From Beta to Better: Enhancing BeautyBuddy's Booking Platform
Summary
Background
Challenge
Research Questions
Recruitment and Method
Findings
Implementation & Handoff
Impact
Key Takeaways
Summary
GOAL
To evaluate ease of use in their Beta platform and redesign critical issues
YEAR (DURATION)
2022 (2 months)
ROLE
Discovery, Visual Design, Interaction Design
IMPACT
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Background
BeautyBuddy has developed a beta site that allows customers to book spa, salon, and other wellness services directly online. The company's goal is to streamline the appointment-setting process by replacing manual methods with an automated system. They brought me on board to analyze customer interactions with the beta site, enabling targeted improvements in its functionality, content, and visual design.
Our aim is to grasp the booking habits of potential customers and uncover any obstacles they encounter when utilizing the beta platform.
Challenge
For me to effectively observe how customers would go through their beta site and identify most critical issues to fix, I need to be able to answer:
How might we optimize the online appointment booking journey for seamless user interaction?
Research questions
We want to understand:
What do consumers think about the booking experience?
Which parts of the experience show friction?
Do they understand how to book individually? As a group?
Usability parameters to measure:
Comprehension: How understandable?
Learnability: Can first-timers successfully use it?
Navigation: Can they find their way around the interface to locate the necessary elements or pages to complete the tasks?
Discoverability: Can they easily discover the features, buttons, or options they need to use for each task?
Effectiveness: Can they do what we/they need to?
Completeness: Does this contain everything they need to see?
Error-correction: Can people anticipate and resolve mistakes?
Recruitment and method
BeautyBuddy provided five participants for this research sprint. These participants were unfamiliar with the BeautyBuddy platform and were accustomed to manual booking processes for wellness services.
Each participant session followed a structured approach comprising three phases: an initial interview to delve into their current habits, processes, and behaviors; a Think Aloud segment, during which participants shared their screens and articulated their thoughts, questions, and initial impressions while navigating the beta site; and finally, a Task Success assessment, wherein participants undertook a series of tasks, where I documented completion times and success rates.
Research findings
After completing all sessions, I sorted the insights and findings using affinity mapping. I categorized the interview findings to highlight participants' concerns, noted initial impressions and reactions from the think-aloud segments, and evaluated goal achievement in the task success assessments. This approach helped me develop a thorough understanding of the pain points and align them with user needs.
Here are the most critical issues found and how I recommend to fix them:
1. The "Book Now" button is often mistaken for the "Select More Services" button. Clicking “Book Now” redirects the user straight to the checkout, while “Select More Services” functions like an “Add to Cart” option, closing the pop-up and enabling the selection of additional services.
Participants often opted for the “Book Now” button when they hoped to select multiple services. When asked about their understanding of the two buttons, they expressed confusion about the functionality of “Select More Services.” They questioned whether it meant closing the current selection to choose another or adding the current service and selecting another. This confusion led them to choose the clearer option, “Book Now.” This is significant because it contradicts the company's objective of encouraging customers to book multiple services, directly impacting their growth and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Solution: I implemented a solution based on feedback from one of the participants. I switch the order of the buttons and revised the copy of the secondary button accordingly.
2. Data availability is unclear, especially regarding specific dates during store closures, requiring users to click and check each date individually. This issue substantially hampers the platform's overall usability.
Solution: Unavailable time slots are no longer displayed by default on the page.
3. The salon home interface hid or obscured various features, including the call-to-action for each booking, which was concealed within an icon, leading to confusion among half of the participants who couldn't grasp its meaning.
This issue is critical because it impedes users' ability to reschedule appointments. When a product's usability is compromised, users may revert to manual methods, such as calling the salon to reschedule. This undermines BeautyBuddy's value proposition and poses challenges in persuading businesses to adopt the platform for their stores, directly impacting acquisition efforts.
Participants also struggled with accessing their account settings, as a custom icon was used to represent it. Accessing their account is crucial as it allows users to view all current and past bookings.
