Pharmacann Case Study

Business Initiative

PharmaCann, a leading national cannabis retailer, needed to modernize its online product locator to support both Verilife and LivWell dispensary brands. Customers struggled to locate in-stock products nearby, leading to a surge in support inquiries and lost sales. The previous locator provided limited filtering, unclear inventory visibility, and lacked a unified experience across states with differing regulations.

The goal was to create a consistent, high-performing locator that worked seamlessly across multiple brands, states, and inventory systems—improving both conversion and customer satisfaction.

My Role, Team, and Timeline

As Principal UX Designer, I led the end-to-end redesign over roughly two months. This included research, strategy, wireframes, prototyping, testing, and developer collaboration. I partnered closely with product managers, engineers, and internal stakeholders to align on business goals and system constraints.

The design had to support real-time inventory data, multiple APIs, and a shared design system across brand properties. My role was to unify the experience while ensuring accessibility compliance, visual clarity, and technical feasibility for development handoff.

Design Process

I began with a comprehensive UX audit of the existing locator, mapping the user journey from product search to store visit. Common pain points included unclear availability, inconsistent labeling between recreational and medical products, and missing state-level filtering.

I conducted stakeholder interviews with retail operations and customer service to understand where users were getting stuck. I also reviewed analytics and live session recordings to see how real users interacted with the tool. Insights showed that most customers abandoned the locator after one or two failed attempts to find a product in stock nearby.

From there, I built user flows, wireframes, and low-fidelity prototypes in Figma, focusing on hierarchy, speed, and reducing cognitive load. I then integrated Mapbox for geolocation and radius-based search, enabling users to instantly filter by product, location, and distance. Iterative usability testing with internal staff and frequent customers validated key improvements before final handoff to development.

Accessibility and Design System Integration

The redesigned locator was built within PharmaCann’s Figma-based design system to ensure consistency across brands. I refined components, adjusted color tokens for WCAG AA compliance, and improved focus states for keyboard navigation.

These updates reduced rework for developers and established new accessibility standards for future product rollouts—improving performance, scalability, and inclusivity.

Outcome and Impact

The final locator delivered measurable business and user impact:

• Reduced customer service inquiries by 35% in the first quarter after launch
• Improved task completion rates by 20% in usability testing
• Increased session duration and product engagement across brand sites
• Unified design system implementation across Verilife and LivWell properties

The redesigned experience allowed customers to locate products faster, understand real-time inventory, and navigate between dispensary brands with ease—reinforcing PharmaCann’s position as a customer-first, data-informed retailer.