INTRODUCTION
Show Me The Honey!
“A Sweet UX Success Story”
We got Bee Humble Wellness buzzin’! In the first quarter, our streamlined booking system, paired with a beautiful visual overhaul, not only boosted revenue by a delightful 44% but also welcomed twice as many excited new customers to the hive!
Sparking a UX Transformation
The client, a vibrant local wellness studio owner with a passion for helping people find their zen, had a bit of a booking bottleneck. Their system for scheduling appointments and events was, shall we say, a little old-school – think phone calls and email chains. While their clients loved the personal touch once they actually got booked, the process itself was about as relaxing as a rush-hour traffic jam. This meant potential clients were struggling to easily browse services, see what was available, and book on their own time, leading to missed opportunities and a lot of back-and-forth for the studio staff. In short, their booking process was less “ohm” and more “ugh,” hindering their ability to grow and share their wellness magic with more people.
Cultivating a Digital Sanctuary
By creating a vibrant online space, we aim to help Bee Humble Wellness blossom, reaching more customers seeking their individual path to well-being. This digital sanctuary will not only simplify the flow of energy within the studio’s operations but also create fertile ground for welcoming new seekers into the Bee Humble community. We’ll be monitoring the rhythm of new bookings and the acquisition of new faces joining the studio in the months following the launch, ensuring our digital efforts are helping their wellness garden grow.
My Journey with Bee Humble
So, where did I fit into this quest for booking bliss? Well, as the solo UX and Design adventurer on this 12-week journey, I wasn’t just tasked with untangling that old-school booking system. Oh no! This was a full-on transformation. I dove headfirst into not only reimagining and designing a a refreshingly simple booking experience and website, but was also tasked with giving the entire Bee Humble Wellness brand a fresh, vibrant makeover. Think of it as a complete wellness retreat for their online presence – from the initial user flow to the final visual flourish, and even the very essence of how Bee Humble presented itself to the world. It was a whirlwind of user research, information architecture, wireframing, prototyping, testing, visual explorations, and a whole lot of Redbull, all aimed at making their digital door as welcoming and easy to navigate as their studio’s serene atmosphere.
EMPATHIZE
Resourceful Research
“Unearthing Insights on a Budget”
Despite a limited budget, our generative research yielded valuable insights through three key methods. We started with what we called “The Zen Immersion”, observing users directly during their booking journey. Next, “The Competitive Alignment” involved a mindful analysis of our competitors. Finally, we implemented “Tapping the Source“, surveying the existing Bee Humble customer base with an incentive for their feedback. These cost-effective approaches provided crucial understanding of user needs.
Research Objectives
“Finding Our Flow”
Contextual Inquiry & Observation
“The Zen Immersion”
You can’t design a peaceful experience without truly feeling the user’s friction. So I spent time in the studio, literally, observing how staff currently handle booking inquiries. I also (with permission!) observed clients trying to book via phone and email, noting hesitations and frustrations from both users and staff.
Analyzing the Competition
“The Competitive Alignment”
A thorough Competitor Analysis was performed, focusing on wellness studios (local and beyond) that have thriving online booking systems. I analyzed their user flows, features, design, and overall booking experience.
By seeing what’s working well in the “wellness ecosystem,” I was able to identify best practices, potential innovative features, and even areas where Bee Humble can differentiate themselves. It was about aligning their digital “chakras” with successful models while still maintaining their unique essence.
Understanding the User’s Process
“Tapping the Source”
Our initial generative research aims to cultivate a deep understanding of current booking habits, both in the digital sanctuary and through more traditional paths like phone calls and emails. Through a thoughtfully crafted user survey, we harvested invaluable insights into booking behaviors, preferences, and pain points using Bee Humble’s current customer base. As a token of our gratitude for their time and wisdom, we offered a little extra dose of tranquility – an incentive on their next visit to the hive – in exchange for their participation. This initial exploration allowed us to nurture a more seamless and intuitive booking experience, ensuring every interaction with Bee Humble felt as restorative as the services they offer, laying the groundwork for a truly harmonious and intuitive booking experience down the line.
This also served as a great time to get user demographics!
When we’re already asking our users about their booking experiences, it just makes sense to gently weave in rellevant questions about who they are. It’s an efficient way to gather a more complete picture – not just what they’re doing, but who is doing it! This helps us understand our different “wellness tribes” and their unique needs, all while keeping things streamlined and avoiding asking for too much information at different times. It’s like a mindful approach to data gathering, ensuring we get a rich, well-rounded understanding without overwhelming our users.
