Responsive website
City Cycles is a local bike rental business that offers different bike styles and options for all age groups and activities to make their experience more enjoyable and memorable.
City Cycles
SUMMARY
The overall concept of this project was to find the best way to keep 80% of users from leaving the City Cycles’ website to rent bicycles. The website had to be restructured, organized, with special effects so that customers can have a better user experience. After six months of monitoring customer traffic and interaction, City Cycles was able to reach their goal by regaining their cliental back to making bike reservations on their website.
Role: Web Designer (UX/UI designer)
Timeline: 3/10/2023 - 3/26/2023
Tools used: Figma & Analysis tool
CONTEXT
City Cycles is an established business that provides bike rentals for the community since 1993. Their goal is to ensure that their customers have the best experience when using their products and services.
“We want you to have a wheelie great experience – from the time you visit to our shop, to when you are spinning around the city.” - Owner Mimi
PROBLEM
The owner, Mimi is trying to see why customers aren’t using the City Cycles’ website to rent a bike. The challenge is that users struggle trying to find a way to rent bikes on her website. So, their alternative is making reservations over the phone.
MY ROLE
As a Website Designer, I was hired to identify all issues and find solutions to keep 80% of City Cycle’s customers to make bike reservations through the website. But the major question is how might City Cycles encourage customers to rent bikes on their website?
SOLUTION
The solution is reconstructing the entire City Cycles’ website to facilitate seamless online bike rentals for customers. In theory this approach is anticipated, to recover up to 80% of customers who may otherwise abandon the site.
Interview Questionaries
UX SWOT Analysis
Sitemap
Survey
Customer analysis software
To get data for the best results to solve this problem I used:
Emphasize → Analyze/Research → Ideate/Design → Prototype → Test → Reflect/Growth
Breakdown of the process:
EMPATHIZE
Most customers were frustrated because of how confusing the website was. Several individuals emphasized the challenges associated with the bike booking process, which led many to make reservations via phone.
ANALYZE/RESEARCH
Questions to customers who use City Cycles’s services to rent a bicycle:
How did you discover City Cycles and how long have you been using their services?
What are the reasons you may book to rent a bike?
What changes do you think the site can improve on to make the experience easier for you to maneuver through?
Would you recommend anyone that never heard of this business to become a customer?
During my research, I interviewed 24 people ages 18-45 who were athletes, tourists, families, and friends willing to participate in the questionnaire interview process. This process was important to get customer’s insights on their experience trying to make a bike reservation on the City Cycles’s website.
Insights: Customers are ready for changes to the City Cycles’s in hopes for a better rental experience.
1. Many of them discovered City Cycles through family and friends. Others discovered City Cycles through finding bike rentals online. A few accidentally came across the company while heading to a specific place.
2. Six people said that they have always remembered being a customer of City Cycles as children since their family were loved the outdoors. Ten use City Cycles for healthy, cardio-focused activities. Three rent bikes for temporary transport, while five ride as a hobby.
3. There was a common response that many customers had was the lack of appeal of the website and the challenges of making bike reservations. Also, some of the information doesn’t match to their destinated page which caused confusion to customers.
4. Eight of the participants mentioned they'd would love if City Cycles have a personal website. They think it would help show that the company is legit. The other four said they find Amazon really convenient because they can browse multiple stores all in one place.
To assist me in developing strategies aimed at enhancing the website, I used a SWOT analysis. This approach would help me identify the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The objective was to find the best result to improve a better experience for customers.
City Cyles’s UX SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS
The owner Mimi has a short background story of City Cycles on her website to connect with her customers.
City Cycles information was straight to the point. But now it is about executing the message more effectively.
WEAKNESS
Customers are facing a challenge with making bike reservations on the City Cycles’s website.
The color choices as blend in with the background to where it is hard to read important information.
City Cycle’s website looks rushed and unorganized which can cause the business to appear inadequate, illegitimate to their target audience.
OPPORTUNITIES
Create a design that features engaging visuals to maintain customers' interest while surfing on website.
