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DIY Hive

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The Country House Concierge 

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The Country House Concierge's website was redesigned to emphasize the company's credibility, foster user trust, and enhance navigation intuitiveness for the site's clientele.

THE Problem

Users seeking concierges or personal assistants experience uncertainty and doubt when selecting reliable, trustworthy personnel to manage personal tasks such as scheduling appointments, booking arrangements, and providing insights and expert knowledge of the best venues, attractions, and current events. 

THE Solution

The website's redesign emphasizes a user-friendly interface with a refreshed style guide, enhanced main and sub-navigation, client testimonials, reorganized and refined copy, uniform call-to-action buttons, and an interactive booking calendar. This ensures reliability and clarity regarding the company's services, reducing confusion and allowing users to comfortably trust and rely on their concierge.

THE Impact

Overall, the redesign enhanced navigation intuitiveness, emphasized company credibility, and ultimately bolstered user trust in their concierge/personal assistant services. 

THE CHALLENGE

Our client, The Country House  Concierge, experienced a high volume of phone inquiries, despite having a website to provide users with resources. Users shied away from using the website and favored phone calls to book arrangements and seek answers.

We sought to understand why users preferred calling instead of utilizing the website.

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According to our client, their website users expressed difficulties in navigating the site, leading to confusion and hesitancy. Our client has requested a website redesign to transform it into a valuable resource, aiming to minimize user confusion. We sought to empower users to efficiently utilize the website, thereby reducing the need for frequent phone inquiries and, ultimately, save the business a significant amount of time.

To start, we set out to understand our target audience and uncover why the Country House Concierge's users preferred to call instead of utilizing the website.

THE DISCOVERY

We began our research with user interviews, followed by industry research and comparative & competitive analyses to understand our users' perspectives while also evaluating what other concierge businesses are doing in the industry.

Competitive analysis

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Comparative analysis

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Think you know your local area well? My personal concierge knows it better. And what’s more, they are always in the know about new and upcoming venues to try in my area.

interview quotes

When I first hire [an assistant], it is important for me to get references in order to trust them since they are in my house.

After a long flight, I wish to have a service team and driver meet me at the airport.

We took away a lot of information from scholarly articles, numerous websites, blogs, and even online forums. Combined with the interviews we had, we were able to move on to affinity mapping in order to synthesize and make sense of our data. We organized our qualitative data, insights, and observations and found the following trends:

User Frustrations

I want to be "in the know" without having to do my own research.

I don't want to be stressed out by the small things.

I do not have a lot of spare time.

User Satisfactions

I value assistants I can rely on and trust.

I prefer assistants who can provide suggestions when they spot a gap.

THE DEFINITION

Outsourcing articles and blogs combined with online testimonies, we found that users mostly valued trustworthiness.

Our persona, Hellen, represents our average user based on our synthesized data:

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THE Problem

Users like Hellen are seeking a trustworthy service that can efficiently handle minor tasks, streamline their daily schedule, and provide them with insights into the best local attractions and activities. 

Therefore, users can rely on their assistant and allocate their time more effectively toward their higher-priority responsibilities.

After identifying Hellen's problem, we were still stuck with finding a tangible solution -- how do we address Hellen's concerns and needs throughout The Country House Concierge's website? I started asking the question, "How might we" (HMW) questions to begin brainstorming potential solutions.

1

How might we design an intuitive search functionality that allows Hellen to quickly find the services she needs and the information she seeks?

2

How might we ensure that the service offers transparency, giving Hellen confidence in choosing the right services for her needs?

3

How might we help Hellen trust her concierge service?

The Solution

The Country House Concierge's revised website is designed as an intuitive search interface that enables users, like Hellen, to effortlessly find trustworthy concierge and personal assistant services, as well as relevant information about local attractions.

Additionally, we added main and sub-navigation, client reviews, revised copy writing, and consistent CTA buttons to promote
reliability and clarity around the company's services to reduce users' confusion.

 

Before

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After

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THE Design

After evaluating The Country House Concierge's UI challenges, we made numerous UX design alterations, including a revised site layout, improved copywriting, global and local design navigation, client testimonials, and an interactive booking calendar.

In total, we made 14 changes reflected in the slides below.

*Note: Some screenshots of the "Original Design" images are duplicate. This is because the original website had one page with no design navigation, and the "Final Mockup" pages were made from scratch.

Home Page

Original Design

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Final Mockup

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Change

1

The banner image was modified to feature a welcoming gateway, symbolizing the website's role as a concierge service. I suggested introducing a "Book Now" call-to-action (CTA) button. This addition emphasizes the service-oriented nature of the company over products while enabling users to take swift action without the need for extensive navigation.

Change

2

Change

2

Since the entirety of the original site was on one page, we introduced a navigation bar above the banner, featuring both primary and sub-navigation options. This was implemented to enhance the user's intuitive navigation experience, alleviate cognitive strain during site exploration, and establish a clear information hierarchy, allowing users to discern prioritized content.

Change

3

Because our usability test findings showed that some users were confused about the company's purpose, we revised the website's copywriting. I suggested we add, "Customized personal assistance." The goal of this revision is to provide a clear and concise articulation of Country House Concierge's services and the value it delivers to their users.

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