the best ways to do this.

At first, I was able to conduct a few internal interviews to discover as much information as possible. Through these interviews, I gained valuable insights into the company's needs, as well as how potential users perceive the available options and their current problems along with what they desire.

Market Research

The European metal cans market was worth a whopping US$17.31 billion in 2020. On top of that, it's only expected to grow, reaching a value of US$19.95 billion by 2026. That's some serious growth with an expected CAGR of 2.33% from 2021 to 2026.

Here are some of the key insights from the market research I conducted:

It's no surprise that aluminium beverage cans are one of the world's most popular drinks containers. In Europe alone, people use up to 50 billion cans every year for their favourite mineral water, soft drinks, and alcohol/beer.

When it comes to competition, things are pretty moderate in the European metal cans market. A few companies hold a high market share, but with more growth, there are more companies entering the market, leading to increased rivalry. Some key players in the market include Ball Corporation, Ardagh Group S.A., Crown Holdings, Inc, and more. Here is the opportunity the company couldn’t pass up.

Competitive Analysis

I conducted a detailed analysis of the main direct competitors and then a more general SWOT analysis of all the other notable indirect competitors.

These were the insights I discovered:

  • A few error pages, possibly a weakness in the information architecture

  • Maybe could have less text on the catalogue page to make it sleeker

  • Have to contact a sales representative before being able to find the portal to log in 

  • Information is minimal with constant CTA to contact a sales rep. This is a particular choice to consider

  • Single column layout -  is a little uninspiring to look at

  • Colour scheme is very dull

  • Login required to see any features

Gaps:

  • Be able to preview features (e.g. design your can before logging in)

  • Design could be vastly improved to make it more memorable and less boring to look at

  • Colour scheme is a little lacking in personality and the use of grey on white makes it less accessible

  • Social media not present or easy to find

  • Have a button to the portal on the site (members)

  • Lots of clearly found customer support 

Opportunities:

IDEATION: KEY POINTS

  • Through internal and external interviews, a customer journey was mapped, then users personas and clear problem statements. Sprint cycle continues, with kick-off and refinement sessions.

  • Lot’s of ideation activities and affinity diagrams to define the proposed solutions.

  • Wireframing, testing, prototyping and more testing for a responsive design.

Ideation Personas

I conducted internal and external interviews to accurately define the problem. Through these interviews, I gained valuable insight into the company's needs, as well as how potential users perceive the available options and their current problem-solving methods.

After creating some user personas, me and the other team members where able to consolidate this into a user personas and their problem statements:

Marc


A middle-aged small brewery
owner needs to order smaller quantities of cans than what large manufacturers offer. He doesn’t have the capital or storage to buy a truck worth of cans which would also need to be stored for a minimum of 3 years. He needs a more flexible and bespoke service for ordering the amount of cans he actually needs and could store.

Anna

A professional operations
manager for a beverage company.
She needs to make large orders of cans for different beverages and thus varying order sizes.
Due to using bigger companies for this service in the past, she would prefer to have more flexibility with orders through a strong B2B relationship.

ideation no bad ideas

The problem needed a clear solution, but after some idea generating through activities like crazy 8s and using affinity diagrams (and a lot of post-its) we came up with a solution that was familiar, useful and aesthetically pleasing: A client portal that takes as few steps as possible to generate orders for the blank cans. This would utilise familiar features (Jakob’s Law) that all users would be familiar with as the technical jargon of the products, on its own, adds plenty of its own complexity. To inspire confidence in the client, the aesthetic of the site needed to be clean, professional and elegant (Aesthetic-Usability Effect).

Information Architecture & Style Guide

Once we had defined whom we were designing for and what their needs and pains would be we could move on to the next stage, structuring the experience. I started by developing the information architecture and style guide in collaboration with stakeholders, marketing professionals, and engineers. Through close coordination, I ensured a cohesive and user-centric design approach that resonated across diverse teams and departments.

Wireframing, prototyping & user testing:

I started to map out the wire frames in Adobe XD to make sure I had a clear idea of how the customer journey would work on two different devices. The portal sign-in and portal landing page needed to be trustworthy and familiar. The steps to the checkout needed to be familiar to other online shopping experiences but incorporate the features needed for this industry. This of course would be a responsive design.

I conducted thorough internal and external interviews to accurately define the problem. Through these interviews, I gained valuable insights into the company's needs, as well as how potential users perceive the available options and their current problem-solving methods.

I then transferred my work to Figma to create the hi-fi prototype. Watch the video or have a click through here on Figma Prototype.

Testing the results

The preferred testing methods used here were usability testing and interviews.

Using the metrics of task completion rate, time on task rate and error rates the usability study showed us how and where the customer journey was smooth and frictionless. These serve to provide the best ways to fine tune the customer journey to ultimately be pleasing and enjoyable.

This is to ensure that the user experiences a sense of flow and the cognitive load is minimised for all users. Simplicity and clarity is key to this project as this service is to reduce the stress places on the company and their clients. The company requires an automated service that creates a secondary stream of income alongside their main canning line service.

Insights

The testing based on conversion rates and error rates produced really telling data.

Once the feedback was sorted using an affinity diagram, it provided these actionable insights...

Changes we made:

Out-of-stock notifications along with offering to sell individual layers rather than
only half or full pallets

The need for clients to be able to select delivery times (as much as possible)

Personalising the sales advisor with a picture, but encouraging contact with links - to maintain the confidence clients have if they feel the human aspect of the process

The need for highlighting strokes to make it even clearer which options were currently
selected

Once these iterations along with a few other smaller changes were made, you can see the final prototype here.

The development of the companies view of the portal is the first key step. The Sales Reps will need to be able to log in and easily find the information they require. The system needs to be automated, so testing this with the sales team will be the final but very essential next tasks.

This project is still ongoing but at this stage user experience for the client is almost ready for development. The user experience for the company is now going through testing of the possible options for stock management software, as this will be outsourced.

Check out the prototype on Figma here.

What we learned and what next

  • More extensive collaboration in the earlier stages would have saved a lot of time. This was due to logistical issues but once there was more time for meetings, the project was more agile and able to move forward far more quickly.

  • After extensive interviews and testing with industry experts, we tailored the experience to their expectations of beverage packaging orders.

  • At this stage, work still needs to be done on the user experience for the sales reps at the company, especially on how they would track orders.