Solution: To address this, I added a clear label and opted for a more recognizable icon. Additionally, I enhanced visibility by placing the buttons for each booking prominently within the card, utilizing available space effectively.
4. Unable to save address: Participants expressed the need to save their addresses to streamline the booking process and avoid the inconvenience of repeatedly inputting them for each booking. This significantly impacts the product's overall usability.
Solution: I implemented a “Save my address” feature, which automatically populates the home address fields during subsequent bookings.
In terms of usability, here is how the beta platform performed:
Comprehension: Medium
Participants did not understand “Select More Services” which made them hesitate on clicking it and opted for the other CTA.
Learnability: Medium
Participants successfully completed the tasks, with the exception of booking multiple services at a time due to the button copy issue.
Navigation: High
Participants navigated through the pages smoothly without encountering any significant difficulties.
Discoverability: Low
Participants had a hard time accessing the account settings and their bookings.
On mobile, discoverability was a challenge for most participants. One participant didn’t find the service she was looking for because it was hidden inside the accordion. She suggested if there was a way to just display everything.
Effectiveness: Medium
Certain participants experienced delays in completing tasks due to challenges with the "Select more services" button and the issue of unavailable dates. Additionally, booking services from different salons also prolonged the process as participants had to input their address for each booking individually.
Completeness: Low
Two participants asked where they can find more information about the following:
How do they know if a store is open or closed during a holiday?
Until when can they reschedule a booking?
Error-correction: High
Participants knew how to edit or remove services from their booking.
Fixing the critical issues
Utilizing BeautyBuddy's existing mockups on Figma, I promptly implemented the necessary changes to the site to address the usability issues and communicated the missing information to the BeautyBuddy team. Once the redesigned designs were finalized, I presented them to the team and handed them off to the developers for implementation.
Impact
After implementing these changes, BeautyBuddy observed:
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Key takeaways
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons
One of the major issues identified was the confusion between the "Book Now" and "Select More Services" buttons. This highlighted the importance of clear, unambiguous call-to-action buttons. Users must understand exactly what each button does to avoid frustration and ensure a smooth navigation process. Clear CTAs can significantly enhance the user journey by minimizing hesitation and increasing conversion rates.
Comprehensive Insights from Flexible User Testing
Utilizing a mix of research methods—including interviews, think-aloud protocols, and task success observations—enabled a comprehensive analysis of the platform’s user experience. This multifaceted approach not only yielded rich qualitative insights but also generated valuable quantitative data. Consequently, I gained a nuanced understanding of user interactions and experiences at various stages of the interface, allowing for a more informed redesign process.
From Beta to Better: Enhancing BeautyBuddy's Booking Platform
Summary
Background
Challenge
Research Questions
Recruitment and Method
Findings
Implementation & Handoff
Impact
Key Takeaways
Summary
GOAL
To evaluate ease of use in their Beta platform and redesign critical issues
YEAR (DURATION)
2022 (2 months)
ROLE
Discovery, Visual Design, Interaction Design
IMPACT
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Background
BeautyBuddy has developed a beta site that allows customers to book spa, salon, and other wellness services directly online. The company's goal is to streamline the appointment-setting process by replacing manual methods with an automated system. They brought me on board to analyze customer interactions with the beta site, enabling targeted improvements in its functionality, content, and visual design.
Our aim is to grasp the booking habits of potential customers and uncover any obstacles they encounter when utilizing the beta platform.
Challenge
For me to effectively observe how customers would go through their beta site and identify most critical issues to fix, I need to be able to answer:
How might we optimize the online appointment booking journey for seamless user interaction?
Research questions
We want to understand:
What do consumers think about the booking experience?
Which parts of the experience show friction?
Do they understand how to book individually? As a group?
Usability parameters to measure:
Comprehension: How understandable?
Learnability: Can first-timers successfully use it?
Navigation: Can they find their way around the interface to locate the necessary elements or pages to complete the tasks?
Discoverability: Can they easily discover the features, buttons, or options they need to use for each task?