Create a more efficient and convenient route for customers to make bike reservations.
Removing certain pages, renaming tabs, articles, and pictures that do not reflect an upscale bike company and enhancing the overall look and experience by implementing high-quality images, pictures, videos, reviews to improve visual appeal.
THREATS
City Cycles is losing 80% of customers to make bike reservations, due to the difficulties faced by users when navigating their website.
The topics and articles do not correspond with each other or aligned with the specific tab on the navigation bar which can cause confusion among their customers.
Original Website Overview: Reorganizing the structure of the website and design an efficient route that will enable customers to rental bikes effectively.
The first thing that I noticed was the background flex effect of a bike which was an immediate distraction from important content for users to read. Furthermore, I noticed that the content displayed was not aligned for the home page but more so for an about page. Nevertheless, I still needed to determine how to effectively incorporate their background story into the new website design.
When I went to the Blog page, I noticed that it is was equally distracting as the homepage. The first and second half of the page featured background images that were distracting, making it difficult to read passages. Additionally, the "Leave a Comment" section, intended for customer engagement, was awkwardly placed over an image of a couple.
The second half of the page contain the blog content; however, I was immediately confused by reading two distinct titles seeming to share the same passage, which appeared unrelated. On the right side of the passage was a search bar, which was easily overlooked due to its blending into the background image of a bicycle.
It was concluded that I had two options to recreate the Blog page layout either include an "About" tab in the navigation bar, which would require me to develop a dedicated About page, or redesign the entire Blog page to align titles with their respective stories.
The Hours page was the last page which also had the same distracting background image. The Hours page consisted of the City Cycles’s office hours, a search bar, office number, their social media and an unnecessary like button. I knew that the contact page would be easier to design since the main focal points is contact information than having extravagant visuals for appeal.
After careful observation of the website, I was inspired to incorporate the background parallel effects, aligning with their original intent. However, I wanted to still ensure to appropriately implement this effect while also avoiding unnecessary distractions from reading critical content for customers. The concept was to design a website was not only feature significant movement to reflect the themes of cycling and outdoor activity but also display bike option choices for different age groups while maintaining a more unisex and futuristic aesthetic.
City Cycles’s Sitemap
I decided to use a sitemap method to create a more organized structure for the redesign of the City Cycles’s website. First, I reconstructed and relabeled the navigation’s tabs to Home tab, Bicycle’s tab which includes subtabs of different age groups would be implemented, Rules tab, and a Contact tab.
But the primary focus of this project was to redesign City Cycles’s website so that it is making bike reservations more accessible and efficient for customers from the unnecessary difficulties in navigation. I decided to incorporate a reservation section on the homepage. Once they hit the Reservation button it will navigate customers to that designation page.
The process of developing a range of wireframes presented certain challenges. Although I wanted layers, specifically for the home page, I didn’t want it to be overwhelming that would potentially overshadow the smaller segments of text that are equally significant for the customers to read. Another challenge was how creating designs of the other pages in a manner that allowed each to have their own distinctive style while still being cohesion with the homepage. Furthermore, it was important to prevent excessive visual distractions for a seamless and simplified design approach to ensure that the customer experience remained clear and focused.
Wireframe
Mockup
Navigation bar (Hamburger menu)
Minor adjustments to the navigation bar were implemented by adding two additional tabs: Rules tab and Bicycles tab. The tab previously labeled "City Cycles" was renamed to "Home," and the "Hours" tab was renamed to "Contact." All five tabs were positioned in the center of the navigation, since the search magnifying glass icon, the profile icon, and the cart icon was now included and positioned on the right side of the navigation bar.
Home page
Once the user accesses the City Cycles’s website, they will be presented to a video of people riding on City Cycle’s bikes. This is a great introduction to effectively capture potential customers to want to further explore the website.
As users scroll downward, instructions on how to make reservations will appear on the screen. This feature to provide essential information efficiently, without having to do intensive research or taking too much time to find the information.
Information about background history about the business will appear as users scroll down and a more efficient and direct way of making reservations which was the main issue that City Cycle wanted to resolve.
