Lumos Nox Salon
Redesign optimized for mobile experience
The Lumos Nox website had several pain points causing user abandonment. The proposed re-design, optimized for mobile-first, streamlines information architecture while reducing unnecessary click-throughs. This will result in a smoother user experience & an increase in stylist bookings.
Tools Used
my why?
As I venture towards a career in the design space, I began practicing approaching digital spaces with the eye of a designer. I knew my good friend Twylla recently put together a website for her salon and I visited the site to check it out. Twylla and I share the same passion for artistry and human experience so I decided to develop this project based on the pain points I encountered when visiting her site. Twylla did not ask for the project but was open to receiving the feedback when I spoke with her about how I thought we could improve her website experience.
This project serves as a springboard for me to practice design thinking, user experience methodologies and to familiarize me with UI principles and design tools. We intend to collaborate on iterations of the site as I gain knowledge while in boot camp and launch it in the future once I develop the network of engineers to build the project.
the problem
The overall objective of the website is to match potential clients with the correct stylist. In the site’s current iteration, this task is tedious & most likely unsuccessful for three primary reasons.
the process
My process began by identifying the current user flow and which touchpoints, or lack thereof, are problematic.
The first pain point was quickly revealed in the lack of a call to action on the landing page.
The second and perhaps most disconcerting pain point is found in the booking section.
There is a call to action, however the instructions contradict the CTA by requiring additional steps to find more information about stylists.
The instructions lead the visitor to two separate tabs located on the navigation bar at the top of the page.
This page served as the catalyst for the entire project. Asking your visitors to remember a set of navigation steps while searching for information is a sure way to lose clients. I also identified accessibility issues with contrast on these first two screens. I was excited to find these problems because it confirmed I was able to identify pain points as a designer would.
It was at this point in the process that I made a few mistakes.
As a new designer, I was eager to fix the problems and jumped right into the ideation phase. In retrospect, this means the majority of the project is based on biases & assumptions.
Having learned this, I believe some usability testing could give me more accurate data to refine the project.
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The downside to this method is wasted hours with no solid research.
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The successful learnings are I was able to identify a gap in my process & also learn how to use design tools such as Whimsical & Figma.
I began by mapping out the user flow and sketching some wireframe ideas.
Diving into this revealed that some users might already know their stylist, therefore making the “Find Stylist” step unnecessary.
The first iteration was fine and checked all of the boxes on functionality but it felt a bit lackluster. After some discussion, we decided we wanted to feature the stylists work and create a bit of mystery or curiosity.
The second iteration acomplished those goals by adding additional photos, creating intriguing copy and simply asking the user to choose their journey.
the prototype
Interact with the prototype
key takeaways
Although the design process is taught linear, it is very much anything but! However, I found that had I followed a more structured approach to the process and design I could have saved significant time.
Research tools are INVALUABLE and must be the foundation of every decision. As I’ve learned more about these tools, I will go back and conduct a card sort test. This test will be the most insightful as content architecture is the primary focus of the project.
Taking the initiative to reach out and work on this has given me the opportunity to dive in and learn the tools and processes of design without high stake risk. It has also given me the confidence to trust my design intuition.
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