Effectiveness: Can they do what we/they need to?
Completeness: Does this contain everything they need to see?
Error-correction: Can people anticipate and resolve mistakes?
Recruitment and method
BeautyBuddy provided five participants for this research sprint. These participants were unfamiliar with the BeautyBuddy platform and were accustomed to manual booking processes for wellness services.
Each participant session followed a structured approach comprising three phases: an initial interview to delve into their current habits, processes, and behaviors; a Think Aloud segment, during which participants shared their screens and articulated their thoughts, questions, and initial impressions while navigating the beta site; and finally, a Task Success assessment, wherein participants undertook a series of tasks, where I documented completion times and success rates.
Research findings
After completing all sessions, I sorted the insights and findings using affinity mapping. I categorized the interview findings to highlight participants' concerns, noted initial impressions and reactions from the think-aloud segments, and evaluated goal achievement in the task success assessments. This approach helped me develop a thorough understanding of the pain points and align them with user needs.
Here are the most critical issues found and how I recommend to fix them:
1. The "Book Now" button is often mistaken for the "Select More Services" button. Clicking “Book Now” redirects the user straight to the checkout, while “Select More Services” functions like an “Add to Cart” option, closing the pop-up and enabling the selection of additional services.
Participants often opted for the “Book Now” button when they hoped to select multiple services. When asked about their understanding of the two buttons, they expressed confusion about the functionality of “Select More Services.” They questioned whether it meant closing the current selection to choose another or adding the current service and selecting another. This confusion led them to choose the clearer option, “Book Now.” This is significant because it contradicts the company's objective of encouraging customers to book multiple services, directly impacting their growth and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Solution: I implemented a solution based on feedback from one of the participants. I switch the order of the buttons and revised the copy of the secondary button accordingly.
2. Data availability is unclear, especially regarding specific dates during store closures, requiring users to click and check each date individually. This issue substantially hampers the platform's overall usability.
Solution: Unavailable time slots are no longer displayed by default on the page.
3. The salon home interface hid or obscured various features, including the call-to-action for each booking, which was concealed within an icon, leading to confusion among half of the participants who couldn't grasp its meaning.
This issue is critical because it impedes users' ability to reschedule appointments. When a product's usability is compromised, users may revert to manual methods, such as calling the salon to reschedule. This undermines BeautyBuddy's value proposition and poses challenges in persuading businesses to adopt the platform for their stores, directly impacting acquisition efforts.
Participants also struggled with accessing their account settings, as a custom icon was used to represent it. Accessing their account is crucial as it allows users to view all current and past bookings.
Solution: To address this, I added a clear label and opted for a more recognizable icon. Additionally, I enhanced visibility by placing the buttons for each booking prominently within the card, utilizing available space effectively.
4. Unable to save address: Participants expressed the need to save their addresses to streamline the booking process and avoid the inconvenience of repeatedly inputting them for each booking. This significantly impacts the product's overall usability.
Solution: I implemented a “Save my address” feature, which automatically populates the home address fields during subsequent bookings.
In terms of usability, here is how the beta platform performed:
Comprehension: Medium
Participants did not understand “Select More Services” which made them hesitate on clicking it and opted for the other CTA.
Learnability: Medium
Participants successfully completed the tasks, with the exception of booking multiple services at a time due to the button copy issue.
Navigation: High
Participants navigated through the pages smoothly without encountering any significant difficulties.
Discoverability: Low
Participants had a hard time accessing the account settings and their bookings.
On mobile, discoverability was a challenge for most participants. One participant didn’t find the service she was looking for because it was hidden inside the accordion. She suggested if there was a way to just display everything.
Effectiveness: Medium
Certain participants experienced delays in completing tasks due to challenges with the "Select more services" button and the issue of unavailable dates. Additionally, booking services from different salons also prolonged the process as participants had to input their address for each booking individually.
Completeness: Low
Two participants asked where they can find more information about the following:
How do they know if a store is open or closed during a holiday?
