FLUI DESIGN HACKATHON
🏆 2nd Place Finalist for the FLUI Design Hackathon 2025
MY ROLE
UX Design
TEAM
Team of 4
TIMELINE
3 day sprint (February 2025)
OVERVIEW
This project was a 2nd place finalist in For the Love of UI, Vancouver's Largest Design Hackathon.
Our client was OHME! Foods, a budding, Vancouver-based company looking to make healthy snacking fun, tasty, and convenient through their freeze dried fruit snacks.
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
OHME! Foods needed a website to sell, engage, and stand out
Our clients wanted a website that not only drove sales for their premium freeze-dried fruit snacks but also reflected their vibrant brand and fostered a sense of community. A key goal was to reduce friction in the purchasing process. Engagement was another missed opportunity: low visibility of recipes, blogs, and community impact let the brand’s storytelling and community-building potential remained untapped.
Here's where we made the most impact:
Putting OHME!'s Products and Value Front and Center
The redesigned landing page features a dynamic hero section that highlights special collaborations and star products, driving immediate engagement. A clear value proposition graphic ensures that users quickly understand OHME!
Seamless Purchasing Journey
We streamlined OHME! Foods' purchasing journey by simplifying navigation, reducing unnecessary steps, consolidating OHME! Foods' offerings, and keeping product selection always in reach.
PROCESS
Accessibility Issues
Unstructured and Invisible Information Architecture
Inconsistent Components
Lack of Visual Hierarchy
USER RESEARCH
After interviews with 3 of OHME! Foods' target consumers, we identified several themes that contributed to the website's poor user experience, all converging around the central outcome "I don't believe this brand is reputable":
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
To reduce information overload, we streamlined the site structure—making the purchasing journey simpler and helping users quickly understand who OHME! is and the sustainable impact they're making. We removed unnecessary navigation layers and isolated pages that distracted from the core journey.
Before: Complex and cluttered navigation with multiple pathways, leading to information overload and a fragmented purchasing journey
Streamlined site structure that simplifies the purchasing journey, and makes it easier for users to find what they need.
Sustainability was buried in the footer, making it less visible and harder for users to connect with OHME!'s brand values.
The consolidated "About" section creates a clearer, cohesive narrative highlighting the brand’s impact and values.
EARLY ITERATIONS
Our initial sketches and low to mid-fidelity iterations placed all of OHME's products on the front page. However, during the wireframing process, we realized that the sheer number of individual product listings would overwhelm users and create a cluttered experience. This approach risked causing confusion and friction in the purchasing journey.
Our team went back to the drawing board to re-think this problem.
PRODUCT ORGANISATION
To reduce decision fatigue and improve the shopping experience, we consolidated OHME!'s product offerings from 30 separate listings into 4 clear and cohesive categories. Our user research revealed that customers were feeling overwhelmed by the number of product options and the lack of clear, delineating information, which led to confusion and difficulty differentiating between similar products. By streamlining the product lines, we created a more intuitive and focused shopping journey.
Before: An overwhelming selection of 30 individual product listings that cluttered the navigation, made differentiation difficult, and hindered the ability for users to find their ideal product match.
After: Four consolidated product categories that simplify the decision-making process, reduce cognitive load, and guide users towards informed purchasing decisions.
VISUAL DIRECTION
DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
Features that elevate the experience
FINAL DESIGNS
Hero Section
Landing Page
Retailers Page
Product Page
REFLECTION
Key Takeaways
The Big Impact of Small Details
Users were initially skeptical of OHME! Foods' brand, and we learned that subtle yet cohesive design choices played a vital role in shifting that perception. Standardizing components, refining colour palettes, and creating a unified layout made the experience feel not only more premium but also more credible.
Bold, Vibrant, and … Simple?
Initially, we saw OHME!'s maximalist aesthetic as a potential trade-off to clarity and reduced cognitive load. However, we learned that boldness and simplicity can coexist. The solution lay in refining the user journey: removing unnecessary steps, simplifying navigation, and ensuring a thoughtful, intuitive layout. By streamlining the flow and focusing on clarity within the design, we preserved the brand’s vibrant personality while making the experience user-friendly.
Synthesizing Client and User Perspectives
Bridging the gap between client aspirations and user needs was central to this project. While the client sought to emphasize vibrancy and community, users prioritized clarity and trust. We learned that the most impactful design solutions come from deeply understanding and synthesizing these perspectives, ensuring that the final product meets business goals while resonating with users. Throughout the entire process, we continually iterated on our wireframes, visual direction, and overall design approach to ensure that our solution was tailored to both stakeholder groups.
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