Website analysis and re-design for an experiential orientated guest house in Transylvania.
Background
I was approached by the owners of a contemporary guest house in Transylvania named The Saxon House. They already had a WIX website and booking system running but were looking for a re-design and analysis of the users experience when using their website to book.
Goal
Analysis and re-design of website to increase traffic & conversion and reduce bounce rate.
Problem
The Saxon House have struggled to identify separate user groups and entice them through the website.
My impact
To conduct research with user groups to understand their needs and identify business opportunities.
Goals
Who the potential users / target market are.
The wants needs and aspirations of the users.
Understand how the website is currently used, its downfalls and opportunities.
Uncover usability problems current users have with the website.
Methodology
Market positioning map
This research aimed to gain deep insights into the competitive landscape and identify opportunities for reimagining the user experience. Mapping out the market position enabled me to create an innovative and user-centric solution that stands out from the competition.
Accommodation focus:
The Saxon House
Bethlen Estates
Tillingham Winery
Air BnB - Valdo Cabin
H-R-H Transylvania
Copsa Mare
Motorcycle focus:
The Saxon House
Enduro Max Bulgaria
Enduro Escape Tours
Nomad Adventures
Transylvania Trails
Enduro Riding Sibiu
Market positioning map comparing price and visual appeal of competitor websites
Website analytics
In order to understand the live websites strengths and weaknesses, I began looking through the analytics provided by WIX. I have marked my key findings below.
📊 Finding: Poor return rate
💡 Insight: Majority of users search on mobile and links to social media
💡 Insight: Wrong user group, unappealing, not displaying correct information
💡 Insight: Content not what users are looking for
💡 Insight: Users gravitate towards holiday packages
📊 Finding: Poor performance due to pop-up
User survey target demographic
Objectives: To gain insight into the target users wants, needs, goals and pain points. This information will be exceptionally valuable for later development of user personas.
To find willing participants to share the survey with, I located the following Reddit groups and made an attempt to reach out to users willing to take part:
r/travel
r/motorcycleroadtrip
r/motouk
r/motorcycles
r/adventuremotorcycling
Target demographic:
User survey findings
After analysing and breaking down the data from the user surveys, I have broken down the quantitative data and visualised it through pie-charts.
Snippet displaying a mix of qualitative and quantitative data gathered from the user surveys.
Quantitative data analysis
After analysing and breaking down the data from the user surveys, I have broken down the quantitative data and visualised it through pie-charts.
Visualised qualitative data gathered from the user surveys
Qualitative data analysis
After analysing the findings of the user survey, I began categorising and collecting insights. This data will be further broken-down into key insights to take forward in the development of The Saxon House website.
User survey insights arranged by category
Key insights
These are vital to understanding the primary reasons users visit The Saxon House's website.
Key insights highlighting the users primary goals when visiting the website
User persona
As a result of the research conducted, I have been able to produce these three personas to act as a guide to both existing and potential users. I will look to these personas in all future development stages of this project.
Three user personas formed as a result of the research data gathered
Current site map
The starting point of my in-depth analysis of the existing website began with understanding the site map. Part of this analysis was to identify problems to turn into opportunities.
😣 Usability problem: Misleading and unneccessary page
😣 Usability problem: Lengthy process / too many clicks
😣 Usability problem: Menu does not match order of landing page
💡 Opportunity: Addition of home button
'Book a room' user flow map
As an exercise to understand the users experience when booking a room, I produced a flow map. My ambition here was again to identify problems to convert into opportunities to better the users experience when booking a room.
😣 Usability problem: Delayed pop-up.
💡 Opportunity: Addition of 'Book now' button.
💡 Opportunity: 'Book now' button visible on landing page.
😣 Usability problem: Unnecessary click.
😣 Usability problem: Unnecessary steps causes confusion.
💡 Opportunity: Additional options (motorcycle hire, tours etc).
'Book a tour' user flow map
I had identified two main outlets for the business. These are booking a room and booking a tour. To get better insight into the users experience, I stepped into the users shoes and noted the steps involved in booking a tour using a flow map.
😣 Usability problem: Delayed pop-up.
💡 Opportunity: Addition of 'Book tours' button.
💡 Opportunity: 'Book tours' button visible on landing page.
😣 Usability problem: Unnecessary click.
😣 Usability problem: Confusing button prioritisation. Unclear how to proceed to next steps.
😣 Usability problem: Very confusing transition from motorcycle tours to room selection.
💡 Opportunity: Multiple choice field for user to input essential information (how many riders etc)
User journey map
As a key part of the definition phase of the project I am trying to gain as much insight into the user as possible so that when I develop solutions, they will be well suited to solve the problems identified.
User journey map developed for my persona 'Mitch'
SWOT analysis
I conducted a SWOT analysis of the existing website to gain further insights and guidance in the development of the website design.
SWOT analysis of current website
Heuristic evaluation
Following a heuristic analysis framework allowed me to see what the issues are, why they are happening and what the solutions to fixing them might be.
A heuristic evaluation of the current website
Web flow
As the entry point into re-designing the website, starting with the web flow made sense. At this early stage all insights are collated and considered.
Web flow showing initial layout and key points / pages to cover
Wireframing
Quick sketching of ideas allows me to explore design patterns, helping me to understand what I would need to carry over to The Saxon House website. This exercise helped to identify different layouts, themes and formats of displaying key information.
Interactive wireframe, drag to scroll!
Interactive wireframe / sketch prototypes developed to identify a layout style to carry through the website
Information architecture
One of my key findings was that the current website was cluttered and confusing. I developed what I believe to be the optimal layout and pattern for site pages by keeping it as clean and minimal as possible.
Information architecture developed for the website re-design
Low-fidelity
After numerous prototype iterations and testing, I was able to pick up on nuances when users were given specific tasks. The low-fidelity prototype shown below is missing some interactions which made elements challenging to test and will need to wait for the final or high-fidelity prototype.
Interact with the prototype!
Low-fidelity Figma prototype with design themes finalised and awaiting nuanced interaction design elements
Wix site
The final website was produced in WIX as requested by the client so that they could link their existing booking system & account and so that they can make adjustments to the site.
The site shown here is in my final edit just before presenting the project to the client.
View site
on mobile
Final interactive WIX website for The Saxon House
UI kit
I created the UI kit for The Saxon House to show the design themes and various elements of the interface design-work.
UI kit for The Saxon House WIX website
Conclusion
While working on this project, I put more time into the empathise / research stage of the project. I can see the benefits of this throughout the final product. The client is very satisfied with the re-design and insights gathered.
As this re-design is just about to go live, I do not have any data reflecting the design changes. Over the coming year (2023-24) I will be monitoring the analytics and retrieve data showing the impact of the re-design.