We Love The Startup Pick-Ease (And You Should Too!)

Figmints is excited to announce the launch of Pick-Ease, a new eating utensil designed specifically for young children who are picky eaters. As an experienced daycare owner, Melissa Desrochers is an expert on quick fixes for children. Melissa founded Pick-Ease after one of her two children struggled as a picky eater. Two years ago, she realized she could successfully encourage her picky eaters to eat a greater variety of foods using toothpicks.

To provide a safer alternative for the thirty million children in the US considered picky eaters by their parents, she invented Pick-Ease. After revising countless clay prototypes baked in her home kitchen, Melissa opened online sales in early August.

For Pick-Ease’s inagural site, Figmints focused on creating a flawless buying experience for the parents of picky eaters. Fun, child-inspired branding is incorporated through custom user interactions. The WordPress WooCommerce platform serves as the cost-effective online store platform.  We love working with startups here at Figmints, and we’re very excited to have been part of Pick-Ease’s launch. Congrats, Melissa!

Related: We also love non-profits. Check out the site we built for the national non-profit Yearup!

THE DESIGN SOLUTION

With parents of young picky eaters as our core audience, we incorporated a playful, interactive web design by leveraging parallax scrolling. Since users expect a standardized experience when shopping for a product online, we didn’t want to modify the buying experience itself. Instead, at the top of the home page, our designers created an interactive parallax to both illustrate the way a Pick-Ease works and to delight each site visitor—regardless of age. This same youthful branding also carries over to the product page, where users view a standard grid of products, but interact with each product with a flashy hover state. We also incorporated personalized blog features, such as a sidebar listing the most popular Pick-Ease products.

THE DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION

To keep the site cost effective, our developers used the user-friendly WordPress Woocommerce platform. Woocommerce seamlessly offers necessary features for a commerce website with a shopping cart, SSL (to keep information submitted by customers private), ecommerce analytics, and social integration. With this WordPress foundation, Melissa is also able to frequently update product inventory and publish new blog posts without any prior web experience. As with all of our sites, Pick-Ease is tablet and mobile friendly.

SHARING A GREAT STORY: MELISSA’S JOURNEY AS AN INVENTOR

Melissa’s experiences as a daycare owner and mom primed her as an expert on challenges faced by millions of parents. With an impressive life story that easily resonates with parents and a knack for aiding parents facing frustrating situations, Melissa’s story rightfully earned a spot in the primary navigation for the site. In addition to the story of Melissa’s path to an inventor, we also included a personalized blog feature. Site visitors reach the blog from the home page or by clicking on the primary navigation. Melissa connects and interacts with additional parents benefiting from the Pick-Ease product using the blog feature.

CLIENT TESTIMONIALS

We enjoyed working with Melissa, and it seems the feeling was mutual! Here’s what Melissa said of the project:

“I am so unbelievably thankful for everything you have done for me! I came to you with an idea and you made it a reality. From branding to web development, you have brought Pick-Ease to life! Everyone on the Figmints team has gone above and beyond for this project and I don’t think I could ever thank you enough. You guys are amazing!” – Melissa Desrochers, Founder/Inventor of Pick-Ease

So far, Pick-Ease customers also love the site and the product. One mother reviewed Pick-Ease: 

“What a sanity saver! When my daughter went through a picky phase, this was the one utensil that could still get her to clear her plate. She thought of it as a toy, whereas I thought of it as a way to still get healthy, nutritious food into her. Even though she’s a better eater now, pick-ease is still her favorite utensil in the house!” – Janine Rubano, Pick-Ease Buyer and Mother

Want to explore the new site for yourself? Check out Pick-Ease and how it makes mealtimes fun for picky eaters!