Senior UI/UX Designer to Elevate Chat-Based Cannabis Product Info App at blithequark

Are you a seasoned UI/UX designer with a passion for crafting seamless and intuitive user experiences? Do you have a keen eye for detail and a knack for distilling complex information into clear, concise, and engaging interfaces? If so, we invite you to join blithequark as a Senior UI/UX Designer to elevate our chat-based cannabis product info app, Product Professor. About blithequark blithequark is a leading innovator in the cannabis industry, dedicated to providing cutting-edge solutions that empower budtenders and customers alike. Our mission is to revolutionize the way people interact with cannabis products, and we're seeking a talented UI/UX designer to help us achieve this vision. The Challenge Product Professor is a web app designed to help budtenders quickly find accurate product information and recommend suitable products. While the core functionality is in place, we need a designer to add clarity, warmth, and polish across three critical screens: 1. Landing/query screen (text input + optional voice) 2. Loading state (processing) 3. Chat interface (answers, follow-ups, quick actions) As a Senior UI/UX Designer, you'll be responsible for refining the user experience, visual language, and interaction design of these screens to create a seamless and engaging experience for our users. Scope of Work Your primary focus will be on UI/UX design, with no backend, LLM, or API work involved. Your scope of work will include: 1. Heuristic audit and direction: Conduct a thorough analysis of the current design, identifying hierarchy, spacing, contrast, and usability issues. Propose quick wins and priorities to improve the overall user experience. 2. Visual language: Refine the type scale, color palette (light and dark), spacing, elevation, and state styles to create a modern, calm, and expert visual language. 3. Screen polish: Enhance the landing screen with input prominence, helper text, voice affordance, CTA hierarchy, brand lockup, and responsive behavior. Improve the loading state with progress treatment (skeletons vs spinners) and clear latency messaging. Refine the chat interface with message layout, readable line length, timestamps, actions (copy / ask similar), empty/error/no-result states. 4. Microcopy: Craft clear, compliant, and human-toned microcopy for system messages, loading, errors, and disclaimers. 5. Interaction and motion: Design tasteful transitions for send/receive, loading, toasts, and respect reduced-motion settings. 6. Design system: Create a comprehensive design system in Figma, including buttons, inputs, cards, chips, tabs, toasts, icons, and variants. Develop a token sheet for Tailwind/CSS variables. 7. Accessibility: Ensure AA contrast, focus states, keyboard navigation, and screen-reader labels. Deliverables Your deliverables will include: 1. A short UI/UX audit with prioritized recommendations. 2. Hi-fi mockups and a clickable Figma prototype for the three screens (light and dark). 3. A component library with states/variants and a token sheet. 4. Motion specs (Figma animations or short GIF/Lottie references). 5. A microcopy guide for system messages, loading, errors, and disclaimers. 6. Dev handoff: organized Figma, annotations/redlines, and a brief Loom walkthrough. What We'll Provide We'll provide: 1. Current screens and flows (landing, loading, chat) and product content. 2. Brand constraints (tone: calm, knowledgeable, trustworthy), logo, initial palette. 3. Design/engineering point of contact for quick feedback cycles. 4. Frontend context: Next.js + Tailwind via bolt.new (for token parity in Figma). Must-Haves To be considered for this role, you'll need: 1. A portfolio of shipped web apps (ideally chat/knowledge tools) showing polish and systems thinking. 2. Expert Figma skills (autolayout, variants, component properties, prototyping). 3. Strong interaction/motion sensibility and accessibility fundamentals. 4. Comfortable designing for Tailwind/design-token workflows. Nice-to-Haves While not required, experience in regulated or retail environments, familiarity with cannabis retail workflows, light front-end literacy, iconography/illustration, Lottie/After Effects, and a passion for cannabis industry innovation are all valuable assets. Engagement We're looking for a designer who can work asynchronously, with weekly design reviews and quick Looms for iteration. The project timeline is 1-2 weeks, with a budget of $700. To apply, please start your proposal with "professor" and include: 1. 2-3 relevant web-app case studies (before→after preferred). 2. A one-paragraph week-one plan for our three screens. 3. A link/GIF to a micro-interaction you designed that improved clarity. Success Looks Like We're looking for a designer who can deliver: 1. Cleaner hierarchy and faster comprehension on all three screens. 2. A chat interface that feels confident and helpful, with clear actions and friendly system states. 3. A cohesive visual/interaction language (light and dark) and a maintainable component library. 4. A smooth dev handoff with minimal ambiguity. Join us at blithequark and help us elevate the cannabis industry with a seamless and engaging user experience. and let's create something amazing together!