The Challenge
W.L. Studio is a local photography studio in Greater Boston Area.
There are many competitors in the local area, so it came to a question that how could we help W.L. studio to increase its brand awareness within its target guests, and help improve the customer-studio communication convenience and efficiency?
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The primary purpose of this website is to provide a channel for potential users to know the basic information of the studio, show sample works to impress them, and provide a reservation function for customers to make appointments and for our client to easily arrange the schedule.
The Approach
Methodology
Previously conducted quantitative survey
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A quantitative research was previously conducted on factors which influence students’ headphones using experiences and choice criteria by Lingyi Tong (one of out team member).
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Some of the charts and data used in this report are from this survey.
Duration
Jan. 2018 - May 2018
Role
UX researcher/designer
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Tools and methods
WordPress, Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Google Analytics, qualitative research, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing
Usability tests
W.L. Studio
User-centered website research and design
User research, persona building, usability tests conducted. Prototype made by WordPress.
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Methodology
In total, we conducted one focus group discussion and five ethnographic interviews.
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We used show-and-tell for both focus group and ethnographic interviews since our client studio does not have an existing website. We showed the participants several local and Chinese potential competitors’ websites, and asked them for detailed opinions on these websites. In additional to their views on competitors' websites, we also asked them about their expectation of the types of information and function.
Competitors analysis
We found two local competitors sharing the similar business area with our client, “Boston Creative Headshots” and “Beaupix”. Both competitors have a formal design style, and use more experienced professionals as models in their sample photos.
Since our target users are college students and young professionals, unlike them, our website will be in a style with more simplicity and energy to give students and young professionals a friendlier and welcoming feeling. Moreover, sample photos of college students and young professionals will most probably resonate with and attract more potential customers in the same age range with similar backgrounds and experiences.
Goals and Objectives
Our UX design project for the W.L. Studio is aiming at provide a method to:
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Show potential and current customers an overview of the studio's previous work, available services and contact information;
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Make online reservation function;
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Build strong brand image and brand awareness among target consumers.
Problem
There are many competitors in the local area, so it came to a question that how could we help W.L. studio to increase its brand awareness within the target consumers, and help improve the convenience and efficiency of the customer-studio communication?
Approach
Since we have found that the current marketing channel for the studio is only WeChat (a Chinese multi-purpose messaging social media app), we found it important to build an official website for the studio, which aims at providing a channel for potential users to get basic information of the studio, see highlighted sample works, and to easily make appointments online.
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The design of navigation function should be clear enough to pinpoint what really matters to the customers, for example, the sample photos and reservation function. Furthermore, besides targeting at acquiring more clients with sample works and convenient reservation function, the website will have a genial look and feel to make their young target audiences feel welcomed when interacting with it.
Key findings
Persona
We built two personas to present our target users based on the analysis of the data gathered from the focus group and ethnographic interviews.
23 years old
Has bachelor’s degree, now pursuing a graduate degree
Cantonese, studying in Boston
Alex Yang
“Getting a professional portrait is always a nice thing, because it builds a confident self-image. But it’s all about price.”
Keywords
Job hunting
Professional portrait
Tasks and needs
Have hard time finding a professional portrait studio service in the Boston area with high quality portraits.
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Need a reasonable and affordable price.
Motivations and goals
Experience goals
Find location of studio, shooting process, reservation, and payment method.
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End goals
Book the service if needed.
Improve profile on professional social networks.
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Life goals
Lead a successful career.
Build up a long-lasting benign social network.
33 yearsold
Has a Master’s degree
Shanghainese, working in a marketing agency in Boston
Liming Mao
“I want to record all these happy and precious moments with my family so that we can have great memories after years .”
Keywords
New born baby
Family portrait
Tasks and needs
Wants high quality photos of her family members which she can print out and display in her house.
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Wants a one-stop shop service because she is busy taking care of her two kids and a full-time job.
Motivations and goals
Experience goals
Want to see more previous sample works.
Need to know the studio’s environment is suitable for her young children.
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End goals
To record the moments that are important for her family.
Do not care much about price but values great service.
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Life goals
Keep a happy family and see kids grow up well.
Have a good work-life balance.
How should the website meet their needs and goals
Alex Yang
Clear steps and process information about services needed;
Have an online reservation function allowing customers to make an appointment with the photographer needed;
Social media accounts to get updateds of the studio after browsing the website;
Information about payment methods.
Liming Mao
Demonstration of the studio's good environment and friendliness to children;
Professional and high quality service shown by precious work and comments;
Clear displayed service information including equipments, photographer, and makeup artist information;
Clear contact information;
An easy-to-use reservation system to accommodate her packed schedule.
Overview
W.L. Studio is a local photography studio in Greater Boston Area. The studio has a mission to help students and young professionals to be more confident in their job finding processes/career lives, as well as to show their daily-life personal aura by providing more personalized and affordable portriat services.
Prototype
Based on the target users' needs and pain points, we designed a high-fidelity website prototype using WordPress.
Home
Reservation
Our work
Usability testing
We conducted several usability tests in order to get better understandings of whether our website prototype meets potential users’ needs.​
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Website prototype improvements​
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In order to eliminate users’ confusions, we added some dummy text to represent detailed descriptions including starting prices for each service under “Our Services” section. We also added the text and hyperlinks of “See more sample works” under each service description to direct users to the matching sample work page. In addition, we moved the navigation of “Our Services” from left to the top. Thus, all the arrows are pointing down to the content.
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For the “Our Works” page, since most of the participants showed frustrations of seeing irrelevant sample works other than only the service they were interested in, we restructured the information architecture of displaying sample works. We created one page for each service category, and created a drop down menu accordingly.
For the “Reservation” page, we modified the reservation function. When users choose the service type and the dates of the service they want, the system would ask users to pick a time on that specific day instead of showing all availability of that entire week like before.
We also added a review function at the bottom of the front page for users to see what other customers think about the services, which are in general more trustworthy.