Medusa Solutions Inc. is a startup building a cannabis delivery and discovery platform for adults 21 and up in Arizona and New York City. Finding a dispensary means comparing distance, hours, deals, delivery options, payment methods, and a deep product catalog — strain, potency, effects, weight — across stores that all look the same online.
My job was to make that simple. The iOS app and website turn each dispensary into a community people can find, trust, and talk to, with the complexity tucked behind a map, clear badges, and filters that read like a conversation: "How far do you want your dispensary to be?" "How much you got?" The platform is live at medusa.so.
I joined Medusa at its conception as founding designer. Beyond building the brand identity, I led across every touchpoint that shaped the business — the brief that framed the launch, the apparel and shoots that carried the brand before there was product to sell, and the app and website customers would actually use. My through-line was turning complex ideas into something a customer understands in a glance, and showing up in person to make it happen — including flying from NYC to Miami to lead a shoot.
Medusa's customers are adults 21 and up in Arizona and New York City. These proto-personas are composites built from that audience to guide design decisions. They're three different lives with one shared need: cannabis that fits around them, whether the barrier is mobility or a schedule that never lines up with store hours.
Distance and price filters, first-time and daily-special deals, and open-now status on every store.
Hours on every listing, a delivery filter, "ordered on" history for reorders, and community posts about how fast stores deliver.
Curbside pickup and delivery filters, medical store type, and filters for THC/CBD percentage, potency, and effects.
The core journey moves from discovery to belonging: search or browse the map, compare what's nearby, join a dispensary's community, and post to it. I mapped the flows between search, community, and posting before committing to screens.
Before any screen got drawn, the architecture had to answer one question: how does someone go from "I want something" to "it's on its way" without learning a new vocabulary? The web experience resolved into a persistent sidebar — every destination one tap deep, nothing buried.
The website is for deciding; the app is for belonging. Where the site optimizes for finding a store fast, the app assumes you already have one and turns it into a place you check in on. That split drove the interaction model:
Posting went through two directions. V1 put a global post button in front of everything: write first, then choose a community. V2 starts inside a community, so the post already knows where it's going — one less decision for the user.
Each dispensary gets its own feed with member and online counts, a record of when you last ordered, and badges for hot threads and new posts. The map surfaces distance, hours, open status, and deals like veterans' discounts and daily specials, backed by filters for delivery options, price, payment method, strain, potency, and effects.
The redesigned desktop site puts discovery first. Search for products or dispensaries sits at the top next to your location. Category pills cover flower through tinctures. A persistent sidebar holds Home, Map, Match, Strains, Profile, Favorites, Orders, and Learn. The home page opens on the brand, then helps people decide: Medusa Match offers collections to explore tonight (Popular, Evening Picks, New Arrivals). Nearby Dispensaries lists licensed shops within 25 miles, with distance and live-menu badges. Visitors can switch between light and dark appearance.
Before the redesign settled on a sidebar and Match, early web flows explored a deals-led home screen and launch promotions like the 4/20 pre-order offer. Today the site verifies each visitor's location and age before showing marketplace features where they're legally available.
Medusa launched in 2026, with a pre-order campaign leading into it, and the platform is live today at medusa.so. [Placeholder — growth numbers you're comfortable sharing: sign-ups, first sales, community activity, or feedback from launch.]
Before there was product to sell, the brand had to carry Medusa on its own. These pieces built awareness across apparel, shoots, social, and print.
