OHME! Foods
UX Design & Research
February 2025
Designer
🏆 FLUI Design Hackathon Finalist (2nd out of 168 participants)
Project Background
This project was done during the FLUI Design Hackathon in a team of four, the largest design hackathon in British Columbia.
Over a 4 day period, we were asked to research and propose a website re-design for a randomly assigned client. We were assigned OHME! Foods, a freeze-dried fruit company based in Vancouver. Out of 168 participants with 12+ clients, our solution finished second overall. My role in this project was the UX Designer & Researcher.
Our Impact
Our clients had a clear goal: to simplify the purchasing process, minimize friction, and increase sales of their premium freeze-dried fruit snacks. At the same time, they wanted to maintain their brand’s energetic identity and strengthen community connections.This huge challenge of balancing between building a premium, credible experience while also adhering to the energetic, playful feel of the brand was tough, but our team tackled it with tenacity.
Purchasing is Effortless, Elegant, and Engaging
To create a smoother shopping experience for OHME! Foods, we refined the site’s structure, eliminated friction points, and made products more accessible. By simplifying navigation and keeping selections within easy reach, we ensured a more seamless path to purchase.
Letting the Product Speak for Itself
The updated landing page grabs attention with a bold hero section, showcasing exclusive partnerships and featured products to spark instant engagement. A striking visual element clearly communicates OHME!’s unique value, ensuring users immediately understand what sets the brand apart.
Prototype
For a quick overview (without all the correct fonts), see the below embedded HTML prototype. To see our final submission, head over to our final prototype. If you want more insight into our design process scroll down or check out our video submission that was made after 2 all nighters!
The Process
Rapid Redesign: Revamping OHME! Foods in Just 3 Days
Client Direction
From the client interview, we learned that their greatest strength is the product (and packaging) itself while their greatest weakness was a lack of consistency and brand adherence.
Our stakeholders wanted the website to feel fun and energetic, while also being a premium brand. They also aimed to streamline purchasing and enhance engagement by improving the visibility of recipes, blogs, and community impact.
Website Analysis
After carefully analyzing the website, we derived the usability issues and patterns, functionality issues (such as the hero main CTA), and more. This helped us understand how the client was currently displaying information and what needed to improve at a first glance.
User Research
Following the client interview, we had a rough idea of what our target audience was, so we recruited 3 participants for a semi-structured, 30 minute user-interview. Each participant was asked to give general feedback while completing tasks (site exploration, purchase flow, and signing up for a subscription.)
Synthesis & Insights
We found a multitude of insights, including things like information overload, decision fatigue, and accessibility issues. However, one participant said something that really encapsulated what our users were feeling. They said that they wanted to buy freeze-dried fruit now, but not from this company, because they couldn’t trust them.
With this in mind, we realized we needed to find a way to increase brand trust through energy and confidence. We wanted it to be premium, but not exclusive, energetic but not overwhelming, and confident in showing, not telling.
Project Framing
How might we create a seamless, fun, and energetic purchasing experience while increasing brand integrity and credibility?
Information Architecture
To begin, we had to address OHME! Foods' information architecture to enhance navigation, improve discoverability, and create a smoother shopping experience based on user and client feedback. The current IA had extra navigation layers and disconnected pages that pulled focus from the main user journey.
By consolidating scattered product pages into four clear categories, prioritizing high-impact pages in the main navigation, and streamlining the purchase flow with fewer clicks and quick-view popups, we made it easier for customers to browse and buy with confidence.
Sketching & Wireframing
To validate our approach before moving forward, we conducted Crazy 8’s to ideate and establish a clear structure for our mockup. With key user needs and pain points in mind, we iterated on low-fidelity sketches, mapping out important sections and hierarchy.
This was quite time consuming and one of the biggest challenges of the sprint. However, our process of synthesizing elements of each wireframe allowed us to come to a consensus on the best path forward. Our goal in terms of design direction was to have our website taste like summer.
Embracing Value
Our client mentioned that they wanted their brand and packaging to be front and centre and the user interviews showed us that people needed essential information before making a purchase. Focusing on brand feel, our new website made sure to exude the personality and energy of the brand and its products through a dynamic hero section and informative visuals.
Digestible Experiences
In terms of information overload, our team decided to merge OHME!'s 30 different listings into 4 categories of product lines, allowing users to choose available flavours from the landing page. This decreases fatigue and prevents users from being overwhelmed, allowing them to make smarter choices.
Guiding Every Purchase
Participants told us that the product page had too much going on, so we organized images to add structure and reduce cognitive load. We also changed the hierarchy to focus on important info and limited options to reduce choice freezing.
Credibility & Community
A core need was community building, so our website revamp included a direct mailing list CTA shown alongside lifestyle/aspirational content, representing a thriving, resource rich community. We replaced the TikTok-based content preview to further make OHME! feel more premium, credible, and timeless.
Users previously struggled to find information about the company's values and brand personality, so we brought these elements to the forefront of our navigation drop-down —building trust with customers while enhancing that oh-so-desired brand integrity.
Key Takeaways
Welcoming the process
Working from the ground-up accounts for design debt and makes the rest of the process easier. So many times, I get the urge to just jump right into designing after conducting research (especially after working for a fast-paced company like Samsung). This was especially prevalent because we didn't start designing until the end of day 2, so I was super worried about our chances of completion. However, this experience taught me that despite time constraints, having patience and trusting the process of collaborating and iterating makes for better and more efficient design.
Breaking the “I Got This” Mentality
I used to hesitate to ask for help, worrying about "bothering" others if I felt capable of handling a task myself. During this sprint, exhaustion pushed me out of that mindset—I reached out to mentors and my incredibly talented teammates, and the results spoke for themselves. By collaborating more openly, I was able to tackle challenges more effectively. Moving forward, I want to be unapologetically upfront about when I need support, knowing that great work comes from great collaboration.
What could we have done differently?
Our internal collaboration was top-notch, but I think one area we could have improved on was taking our time to really connect with users post-redesign. Although our user interview provided insight on what needed change, our solution wasn't properly put to the test until we reached the judges panel. User research is gold and I feel like we left more to be desired in that aspect.