Market Trends in Booking
“Unveiling the Landscape”
Just like finding the perfect balance in your wellness routine, nailing the booking process is key for Bee Humble. We’ve taken a holistic look at the online booking landscape – the growing trends, what users are craving, the potential imbalances, and the healthy habits of successful platforms. This secondary research is our way of cultivating the insights needed to create a booking experience for Bee Humble that feels intuitive and supportive.
Wellness Booking Empathy Map
“The Emotional Journey”
Let’s dive into the hearts and minds of our wonderful users, shall we? Before we could truly craft a blissful booking experience for our wellness website, we needed to understand the whispers of their souls, the stretches of their desires, and the occasional omg, is this really happening? moments. So, we created an empathy map – a pathway into their inner zen gardens. Exploring what our users really think, feel, say, and do on their journey to a healthier, happier self.
DEFINE
Synthesizing clarity
“A Sweet UX Success Story”
This stage of our project truly acts as a holistic health check-up for our user experience. We’ve just completed the “diagnosis” from our research, and now we’re synthesizing that data to pinpoint the core “ailments” users face when trying to prioritize their well-being.
What Our Research Revealed
“Hive Mind Insights”
Based on our initial exploration into the Bee Humble booking journey, several key insights blossomed, directly addressing our research objectives:
First off, the current booking flow? Definitely a bit of a barrier to a smooth user experience. Observing staff and clients revealed a time-consuming, multi-step process involving phone calls, emails, and manual data entry, creating frustration for both parties and hindering efficient booking.
Secondly, it’s crystal clear that convenience and accessibility are paramount for users booking appointments. The overwhelming preference for online booking expressed in our survey shouts that they want that 24/7 access and the freedom to browse and book on their own time, just like they do with other booking platforms. This highlights the need to integrate seamlessly with users’ digital lifestyles.
Thirdly, users crave transparency, control and a and a booking experience that feels like it was designed with them in mind. Think clear pricing, easy-to-find info on services and practitioners, the power to choose their perfect time slot, and simple ways to manage their own appointments. Our peek at what other successful wellness spots are doing just confirms that a positive and informative online space is key to happy users.
Lastly, our users are definitely into the techy side of booking! They’d love things to play nicely with their phones, sync with their calendars, and even get personalized suggestions, hinting at a chance for Bee Humble to create a more tailored and connected experience that keeps them buzzing back for more.
Other important challenges we discovered based on market research include data security and privacy, trust and verification, lack of personal interaction.
Basically, even with our budget-conscious research, we revealed a strong user desire for a modern, online booking system that prioritizes convenience, clarity, control, and seamless digital integration. Moving away from the manual hustle presented a significant opportunity for Bee Humble to cultivate a more “zen” and efficient experience for both their clients and staff, ultimately supporting their growth and mission.
User Persona
“The Wellness Seeker”
Scenario: Mia’s been feeling pretty overwhelmed lately. Her job demands long hours, and she often ends up working late, which messes with her sleep. She’s heard good things about the calming effects of Sound Baths and Reiki for balancing energy, mostly through wellness podcasts and social media. One night after a late shift, while scrolling through Instagram, a post for a local studio offering Sound Baths caught her eye. Intrigued, she clicked over to their website, hoping it’d be super quick and easy to book a session for the weekend. What she really wants is to just browse available times and snag her spot instantly on her phone or laptop, instead of having to call during work hours.
Booking Journey Map
“Mapping The Digital Hive”
Instead of charting the flight path of Bee Humble’s current old-school communication (phone calls and emails), we looked at how other thriving wellness hives have built their online systems for booking. Mapping the digital journeys of competitors who’ve already embraced online scheduling will gave us the real sweet insights. It showed us exactly how users expect to navigate, what makes them happy, and where the potential sticky spots might be in the online world. It’s like getting the blueprint for a thriving digital garden, rather than just analyzing why the current phone-and-email patch isn’t blooming as much as it could. We want to build a buzzing online experience, not just put the old way on a computer!
IDEATE
From Insights To Ideas
“Breathing Life Into Bee Humble”
In the Ideation phase, our focus shifted from understanding user needs to cultivating solutions that would genuinely enhance the user booking experience. This wasn’t just about brainstorming features; it was about nurturing ideas that would alleviate pain points and elevate the user’s journey to well-being.
