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I worked with Briarlake Animal Hospital, a family-run business, on a website redesign to effectively highlight their growing operations and offerings.
As a UX Designer and Researcher on a duo team, I conducted user research, analyzed competitors, designed using OOUX, developed a low-fidelity prototype, and created a style guide. I then passed all design files to development.
Our goal is to redesign the website in a way that offers a more intuitive, responsive, and user-centric experience, leading to increased user satisfaction and engagement.
The goal of the website redesign is to prominently showcase and effectively communicate the range of services, ensuring visitors clearly understand what the vet clinic offers and are compelled to engage.
A goal of the website redesign is to refine and elevate the online presence, ensuring it resonates with the vet clinics core values and distinctively communicate the brand identity to visitors.
The redesigned Vet Clinic website was launched April 1st, 2022! For confidentiality reasons I have omitted the actual values for these metrics.
Within the first few months of publishing the site the vet clinic received over a hundred online patient forms to book an appointment.
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The team initiated the design journey by collaborating with the Lead UX Designer. Together, we thoroughly understood essential requirements, brainstormed the optimal design approach tailored to the client's needs, and established both hard and soft deadlines to ensure project momentum and client satisfaction.
With clear soft and hard deadlines set, I transitioned into the user research phase.
CHALLENGE 01
With a clear understanding of the competitive market Briarlake can use this as a benchmark to improve and make informed decisions about their offerings, value propositions, and user experience.
EXAMPLE
A user might choose a competitor for pet appointments due to their intuitive interface with clear calls to action and straightforward online booking.
IMPACT
Failing to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of core competitors can result in a subpar user experience, leading users to perceive the site as outdated and diminishing their overall impression of the business.
As a team we discussed and recognized that we did not know who Briarlake's competitors were. To address this knowledge gap I conducted a competitive analysis.
I analyzed more than 50 web pages of nearby competitors in a ten mile radius. I focused on collecting pricing, target audiences, brand identity and more.
Briarlake stands out as the sole fear-free certified, family-owned vet clinic with curbside drop-off, whereas other competitors mainly spotlight their staff and offer online scheduling, which Briarlake lacks.
Areas of opportunities:
CHALLENGE 02
Unclear user experience leads to frustration in users—in turn increases the drop off rate.
EXAMPLE
A user who prefers the convenience of online booking might find it particularly cumbersome to only have the option of calling or emailing, making this a significant pain point.
IMPACT
The lack of a clear user journey can lead to user frustration, reduced accessibility, and potential business losses.
Overwhelmed with insights, we needed to start prioritizing to form a strategy. I used Object-Oriented User Experience (OOUX) to create an object map and model. OOUX is great way to take something complex and create a more intuitive, consistent and efficient design process.
In the object map below I identified five objects that would make up the content of the website. I nested and labeled core content metadata, and call to actions that would make up that object.
Ex.) A goal is to highlight services so it is an object. The service is made up of a title, description, and price. A call to action would be able to book the service.
Once I completed the object map I began mapping out the object relationships which influenced the customer user journey.
CHALLENGE 03
A brand guideline will set Briarlake a part from other businesses that users will recognize.
EXAMPLE
A user who is researching for a vet clinic will more than likely choose a business that has a clear brand identity. A cohesive brand identity will instill trust and professionalism.
IMPACT
A well-defined brand identity on a website strengthens a business's market positioning and fosters trust among its audience. For users, this cohesive identity ensures a consistent and reliable experience, simplifying decision-making and enhancing overall engagement.
I began by crafting a style guide to align with the client's brand identity, ensuring consistency with elements like color palettes, typography, and logo usage. This foundational work paved the way for me to then develop a low-fidelity prototype.
My designs, informed by the object map and modeling, spanned seven pages, highlighting user pathways for appointment bookings, service exploration, and an about page. The style guide and prototype together ensure a unified and cohesive user experience across all touchpoints.
CHALLENGE 04
A client presentation for buy-in is a proactive step to ensure the project's smooth progression, inform and educate clients on design decisions, and align on expectations.
EXAMPLE
A client may not be aware of the competitors pricing and services offered. The client may be overpricing and or underpricing which could deter customers. A design decision to increase sales would be to add filters for pricing and services offered. This way clients could look efficiently for a service increasing the likelihood of them making a purchase.
IMPACT
A well-executed client presentation paves that way for a great user experience to be built.
I first consolidated our design findings, low-fidelity prototype, and style guide into a comprehensive slide deck. This presentation was designed for client review, offering insight into our design decisions and outlining the next steps in the process.
Finally, I prepared for design handoff by meticulously organizing all design files in Figma for development. This structured approach was vital to ensure a seamless transition, facilitating clear communication and accurate implementation of the design vision by the Lead UX Designer.
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Keep in touch with the Lead UX Designer to see how the design is performing in the real world.
To always ensure all design files, assets, and documentation are neatly organized and accessible to the client or the next designer.
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Thank you for diving into my project! If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to reach out to me. If you would like to see more check out my other projects below.
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