Spa Space
UX/UI Design, Research, Feature adding, Wireframing, Prototyping
Background
I have been a massage therapist for the past eleven years and have worked for many companies/used multiple booking systems. Currently, the booking system that my company uses is Spa Space.
As a provider, I’ve come across multiple issues and difficulties while using the app. I have also heard from other clients and professionals how difficult it is to book an appointment as well.
I would like to add some features to this platform to help create an easier booking experience for the users as well as for the providers.
Goals
My goals for this project were to:
Add features to create a better booking experience
Find out what features would users need to make their booking experience easier
What features would the user like to see when booking appointments
Understand Spa Space’s business goals
Would they benefit from an added feature
Add a feature for the user to connect with a specialist
Make sure the booking system is seamless and easy to use, allow users to see the services the business provides, and also allow users to learn about the therapist they are booking with
The Problem
Both providers and clients primarily use this booking system as an app on their phone or tablets. The app is mostly well functioning, but could use some help to have a seamless booking experience. I feel that if the system had a few added features, it could make the experience flow easily and create less confusion.
By making the system easier to use, I feel that users would stay on the site longer instead of getting frustrated and closing out of the system. It could also allow users to want to book appointments more often and create more business for the spa.
My Impact
For this project, I was able to incorporate research data from user interviews and competitive research to add features to the Spa Space app as a solo designer.
Design Process
Interview Questions
I asked my participants a variety of questions such as
Their experience with booking appointments in a spa app
What they are missing from those apps
What features might make their booking experience easier
I interviewed four participants ranging from ages 21-60 and all use booking apps differently.
Competitive Research
I did competitive research to get an idea of what other spa booking apps offer. Some of the competitors I have previously used for work. Majority had pretty similar features, but some were easier to navigate than others.
The competitive research gave me good insight into what a well functioning booking app should look like.
Affinity Map
Affinity mapping helped me to understand the issues that my users experience when booking salon/spa appointments online.
It helped me to create my task flows easily and know where my focus needed to be for my key screens.
Task Flows
After conducting user interviews, I reviewed my research and decided what key screens I’d focus my user flows and task flows on.
Flow #1: Book an appointment
Flow #2: Chat with a specialist.
After starting wireframes, I also added looking at the drop down menu options.
User Personas
I created one user persona based off of the users I interviewed. I chose a variety of users to make this product as inclusive as possible.
I chose to showcase a user with a busy schedule as most of my participants that were interviewed need to have an easy booking system because they can’t always call to make an appointment.
This user would benefit not only from an easy to use booking system, but also a way to easily view provider information, and the potential to chat with a specialist if they need assistance.
Wireframes
When creating wireframes, I started to take some ideas from competing sites as well as other websites that had organized design techniques.
I researched other booking sites like Fresha, Schedulicity, and Massagebook. I’ve used some of these systems before and noticed things I liked and disliked about each and incorporated some designs that I did like into my own.
I also chose to design a tablet app because while Spa Space has a mobile app, they don’t have one for tablet.
High Fidelity Prototyping
While creating the final wireframes before prototyping, we went through about 5 edits to finalize every detail. In the end, it made a big difference and made prototyping and testing much easier.
The style changed a bit throughout the process. Mostly the changes were to make the final product look modern, organized, consistent, and easy to read.
Usability Testing
During user testing of the prototype, there were only a small amount of issues to fix. We spent a lot of time defining the wireframes, so it left minimal iterations to make.
I ended up adding asterisks to required entry fields as well as an option to use a saved payment.
Users felt it was easy to navigate.
They liked the ability to view information they need without having to exit the whole screen as well as the ability to chat with a specialist.
Conclusion
Overall, I learned that research other websites helped a lot with how I wanted to design. A lot of booking sites are simple, clean and easy to navigate. My goal was to make Spa Space similar so the user has a better experience and the business can grow. I was also able to challenge myself by designing for tablet only.