ADAY is a London-based brand founded by Nina Faulhaber and Meg He that creates clothing that allows the busy woman to move seamlessly from the gym to the office -- timeless silhouettes, intelligent fabric (think: moisture wicking and wrinkle releasing), “technical details” and Olympic-quality spandex seams.
Team Members: Erika Flores & Chris Drakeford
Chris Drakeford
Erika Flores
DESIGN PROCESS
Our client approached us with two primary objectives —to enhance their site's functionality and usability beyond their competitors; and to form a sense of community via an Events page. Due to time constraints and some already existing parts of the site, we decided to do an empathy map with one of the founders to get a deeper understanding of the brand: the identity, the needs, the goals and constraints. Our team was under extreme pressure to move fast and this would allow us to gain a quick perspective of who ADAY is and the messages they want to send to their users.
Mapping out the client's emotions was key to setting client expectations about the aspirational emotional state we were aiming to design for.
“Our customers need a better way to participate in ADAY’s events. We want ADAY to be not just clothes, but a lifestyle. We want to create a community.”
the mission
Content Strategy
Create Events / Community Page
Edit Functionality of PDP Pages and Other Usability Issues
We were tasked to deliver a high‐fidelity prototype to our client in less than 2 weeks. The combination of a fixed deadline and usability testing meant we needed to strategically focus and prioritize the project.
Chris and I focused on aligning our business goals with product strategy based on the ideals of Stephen Anderson's UX Hierarchy of Needs.
FOCUSING ON GOALS
We needed to define a desirable role for the content and how it would meet the needs of the users - old and new.
A COLLABORATIVE LEAN UX APPROACH
We opted for a lean approach which emphasized rapid sketching, prototyping, user feedback and design mockups. This created early team‐alignment, sparked tons of great ideas and created a strong sense of ownership.
BUILDING TRUST THROUGH TRANSPARENCY
Sharing our methods and thinking from the outset helped to build a strong client relationship. Ample opportunities for input at all stages of the project built trust and created a comfortable environment to share ideas—forming a partnership which served much value beyond this phase.
STARTING ON THE SAME PAGE
Meeting with key stakeholders helped us to understand their business challenges. Together we identified risks and aligned on expectations and constructed a shared vision. Following this, we crafted an experience strategy outlining our phased approach and direction for the project.
discovery
The discovery phase was a quick, high‐intensity effort that allowed us to define project milestones, audit the existing work, review the competitor landscape, understand our client's vision, and begin research into user needs, behaviours and pain‐points. We also kicked off a technical discovery phase to understand feasibility and constraints utilizing the following:
User Interviews
User Tests
Heuristic Evaluation
Peer Analysis
OVERALL WE FOUND THAT USERS:
Love ADAY
Website is beautiful and simple
Some sections not very intuitive
Need more product info (clear pictures & descriptions)
Do not frequent the website often
Visit only because of email blast/social media (Facebook)
Visit when looking for a specific item of clothing
Curiosity (1-2 times p/year)
personas
After completing our user interviews, we created personas to help us understand the users' needs, experiences, behaviors and goals. This would better guide us in our ideation process and would help us achieve the goal of creating the optimal user experience.
ELIZABETH MILLER
She is a 34 year old Biologist who works at a biomedical lab in San Francisco. She does not have to dress up for work (overcoat), so she prefers the comfort underneath. After work she goes to crossfit or running and then off to have dinner/drinks with friends. She loves the versatility of ADAY clothing as she never has to change in between. It is sophisticated and comfortable enough that she can wear it all day long. She wears it on the weekends to go kayaking and hiking, as well.
Pain Point: "I dislike ordering online because I'm too busy to send things back."
Needs: Elizabeth would like a way she can quickly view colors, prices, additional information and pictures, and be able to zoom in for clarity. She wants to make sure she gets a good view of the product before purchasing.
CAROLYN BECKER
She is a 46 year old Environmental at a non-profit. She enjoys doing yoga, pilates, running errands with her daughters. The women are big fans of ADAY, and Carolyn finds herself shopping for the whole family online. Her husband is a chair for a big charity, so she finds herself attending and hosting events (which she loves). She has also attended several ADAY events and always brings a few people along with her. She loves the overall vibe of the company.
Pain Point: "I always find out last minute when ADAY will be having an event, and I could not make it because of conflict of schedules.
Needs: Carolyne would like a way to see upcoming events hosted by ADAY so she can plan ahead of time. She would also like to be able to make suggestions (and possibly help organize an event).
Phase #1
home page CONTENT STRATEGY
Problem: ADAY’s website has a wealth of content that tells the brand’s story, however this content needs to be arranged in a way that better informs users of ADAY’s personality, brand values, and the benefits of the company’s clothing.
Storytelling is #1
CTA for booking appointments at the studio
CTA for users to visit the newly visit us page
Incorporate marketing and points of sale
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
After conducting user user interviews and user testing, we found that:
New users could not at first identify what type of company ADAY was when browsing the website
Users liked the simplicity of the website and noted that it did not bombard them with information
While users felt that the large photos on product display pages were visually pleasing, they felt that this page should focus more on displaying information relevant to helping them make purchase decisions
Home Page Objective
PEER ANALYSIS
We did a peer analysis of brands that were either similar to ADAY or someone they admired.
We used wireframes to gain insight on competitor layout and help shape the marketing strategies.
Current ADAY Home Page
1st Iteration of Proposed Home Page
Finished Result
Phase #2
Create events page
Problem: This part of the site does not exist. This would be a newly created category (which the client really insisted that this be the MVP). Upon learning this, we went ahead and gave her her immediate goal by implementing an API through Facebook Developer. This would extract all the info (events) that they put up on their Facebook page, and it would automatically generate and refresh using this temporary solve.
In addition, this was not only an events page but a place where the user could also schedule appointments. Our client specified that they wanted this to be a section where it would become a hybrid of both. We decided to name this section VISIT US - due to the nature that it became a combination.
Paper prototyping
Paper Prototypes were rapidly designed, simulated and tested for usability.
The paper prototypes were used to:
To communicate ideas: between designers, users and stakeholders in the first stages of the user-centered design process.
As a usability testing technique: to observe the human interaction with user interfaces even before these interfaces are designed and developed.
mvp version - for immediate implementation
Chris and I opted for a Facebook API to allow ADAY to easily put the coding on a new page so the EVENTS PAGE could be up and running as soon as possible. It allowed our clients to adopt a "set it and forget it" mentality. Being that our clients are passionate Facebook users with a core following, this was the best way they can update on one platform and their site would update automatically.