Goal Alignment
“Finding Our Center”
Now that our research has unveiled a deeper understanding of what our users truly need, it was time to mindfully weave those insights into the fabric of our business goals. This alignment wasn’t just a bonus; it’s the very foundation for long-term vitality. When we ensure our solutions directly nurture our users’ well-being by easing their frustrations and fulfilling their desires, we naturally cultivate their satisfaction, loyalty, and even their enthusiastic support – all of which organically fuels business growth through deeper engagement, more conversions, and positive connections.
On the other hand, overlooking what our users truly seek, even with the most innovative features, risks creating a disconnect, leading to user frustration and ultimately hindering Bee Humble’s ability to flourish. This thoughtful alignment phase allows us to transform our creative explorations into initiatives that are not only nourishing for our users but also yield meaningful and sustainable value for Bee Humble’s business, creating a healthy ecosystem where everyone thrives.
Revisiting HMW Framework
“Blooming Possibilities”
Having cultivated a deep understanding of our users’ needs through our research, it felt like the right time to nurture the seeds of our “How Might We” questions. These thoughtfully crafted questions were the fertile ground for our initial ideas. By tending to each HMW statement once more, we can use them as guiding lights to cultivate a rich harvest of potential solutions. Each question illuminated a specific pathway, encouraging us to think expansively and explore diverse ways to nourish the core challenges our users face. This focused approach ensures our brainstorming sessions are intentional and ultimately yields more relevant and innovative solutions.
HMW Brainstorming:
Select a drop-down to see proposed ideas.
A SCAMPER Session
“From Friction To Flow”
The SCAMPER method proved to be a logical and effective tool for brainstorming Bee Humble’s booking system design. It gets right at what folks are looking for when they’re trying to take care of themselves. Just like a good wellness routine looks at the whole picture, SCAMPER’s way of prompting us to think differently helped us see the booking process in a fresh way. Instead of just making something that works, it nudged us to create an experience that feels easy, clear, and like it was made with the user in mind – which is exactly what people want when they’re focusing on their well-being. It helped us go beyond just the basics and build a booking system that feels good to use.
SCAMPER:
Select a drop-down to see proposed ideas.
MVP Roadmap
“Building the Hive”
Embarking on our journey to create a thriving booking experience, we begin with the principle of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Like planting the first seeds in a garden, our initial focus will be on cultivating the most essential features with a user-centered approach. This allowed us to quickly offer core value, gather vital feedback from our early adopters, and mindfully nurture our platform’s growth, ensuring each subsequent feature blossoms in direct response to user needs and fosters a truly harmonious booking journey.
Effort: Low
Necessity: Must Have
Effort: Medium
Necessity: Must Have
Effort: High
Necessity: Must Have
Effort: High
Necessity: Must Have
Effort: High
Necessity: Must Have
The User Flow
“Harmonious Steps”
To ensure a harmonious and effective online booking experience, we’ve crafted a user flow map based on our foundational MVP roadmap. This visual journey charts the essential steps a client takes, from discovering our offerings to confirming their appointment, focusing on clarity and ease. By mapping this core experience, we aim to cultivate a smooth and stress-free path, allowing our users to effortlessly connect with the wellness services they seek, mirroring the focused and intentional approach of our initial product launch.
Initial Site Map
“The Root of Resonance”
Rooted in our foundational MVP roadmap, Bee Humble’s initial website sitemap will mindfully focus on the essential spaces our visitors need to discover our offerings, feel their resonance, and seamlessly book their wellness journey. This streamlined structure prioritizes the core paths highlighted in our MVP, ensuring a clear and direct flow for those early explorers. Think of this sitemap as the first breath in a deeper practice – a vital starting point that will naturally expand and evolve as we gather feedback and refine our online sanctuary. Just as a wellness journey unfolds with intention, our website will grow organically, accommodating new content, features, and optimized pathways to better serve our community.
