Vanessa is a certified lash, make-up, and hairstylist in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Beauty is her passion and she has experience working with clients all over Arkansas and Texas for over 7 years. She tasked me with the design and development of her website that would allow for customers to have an easier way to communicate with her.
Objective
In order to have continuous growth in clients and easily have people make requsts or appointments, she needs a website that is easy to use and fits a visually pleasing, professional aesthetic.
Vanessa working on her client
II. Research
Goal: To understand the audience and primary needs for her website.
Process: User Interviews, Market Research
Interviews:
I began by identifying the client's overall needs. Currently, she only gains new clients through Instagram or by referrals, but is constantly being asked for prices and availability even when those are mentioned in her Instagram bio and on several posts.
I conducted interviews among some of her current clients as well as a few others that fit the demographic. I asked them what information is the most important when needing to make an appointment. One of the main recurring answers was a need for appointment scheduling.
Market Research
According to several sources, building a professional website is key to brand yourself as a true business. They identify 4 common target pages for the website including an attractive home page, online booking services, a portfolio of works, and pages dedicated to services offered.
A makeup artist website must appeal to first-time and returning users, the main audience consisting of women between 18 and 35 years of age. With users of this age group, creating both a mobile and desktop site would be beneficial for increasing new visitors and maintaing client retention.
Journey Map
After the interviews and market research, I compiled the information I gathered into a user journey map illustrating a first-time client's process when scheduling a new appointment.
In doing so, I discovered several points of interest for her page:
Services & Prices Prices should be made available for any services provided.
Appointment Scheduler Option to set up an appointment when ready to book
Contact Form Option to send a message to Vanessa via contact form.
Care Guide Give new customers added confidence in proper care of the lash extensions.
Journey map of a first-time user's experience
III. Design
Goal: To create lo and hi fidelity prototypes of the website that meets the design needs.
Process: Wireframes using hand-drawn sketches and Figma. Prototype using AdobeXD.
Wireframes
At the beginning of my design process I created wireframes for testing purposes.
This helped me to visualize the important details that needed to be visible in the website.
I made simple lo-fidelity sketches by hand first, then used Figma sketch to create a better layout.
The lo-fidelity iterations were tested on a few participants to see if they could accomplish the goal of booking a new appointment. This later helped me refine the design.
UI Design
Once I tested out all the usability mistakes, I started designing the final screens in AdobeXD. I included the UI design for mobile as well.
Keeping in mind the styles of professional makeup sites, I opted to follow a similar color scheme to prove the client's professionalism and credibility.
1
Based on the interviews, I found that what most users wanted was a way to check appointment availability and pricing. I made sure to include those options on several pages, including adding a contact form for inquiries for users who weren't committed yet and needed more information.
2
Testing the protype on users, I saw that users were able to navigate between pages and create a new appointment without difficulty.
3
Users also enjoyed seeing the care guide included on the page as some of the interviewees had never obtained these services.
One of the main challenges was figuring out the steps a user would take to make an appointment in the least steps or with minimal confusion.
2
Another challenge was determining how to create a balance between images and content to help the clients have a deeper understanding of service suitability.
3
We learned that including several images, especially in services tab, was incredibly helpful for clients in determining which service they would be interested in.
4
In the near future, I would like to complete the development of this website so that she may deploy it. I hope the website will have her see an increase in new clients and continued client retention.