Main Category pages (Adults, Teens and kids, and Toddlers)
The original website layout did not have categories of bikes that were appropriate for each age groups and the website did not display any bikes that City Cycle offered. So, I developed three primary pages for three distinct age groups: Adults, Teens and Kids, and Toddlers. Each of the three main categories showcases the different bikes and their names. rated reviews, and price. This improvement enhanced the website's organizational structure while providing customers with convenient access to options for selecting bicycles tailored to their specific requirements.
Adults, Teens and kids, and Toddlers pages
Users now have the ability hit on one of the previews of the bikes that were showcased on the main category page. Once a customer hit one of the option choices displayed, they will see additional information about the bike that is presented, including details about the special services offered by City Cycles, a comprehensive description about the bike, and the option to select the desired bike size before making a purchase.
Blog page
The Blog page was completely reconstructed with the one of the titles I took from the original blog page and the article that was more aligned with it. At the last minute I was told to add three more articles that customers can read once they were released by the company. I had an idea to implement a visual effect so that the three articles would be displayed in greyed-out form, indicating to users that the other blogs are not accessible to read until they are full release.
Sign-up/Log-in account page
The original City Cycles website did not provide an option for customers to create an account in order to sign-in. Now customers have the option to create an account for a more personalize user experience.
Cart page
The cart page was included into the new website with more simplistic in visibility in comparison to the other pages. Because the main focal point was providing the customers control over adjusting the quantity of the items they intend to rent.
Contact page
The Contact page was reconstructed based on the original layout design, which had lacked hierarchy and alignment. In the initial design, it was designated as the "Hours" page and only contained the front desk office number along with the business hours. Now the tab originally labeled "Hours” is renamed to "Contact," and the page has been revised to include the office address, business hours, an option to email the company, in addition to the existing contact via the office telephone number.
IDEATE/DESIGNS
The design concept was to implement a user interaction while maintaining a balanced, cohesive aesthetic, and a more seamless visual experience for City Cycles' website. The color scheme was changed to neutral tones to establish a modern, futuristic aesthetic to promote an inclusive environment for customers.
1. Color theme - Neutral colors black, dark gray, white was selected for neutrality, readability, and balance. An accent of yellow was incorporated to emphasize key elements which would attract the user's attention.
schemecolor.com
2. Shape - None
3. Font theme - Geometric sans-serif, Grotesque serif, and San-serif for legibility, clean finish and a more modern vibe
4. Pictures/illustrations - People riding bikes and showcasing different types of bikes for different activities and age groups.
5. Easy user-interaction effects - Audio buttons to mute or unmute homepage introduction video, checkmark, parallax effect and fade in tool when scrolling down, zoom-in pictures on the home page, options to select bike sizes.
PROTOTYPE
Navigation bar
The navigation bar now exhibits a special effect whereby the background is initially translucent but transitions to black once the user scrolls downward, specifically on the homepage.
Home page
The website's introduction consists of twenty-four-second video showcasing individuals riding City Cycles bicycles, which automatically plays when a user accesses the site. Users have the option to mute or unmute the video's audio at their discretion.
As the user scrolls downward, the instructions for making reservations gradually transition into view.
More visual effects are introduced as the user continues scrolling, with images in the "Our Services" section moving into the scene accompanied by fading-in descriptions, allowing users to read about the company's services.
Underneath “Our Services,” section is an animated bike moves into view next to the Reservation title, subtitle, and a button. when they hit ithe “Click Here,’ button, it navigates the users to the reservation page, where they can proceed with booking before purchasing their bicycle.
Reservation page
On the reservation page, customers are required to input their first and last names, email address, and contact number in order to register. Then they are presented with various available time slots available for scheduling. Once their information is confirmed to be accurate, they must click the "Enter" button to complete the registration process in order to proceed which enables them to select the specific bicycle they wish to rent.
Cart page
Once a customer is in the cart to make a purchase, they have the option to increase a particular bike in the cart or decrease the number amount, once they hit checkout, they would have officially paid for their bike reservations.