Until when can they reschedule a booking?
Error-correction: High
Participants knew how to edit or remove services from their booking.
Fixing the critical issues
Utilizing BeautyBuddy's existing mockups on Figma, I promptly implemented the necessary changes to the site to address the usability issues and communicated the missing information to the BeautyBuddy team. Once the redesigned designs were finalized, I presented them to the team and handed them off to the developers for implementation.
Impact
After implementing these changes, BeautyBuddy observed:
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Key takeaways
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons
One of the major issues identified was the confusion between the "Book Now" and "Select More Services" buttons. This highlighted the importance of clear, unambiguous call-to-action buttons. Users must understand exactly what each button does to avoid frustration and ensure a smooth navigation process. Clear CTAs can significantly enhance the user journey by minimizing hesitation and increasing conversion rates.
Comprehensive Insights from Flexible User Testing
Utilizing a mix of research methods—including interviews, think-aloud protocols, and task success observations—enabled a comprehensive analysis of the platform’s user experience. This multifaceted approach not only yielded rich qualitative insights but also generated valuable quantitative data. Consequently, I gained a nuanced understanding of user interactions and experiences at various stages of the interface, allowing for a more informed redesign process.
From Beta to Better: Enhancing BeautyBuddy's Booking Platform
Summary
Background
Challenge
Research Questions
Recruitment and Method
Findings
Implementation & Handoff
Impact
Key Takeaways
Summary
GOAL
To evaluate ease of use in their Beta platform and redesign critical issues
YEAR (DURATION)
2022 (2 months)
ROLE
Discovery, Visual Design, Interaction Design
IMPACT
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Background
BeautyBuddy has developed a beta site that allows customers to book spa, salon, and other wellness services directly online. The company's goal is to streamline the appointment-setting process by replacing manual methods with an automated system. They brought me on board to analyze customer interactions with the beta site, enabling targeted improvements in its functionality, content, and visual design.
Our aim is to grasp the booking habits of potential customers and uncover any obstacles they encounter when utilizing the beta platform.
Challenge
For me to effectively observe how customers would go through their beta site and identify most critical issues to fix, I need to be able to answer:
How might we optimize the online appointment booking journey for seamless user interaction?
Research questions
We want to understand:
What do consumers think about the booking experience?
Which parts of the experience show friction?
Do they understand how to book individually? As a group?
Usability parameters to measure:
Comprehension: How understandable?
Learnability: Can first-timers successfully use it?
Navigation: Can they find their way around the interface to locate the necessary elements or pages to complete the tasks?
Discoverability: Can they easily discover the features, buttons, or options they need to use for each task?
Effectiveness: Can they do what we/they need to?
Completeness: Does this contain everything they need to see?
Error-correction: Can people anticipate and resolve mistakes?
Recruitment and method
BeautyBuddy provided five participants for this research sprint. These participants were unfamiliar with the BeautyBuddy platform and were accustomed to manual booking processes for wellness services.
Each participant session followed a structured approach comprising three phases: an initial interview to delve into their current habits, processes, and behaviors; a Think Aloud segment, during which participants shared their screens and articulated their thoughts, questions, and initial impressions while navigating the beta site; and finally, a Task Success assessment, wherein participants undertook a series of tasks, where I documented completion times and success rates.
Research findings
After completing all sessions, I sorted the insights and findings using affinity mapping. I categorized the interview findings to highlight participants' concerns, noted initial impressions and reactions from the think-aloud segments, and evaluated goal achievement in the task success assessments. This approach helped me develop a thorough understanding of the pain points and align them with user needs.
Here are the most critical issues found and how I recommend to fix them:
1. The "Book Now" button is often mistaken for the "Select More Services" button. Clicking “Book Now” redirects the user straight to the checkout, while “Select More Services” functions like an “Add to Cart” option, closing the pop-up and enabling the selection of additional services.
