In the age of social media, stylists have forgone the need to put effort into their websites, or even have a website. Even with appointment scheduling platforms like Square or Gloss Genius, the booking process isn’t as simple or helpful as it could be.
To begin my research, I searched for natural hair services on Google, Instagram and Facebook to familiarize myself with different salon websites and assess their designs and drawbacks.
During their surveys, users were asked whether a website’s appearance affects their decision to book. I received mixed answers, but I noticed that the reason for people saying 'no' were all the same: photos.
I mapped out the user journey of a guest navigating the current online menu to help me identify additional pain points and opportunities for improvement.
Using my research insights and user journey, I came up with possible solutions and opportunities for improvement. I used a feature prioritization chart to help me plan the order of which features to design were most important to users.
If I was working on a team, I would have collaborated with developers and used this chart to decided which features were feasible.
Initially, I planned to include an agumented reality feature where the user could “try on” a hair style to see it would look good on them. This would have been interesting to explore as black skin tones and hairstyles are often underrepresented in AR.
After assessing my designs, I concluded that this feature didn't help the user accomplish to their goal, which is to schedule an appointment. While I chose not to prioritize the AR feature for this iteration, AR is still something I'm interested in exploring more in the future.
For my wireframes, I used inspiration from websites I analyzed in my competitive analysis. There were no constraints for this project so I was able to come up with creative solutions to test and validate with users.
Assumptions I made:
I chose the name “Savage Styles” because I wanted the brand to portray boldness. I wanted the color palette to be striking yet sophisticated so I went with a black and white color scheme and used red for a pop of color.
What I learned
This project taught me to let my users' needs to guide my design decisions. I didn’t have a vision for the solution going into the project, but by listening to users I was able to create a blueprint.
What I would do differently
Looking back, I wish I would've designed this as a booking platform rather than an individual stylist's website, and focused on the user flow of a stylist setting it up.
If I had more time
NEXT CASE STUDY
