Business Background:
• Founded by two estheticians with over 20 years of experience in Los Angeles, California.
• Established a loyal customer base through word-of-mouth and personal interactions.
• Recognized the need for an online presence to remain relevant and attract new customers.
This project was part of a boot camp training program. As a practical exercise, we were required to redesign a website, enhancing our UX design skills.
Project Overview
As a UX researcher and designer, I evaluated Saving Faces and realized it was more than just a redesign—it was a transformation, as the existing site functioned more like a static list of services rather than an interactive and user-friendly website.
Overall Perspective
Problem Statement
The project required a complete design overhaul to address critical issues, such as:
Outdated visuals
Disorganized information architecture
Lack of access to the service booking process
Goals
• Improve the user experience by addressing outdated design elements.
• Refine the information architecture to make the website more intuitive.
• Streamline the service booking process for a more user-friendly interaction.
Design Process
Double Dimond
My teammate and I adopted the Double Diamond methodology to structure our design process. This allowed us to navigate from research to implementation in a systematic and user-centered way.
Poor Visual Design: The website had almost no visual elements, consisting of a plain white background with text-heavy service descriptions.
Inability to Book Services: Users had no functionality to book appointments online.
Weak Navigation: The navigation bar with a tiny and hard-to-read font was poorly designed.
Insufficient Information Availability: The only contact information was a small, hard-to-find phone number, and there were no other ways to reach the business.
Confusing Service Descriptions: The service names and descriptions were unclear, making it difficult for users to understand what was being offer
Lack of Accessibility Features: The website did not follow accessibility best practices, had poor readability, and did not consider different user needs.
Failure to Follow Aesthetic and Minimalist Design Principles: While minimalism is beneficial, the site lacked essential content and structure, making it feel incomplete rather than intentionally designed.
Heuristic Evaluation
Competitive Analysis
A survey was conducted with 41 participants, of whom 63% were between the ages of 31 and 40, and 100% were female.
The participants identified the following as the most important types of information they expected to find on a skincare website, ranked in order of priority:
1. Service description
2. Pricing
3. Customer reviews
Furthermore, the respondents preferred booking multiple services within a single reservation session and receiving appointment reminders via SMS following their booking.
Survey
As part of our competitive analysis, we reviewed several skincare service websites, focusing on the following key features:
Interview & Affinity Diagram
After conducting user interviews with eight participants, both in-person and online, we discovered that the following aspects were essential for all participants:
Visual design and service descriptions
Customer reviews
Simplicity and overall user-friendliness
Visibility of service pricing
Participants consistently emphasized the importance of these elements, as they play a significant role in creating a seamless and trustworthy user experience.
After uncovering usability issues through a heuristic evaluation, we conducted a competitive analysis to understand how competitors addressed these challenges on their websites.
The analysis showed that all the websites included these essential features, except for the customer reviews section, which was absent. This suggests a potential gap in establishing user trust and aiding decision-making. Therefore, integrating customer reviews can improve the user experience.
Define
Persona
• Background: Jessica Martinez, 42, is an executive assistant in Los Angeles, married with two kids.
• Skincare Priority: Self-care helps her de-stress and maintain a youthful appearance.
• Booking Challenges: Limited time, prefers online booking but finds many systems unclear and inconvenient.
• Needs: A quick, mobile-friendly platform with transparent pricing and service details.
• Decision Process: Relies on online reviews, social media, and friend recommendations.
• Ideal Solution: A seamless booking experience with various providers, no phone calls needed, and guidance on adequately treating her skin.
The created persona is derived from comprehensive research, including interviews, surveys, and data analysis, ensuring an accurate and insightful representation of our target audience.
Card Sorting
• Method: Open Card Sorting
• Number of Participants: 9
• Session Type: In-person and online
• Tool Used: Maze
• Process: Each participant was given a set of content categories and asked to group them in a way that made the most sense to them.
• Outcomes: Improved information architecture, refined site navigation, menu structure, and content hierarchy for a better user experience.
Site Map
Based on the card sorting results and our competitive analysis, we designed the site map to ensure a clear and user-friendly structure, optimizing navigation and content organization.