Participants often opted for the “Book Now” button when they hoped to select multiple services. When asked about their understanding of the two buttons, they expressed confusion about the functionality of “Select More Services.” They questioned whether it meant closing the current selection to choose another or adding the current service and selecting another. This confusion led them to choose the clearer option, “Book Now.” This is significant because it contradicts the company's objective of encouraging customers to book multiple services, directly impacting their growth and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Solution: I implemented a solution based on feedback from one of the participants. I switch the order of the buttons and revised the copy of the secondary button accordingly.
2. Data availability is unclear, especially regarding specific dates during store closures, requiring users to click and check each date individually. This issue substantially hampers the platform's overall usability.
Solution: Unavailable time slots are no longer displayed by default on the page.
3. The salon home interface hid or obscured various features, including the call-to-action for each booking, which was concealed within an icon, leading to confusion among half of the participants who couldn't grasp its meaning.
This issue is critical because it impedes users' ability to reschedule appointments. When a product's usability is compromised, users may revert to manual methods, such as calling the salon to reschedule. This undermines BeautyBuddy's value proposition and poses challenges in persuading businesses to adopt the platform for their stores, directly impacting acquisition efforts.
Participants also struggled with accessing their account settings, as a custom icon was used to represent it. Accessing their account is crucial as it allows users to view all current and past bookings.
Solution: To address this, I added a clear label and opted for a more recognizable icon. Additionally, I enhanced visibility by placing the buttons for each booking prominently within the card, utilizing available space effectively.
4. Unable to save address: Participants expressed the need to save their addresses to streamline the booking process and avoid the inconvenience of repeatedly inputting them for each booking. This significantly impacts the product's overall usability.
Solution: I implemented a “Save my address” feature, which automatically populates the home address fields during subsequent bookings.
In terms of usability, here is how the beta platform performed:
Comprehension: Medium
Participants did not understand “Select More Services” which made them hesitate on clicking it and opted for the other CTA.
Learnability: Medium
Participants successfully completed the tasks, with the exception of booking multiple services at a time due to the button copy issue.
Navigation: High
Participants navigated through the pages smoothly without encountering any significant difficulties.
Discoverability: Low
Participants had a hard time accessing the account settings and their bookings.
On mobile, discoverability was a challenge for most participants. One participant didn’t find the service she was looking for because it was hidden inside the accordion. She suggested if there was a way to just display everything.
Effectiveness: Medium
Certain participants experienced delays in completing tasks due to challenges with the "Select more services" button and the issue of unavailable dates. Additionally, booking services from different salons also prolonged the process as participants had to input their address for each booking individually.
Completeness: Low
Two participants asked where they can find more information about the following:
How do they know if a store is open or closed during a holiday?
Until when can they reschedule a booking?
Error-correction: High
Participants knew how to edit or remove services from their booking.
Fixing the critical issues
Utilizing BeautyBuddy's existing mockups on Figma, I promptly implemented the necessary changes to the site to address the usability issues and communicated the missing information to the BeautyBuddy team. Once the redesigned designs were finalized, I presented them to the team and handed them off to the developers for implementation.
Impact
After implementing these changes, BeautyBuddy observed:
A remarkable average monthly growth rate of 61% in customer bookings.
An above-industry-average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70/100.
Key takeaways
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons
One of the major issues identified was the confusion between the "Book Now" and "Select More Services" buttons. This highlighted the importance of clear, unambiguous call-to-action buttons. Users must understand exactly what each button does to avoid frustration and ensure a smooth navigation process. Clear CTAs can significantly enhance the user journey by minimizing hesitation and increasing conversion rates.
Comprehensive Insights from Flexible User Testing
Utilizing a mix of research methods—including interviews, think-aloud protocols, and task success observations—enabled a comprehensive analysis of the platform’s user experience. This multifaceted approach not only yielded rich qualitative insights but also generated valuable quantitative data. Consequently, I gained a nuanced understanding of user interactions and experiences at various stages of the interface, allowing for a more informed redesign process.
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© 2024. Designed and developed by Laura Ang
© 2024. Designed and developed by Laura Ang