Wireframes
“Balanced Blueprints”
To ensure Bee Humble offers a truly serene experience, we started with our low-fidelity wireframes as part of our Minimum Viable Product approach. This let us calmly map out the fundamental user journey and essential screen layouts, keeping things simple and free from visual clutter at this early stage. By honing in on the “minimum viable” elements of the booking form—from selecting a service to confirming payment—we rapidly improved the site’s flow and ease of use. After testing our core assumptions about how users will interact, we made multiple iterations ensuring a smooth, stress-free path for users, while gathering valuable feedback before we fully immerse ourselves in detailed design and development
Home Page
Booking Form
PROTOTYPING
Bringing Ideas to Life
“Harmonizing Interactions”
Our prototyping kicked off by digging into all the rich insights we’d gathered, much like planting the most vital seeds for a thriving garden – every decision was rooted in the data we’d collected. Staying true to our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach, initial mid-fidelity prototypes allowed us to quickly check the “health” of our foundational concepts, ensuring our design choices truly blossomed from real user needs and behaviors. After soaking up valuable feedback from testing those initial mid-fidelity prototypes with Bee Humble’s current users, we crafted our high-fidelity prototypes. This phase transformed validated concepts and user-driven improvements into a polished, visually refined, and interactive experience, representing a near-final version of the user interface that’s all ready for another round of testing, validation, and iteration!
High-Fidelity Prototypes
“The Seamless Path”
To ensure a seamless user experience, we designed the website with a calming, minimalist aesthetic that aligns with the therapeutic nature of the services. Our goal was to streamline the user journey from discovery to booking, guiding users intuitively while fostering a sense of trust and clarity.
This design philosophy was extended to the booking form, where we aimed to create an experience as calm and effortless as the wellness services themselves. Instead of a long, overwhelming form, we used a multi-step approach with clear progress indicators to prevent cognitive overload. By scrutinizing every field and only asking for essential information, we transformed a potentially frustrating task into a reassuring and simple preliminary step on the user’s path to well-being.
USABILITY TESTING & ITERATION
Refining the Experience
“Evaluate & Evolve”
With our high-fidelity prototypes in hand, it was time for the moment of truth: usability testing! This was our opportunity to invite real users to explore our design, validating successful elements and identifying areas for improvement. Our mission? To make sure Bee Humble’s website felt as harmonious and supportive as their offerings, ensuring every click resonated with that signature balanced vibe.
Usability Test
“Assessing Pathways”
During this moderated remote usability study we aimed to gather invaluable qualitative feedback on our booking website’s core functionalities, validating our assumptions and uncovering unexpected user needs. By understanding how real users interact with the platform, we aimed to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. Each participant was given a series of realistic scenarios to complete using the Figma prototype, designed to cover critical user flows.
Key Findings
“Clicks to Clarity”
Through our comprehensive usability testing sessions, we observed a range of user behaviors and gathered valuable insights. Several recurring patterns consistently emerged across participants, clearly highlighting specific areas where the overall user experience could be significantly improved. These findings were critical in guiding our future design iterations to ensure the Bee Humble platform is not only functional but also intuitive, efficient, and truly supports a serene user journey. Our observations pointed to both friction points and unmet needs, providing a clear roadmap for enhancing Bee Humble’s key features and interactions.
Iteration
“Clicks to Clarity”
Through our comprehensive usability testing sessions, we observed a range of user behaviors and gathered valuable insights. Several recurring patterns consistently emerged across participants, clearly highlighting specific areas where the overall user experience could be significantly improved. These findings were critical in guiding our future design iterations to ensure the Bee Humble platform is not only functional but also intuitive, efficient, and truly supports a serene user journey. Our observations pointed to both friction points and unmet needs, providing a clear roadmap for enhancing Bee Humble’s key features and interactions.
Iteration: Customer Panel
Priority: P1
Effort: High
Iteration: Recurring Feature
Priority: P2
Effort: Medium
Iteration: “Add-on” Services
Priority: P2
Effort: Low
Iteration: Service Slider
Priority: P3
Effort: Medium
ACHIEVEMENTS
Exceeding Expectations
“Evaluate & Evolve”
With our high-fidelity prototypes in hand, it was time for the moment of truth: usability testing! This was our opportunity to invite real users to explore our design, validating successful elements and identifying areas for improvement. Our mission? To make sure Bee Humble’s website felt as harmonious and supportive as their offerings, ensuring every click resonated with that signature balanced vibe.
The Results
“Clicks to Clarity”
Through our comprehensive usability testing sessions, we observed a range of user behaviors and gathered valuable insights. Several recurring patterns consistently emerged across participants, clearly highlighting specific areas where the overall user experience could be significantly improved. These findings were critical in guiding our future design iterations to ensure the Bee Humble platform is not only functional but also intuitive, efficient, and truly supports a serene user journey. Our observations pointed to both friction points and unmet needs, providing a clear roadmap for enhancing Bee Humble’s key features and interactions.