Once a customer has added a bicycle to their shopping cart, they have the option to increase or decrease the quantity of that particular bike item. Once they proceed with the purchase by clicking the “Checkout,” button payment will be officially processed for their bicycle reservations.
TESTING
Final Step: Personal website did make a positive impact with customers
The final assessment involved a customer analysis software to monitor customer traffic for the next three months. This analysis would serve as an indicator of the users' satisfaction with the company’s personal website and overall experience.
Have a quiz for customers to take that will customize their signature jewelry and/or bags to fit their personalities to influence their next purchase options.
Include a feature to allow customers to write and submit a detailed review regarding a cosmetic product or supply that they purchased.
What could I have done differently?
REFLECT & GROWTH
Through this process, I learned how important it is to have a clear identity and full control over your brand. A strong brand shows that a company has a sense of direction as to what goals they want to achieve. It also demonstrates that a company value building relationships with their customers. When a company has a brand that is unique and distinctive, it stands out and becomes recognizable, especially by the people who share similar values and qualities of that brand. During this process, a heat mapping method could have been used to capture the behaviors of participant’s behaviors when first surfing through the Glamour & Gurlie’s website. Also, I could have conducted a survey to collect data of participants opinions for my final research to collect the participant’s perspectives, opinions, and insights to make corrections on possible errors on the website and could also serve as a useful resource for future projects.
What I have learned through this process was presentation is crucial, especially when it comes to an establishment. By having good presentation, it can help attract connections and foster relationships with professional networks. Also, it can enhance credibility and gain trust with a target audience. It is about how your target audience may perceive the company and how are their potential products could be more beneficial from other competitors. Beauti & Bold is the perfect example, even though Michelle Scott Ling had a strong concept of having high quality products for an affordable price, her website's visual presentation was underwhelming, coupled with a lack of credible customer reviews and low-quality images contributed to a stagnation in customer population. It possibly caused hesitation with new potential customers to make a purchase, as evidenced shown by the feedback from the 12 participants surveyed during the website evaluation interview.
The concept of this project was to address challenges related to low customer purchases for Beauti & Bold's online cosmetics. I conducted a various research method to gain insights using an interview questionnaire and a journey mapping method to document their overall experience of navigating the Beauti & Bold website. Additionally, competitor analysis was used to compare two other competitors; and A UX SWOT analysis was conducted to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Michelle’s original platform. This provided my final design decisions on an upgraded website design for improvements to better compete with competitors. In one early usability testing revealed that the initial website design concept confused users. Khloe was one of the participants that I wanted to…for more insight to the original website. She seemed to not be pleased with the overall experience, “Is this website even finished It looks like someone didn’t put much thought or effort.”
Overall project context and goals: The project's purpose, the problem you aimed to solve, and the key objectives
The concept of this project was to help assist Mark in influencing his users to be more engaging and interactive on his website. The problem was their website lacked organization to the corresponding pages, had minimalism in design, and had a poor usability experience. By redesigning, reconstructing, reorganizing the website so that navigation was easy, enhance the visual appeal with high-quality pictures and implementing special features, it has made Festival Travelers more engaging which has increase the interest in more customers.
The goal of this project was to assist Mark in influencing users to spend more time and interact more with his website. The problem was their website lacked organization to the corresponding pages, had uninteresting visuals, and lacked special features to make the website more appealing. We improved the website by making it easier to navigate, updating the look with attractive, high-quality pictures, and adding special features. These changes have made Festival Travelers more interesting and engaging, which has led to 30% user interest in visiting Festival Travelers site.
A lack of address challenges related to help Glamour & Gurlie harness and maintain a relationship with customers so their would be interest in them making purchases with the brand by 8%.
erall concept of this project was to gain more user interest, user engagement and interactive behaviors on the Festival Travelers’s website which showcased upcoming festivals and events locally, nationally, and internationally. But the simplistic of visual appeal of the website and the lack of organization navigating users to the corresponding page caused many to lose interest in what the site had to offer. By reconstructing, organizing, enhance the visual appeal and implementing features such as a gallery of festival topics, hover effects, and a contact page regarding inquiries, feedback, or concerns has increase by 30% of customers’ interest and engagement.
