Empathize
Aligning User Needs with Business Goals
Collaborating with the client ensured alignment on their vision, enabling us to create a user-focused solution that meets their goals effectively.
Convenient Booking
Customer Loyalty
Enhancing loyalty through seamless experiences, clear communication, and exceptional service.
Aligning User Needs with Business Goals
Conducted surveys, user interviews, and competitor analysis to identify pain points for both clients and users. Led moderated interviews with dedicated dog owners, uncovering key priorities—trust, quality, personalized care, and convenience. These insights aligned user needs with Sam’s Spaw’s business goals.
User Research Key Insights:
Pet owners want a simple, unified booking process to replace the hassle of using multiple platforms.
Users value transparency about service details, pricing, and availability.
Real-time availability and adaptable scheduling are top priorities.
Reviews and tailored services build confidence and loyalty.
Define
Defining the User Persona
A dedicated dog owner seeking trustworthy, high-quality, and convenient grooming services for their pet.
Pet owners see their dogs as "fur babies," meaning trust, quality, and care aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re non-negotiable.
Frustrations: Too many pages, unclear CTAs, and insufficient information (e.g., pricing, duration) make booking confusing and tedious.
Opportunity: Streamline the process with clear CTAs, consolidated details, and an intuitive booking flow to reduce friction and boost conversions.
Prioritizing Features for a Seamless User Transition
Using the MoSCoW framework to identify and prioritize essential, desired, and optional features for an intuitive and functional user experience.
Leveraged the research results and goals of the project to guide the prioritization of features. As users currently use social media to book, prioritizing features for a seamless transition.
Ideate
Designing Intuitive Navigation to Enhance the Booking Experience
Designed the website's structure and navigation for a seamless booking experience, aligning with client and user needs through research and collaboration. Identified key pages—like service map, booking flow, and client information - ensuring a streamlined and intuitive experience.
Collaborating with the client, we prioritized the booking flow for non-clients as the website's first step. By understanding their needs and goals, we designed a task flow that streamlines the booking process, making it easy for first-time users while aligning with key business objectives.
Designing joy for dog parents and their pups
From seamless bookings to trust-building transparency and mobile-friendly design, these features are the stars of the show, making every user’s experience smooth and delightful!
Prototype
Creating Consistent Experiences to Meet User Needs on Any Device
Enhanced the user experience for both desktop and mobile by creating a seamless and intuitive interface across all devices, with prototypes emphasizing the booking flow.
Designing for a Responsive Website
Since Sam’s Spaw booked clients through social media, a mobile-friendly design was essential. I took a mobile-first approach, ensuring a seamless transition from social to the website. The responsive design provides a smooth, intuitive booking experience across all devices.
Design System and Hand off
For Sam’s Spaw, I developed a structured design system to ensure consistency and seamless design handoff, even as a sole designer. Working within the client’s existing brand colors, I built a typographic hierarchy that complemented their visual identity while maintaining accessibility.
I also established component libraries and UI patterns, allowing for scalable, efficient updates. My focus was on organization and clarity, ensuring that future designers or developers could easily adopt and expand upon the system without losing brand integrity.
Testing
Validating and Refining Designs through testing
Conducted mid-fi and hi-fi unmoderated usability testing using Lyssna to validate the designs, incorporating iterative feedback to refine the user experience throughout the process.
Before and After
Reflection
Reflecting on the development of Sam’s Spaw, the final outcome was a user-friendly and intuitive platform that successfully simplified pet grooming services while enhancing the overall customer experience.
Through user testing, I observed high task completion rates, overwhelmingly positive feedback, and strong client satisfaction. Users appreciated the ease of browsing services, booking appointments, and tracking their pet's progress within the app, reaffirming the value of its design and functionality.
These insights underscored the app’s potential not only to improve customer satisfaction but also to streamline operations for pet grooming businesses, demonstrating the impact thoughtful UX design can have in addressing user needs and business goals.