Research process: Explain the methods you chose and why they were the right fit and describe how you conducted
Describe how you adapted your approach or iterated on your designs based on research findings or feedback.
During the questionnaire interview all 12 participants were asked question about their current experience with buying Glamour & Gurlie products from Amazon. There was a consistent pattern with the participants noticing a change in the original pricing from the increase in interest and fees from Amazon. Others mention that they were open if Glamour & Gurlie had a personal website to show the company’s legit from scammers that are pretending to be Glamour & Gurlie. Overall, loyal customers stated the lack of user-experience since it was the same from other companies they use to buy on Amazon. It seems as though everyone followed a consistent layout.
During my research, I conducted a questionnaire-based interview with twelve customers. An empathy map was also incorporated into the research to help me understand the perspective with people that use Festival Travelers. Additionally, word cloud was used to visualize the common theme that participants expressed as an overview to develop a new concept for a new design.
Customer analysis software
During my research, I conducted a questionnaire-based interview with twelve customers. An empathy map was also incorporated into the research to help me understand the perspective with people that use Festival Travelers. Additionally, word cloud was used to visualize the common theme that participants expressed as an overview to develop a new concept for a new design.
Customer analysis software
Challenges and solutions/Be honest about the problems you encountered: Discuss any obstacles you encountered during the research and how you overcame them. This shows your problem-solving skills and resilience.
Key findings and insights discovered through research
The key findings and insights that was discovered through research was a common response in how Beauti & Bold’s website’s visual presentation was underwhelming, coupled with a lack of credible customer reviews and low-quality images which possibly caused a inclination of disinterest of potential customers in buying products on the website. My findings helped influence me to design a website that was inviting and more inclusive by incorporating more feminine colors, enhanced user interactions, such as, videos of entertainers, influencers, and everyday people using Beauti & Bold products which customers can play or pause the videos, applying Michelle’s makeup, and displays of high-quality images of her products. These improvements have positioned the brand as high-quality, resulting an increase of 15% customer sales from the recovery of previous investment losses.
After collecting data, it was apparent that to expand the company as a brand making it where it was more personable was the common response shared by customers and through research. But when a company has a multitude of products to choose from organization was necessary with options to filter out the preference by a user. This influences impletingin special effect features such as a carousel that moves which advertises future products for purchases. Customers can also create their own accounts to personalize their shopping experiences. Filters were included to help find products that match their preferences. As a result, Glamour & Gurlie reached over their goal to 8% with an increase in customer traffic and interaction. These improvements have positioned this small brand to a more high-quality company.
Lessons learned- articulate what you learned from these challenges: Be honest about what you learned from the project. Focus on personal and professional growth What did you discover about the users, the process, or the product that you didn't know before?
Through this process, I learned how important it is to have a clear identity and full control over your brand. A strong brand shows that a company has a sense of direction as to what goals they want to achieve. It also demonstrates that a company value building relationships with their customers. When a company has a brand that is unique and distinctive, it stands out and becomes recognizable, especially by the people who share similar values and qualities of that brand. Once Glamour & GUrlie had a personal website with interactive features and elements, we reached over their goal to 8% with an increase in customer traffic. These improvements have positioned this small brand to a more high-quality company.
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The concept of this project was to address challenges related to help Glamour & Gurlie harness and maintain a relationship with customers while transitioning the company over to their own personal website. During this process, I conducted a questionnaire-based interview with twelve customers to gain insights into their processes when purchasing Glamour & Gurlie’s jewelry. A UX SWOT Analysis was used to identify key elements to help develop opportunities for the website. Additionally, a sitemap method was used for organization and user navigation for a more user-friendly experience.
During the questionnaire interview all 12 participants were asked question about their current experience with buying Glamour & Gurlie products from Amazon. There was a consistent pattern with participants expressing a change in the original pricing from the increase in interest and fees from Amazon. Others were open if Glamour & Gurlie had a personal website to show the company’s authenticity and avoid possible scammers on Amazon. After collecting data, it was apparent the company lacked user-experience since it had a similar layout from other companies’ customers use to buy items on Amazon. It was important to create a website that felt more personal with its own identity. But when a company has a multitude of products to choose from organization was necessary with options to filter out the preference by a user. This influences implementing special effect features such as a carousel that moves, allowing customers to create their own accounts to personalize their shopping experiences. Filters were included to help find products that match their preferences.
During the questionnaire interview all 12 participants were asked question about their current experience with buying Glamour & Gurlie products from Amazon. There was a consistent pattern with participants expressed an openness of Glamour & Gurlie having a personal website to show the company’s authenticity and avoid possible scammers on Amazon. After collecting data, it was apparent the company lacked user-experience since it had a similar layout from other companies’ customers use to buy items on Amazon. It was important to create a website that felt more personal with its own identity. But when a company has a multitude of products to choose from organization was necessary with options to filter out the preference by a user.
Challenges and solutions/Be honest about the problems you encountered: Discuss any obstacles you encountered during the research and how you overcame them. This shows your problem-solving skills and resilience.
The obstacles I came across was the shorten duration of time to create a website that not only have a multitude of pages but required special effects to give an experience for users to remember. These influences implemented special effect features such as a carousel that moves, allowing customers to create their own accounts to personalize their shopping experiences. Filters were included to help find products that match their preferences. As a result, Glamour & Gurlie reached over their goal to 8% with an increase in customer traffic and interaction. These improvements have positioned this small brand to a more high-quality company.
Overall, loyal customers stated the lack of user-experience since it was the same from other companies they use to buy on Amazon. It seems as though everyone followed a consistent layout.
Through this process, I learned how important it is to have a clear identity and full control over your brand. A strong brand shows that a company has a sense of direction as to what goals they want to achieve. It also demonstrates that a company value building relationships with their customers. When a company has a brand that is unique and distinctive, it stands out and becomes recognizable, especially by the people who share similar values and qualities of that brand. Once Glamour & Gurlie had a personal website with interactive features and elements, we reached over their goal to 8% with an increase in customer traffic. These improvements have positioned this small brand to a more high-quality company.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
The concept of this project was to address challenges related to low customer purchases for Beauti & Bold's online cosmetics. While examining the original website, I noticed the lack of visual appeal, user interaction, and professionalism on Michelle’s cosmetic online website. A few research methods were then used to gain insights using questionnaire interviews, a journey map chart, and competitor analysis, along with a UX SWOT to identify platform strengths and weaknesses. By gathering data through my research, it provided the final design decisions which enhanced user experience while competing with Michelle’s competitors. Khloe was a participant in the journey mapping experiment, which I had to observed and asked questions to understand her thoughts, feelings, and experiences for a more personal perspective by a user. I examine her facial expressions and overall behavior that indicated she seem confused, disinterested with the experiment, and consequently, she did not purchase any makeup products.
During my research I had a few obstacles which was finding people who wanted to participate in the research. The next thing was the limited time I had to gather all of my data to translate it into a new website design. However, by selecting specific research methods, such as gathering direct opinions and perspectives from participants regarding their experiences and preferences, in order to enhance the user experience of Michelle’s website. If I were to approach this project again, I would have only chosen the journey map and the competitive analysis to compare Beauti & Bold’s other competitors to save time. Also, a pop-up could have been implemented to display discounts and special offers for future deals when someone first visits the Beauti & Bold website.
What I have learned through this process was presentation is crucial, especially when it comes to establishing credibility. A strong visual and informational presentation influences how the target audience perceives the company and its products, making them more trustworthy. Despite Michelle Scott Ling's high-quality, company having affordable products, it suffered from an underwhelming website and poor performance, which likely caused hesitation with potential customers to make a purchase. The changes were proven once I used a customer analyses software to monitor the overall results. It was concluded that these improvements confirmed that the new design's effectiveness, elevating the brand's quality, resulting in a 15% boost in sales and recovery of previous losses.
