Love Home

 a mobile-responsive website for B2B interior design consulting services for small and mid-sized businesses

The Problem 

Love Home is an interior design firm pivoting from a B2C business model to a B2B business model and needs a way to engage clients such as small and mid-sized home decor retailers to increase client base and sales conversion rate.

The Solution
Create a responsive website for users to learn about services offered and book consultations with Love Home representatives.

The Results
Love Home was provided with resources and insights for user-center web designs. Through our research, we validated the hypothesis that businesses were more successful at engaging clients with a strong online presence. 
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The team presented research and product designs to the client, including:

• A clickable prototype demonstrating key concepts for a newsletter and sign up to enlisting new clients
• Tools for retaining clients (such as a competitive analysis of software options for e-commerce businesses).

As Love Home continues to pivot from a B2C to B2B business model, our designs established:

• A digital presence for the company based on best practices
• A way to connect with new clients and increase sales conversion by providing an initial consultative service
• A way for interested users to receive more information before committing to the initial consultation

The Team

My Role
• Research & competitive analysis of e-commerce tools
• Open card sorting
• Storyboarding
• User journey
• UI style guide
• Low-fidelity digital wireframes
• Usability testing
• High-fidelity mockups

The Research
After an initial client meeting, the team conducted a deep dive into industry best practices to better understand Love Home business goals and overall product market fit. 

Love Home founder and CEO, Candice Jordan, is a DIY hobbyist turned professional interior designer. After participating in a business incubator, Jordan decided to transition the Love Home business model from B2C to B2B. With this in mind, the UX team narrowed the business goals to the following:

• Increase Sales Conversion: Market product to small to midsize businesses and increase quarterly client sales 
• Retain clients: Enlist and retain clients with customizable branding and templates
• Analytics: Product recommendations based on user information measured 

The team conducted field studies and user interviews to better understand the problem. Insights from open card sorting, interviews, a competitive analysis, industry trends, and feedback from the client were all synthesized to inform the product designs.

Synthesis & Analysis

Information Architecture

​Using an open card sort approach, Asha and I met with managing staff of various interior design companies to establish user-friendly IA for the Love Home website. Six users were tested overall.
Insights included: 

• Users consistently prioritized information about services 
• Titles like "Creative" were unclear categories to users​
• All services provided were frequently grouped together in one "Services" category (instead of creating pages and tabs for each service)

Persona
The team created a user persona based on feedback from our client and supplemental research.

Barbara Haberman 
Business Creative

“I bask in the ability to creatively problem solve ideas for my clients that will set me apart from the crowd in order to succeed.”

Needs
​Barbara needs a way to increase revenue for her business, Cozy Elements. 

Pain Points

• Not having time to keep up with Cozy Elements social media accounts
• ​Constantly updating inventory in website
• Following up Cozy Elements for customers reviews and feedback

User Story
Barbara grew up all over the United States. Through her travels, her curiosity has grown and she’s developed a love for travel, art, fashion, and all things beautiful. After graduating from Georgia Southern University, she has spent 7 years working as antiques home goods dealer. In 2014 along with her sister Marla, she opened their dream business, Cozy Elements home decor shop in midtown Atlanta.

Storyboard
The team created a user persona based on feedback from our client and supplemental research. In collaboration with another team member, I designed low-fidelity visuals to pair with specific scenario descriptions. This provided additional context for the rest of the team and stakeholders to address the problem of increasing client engagement and retention.

User Journey Map
Based on the established persona, I created the user journey map for the team to visualize the process that the customer would go through to reach the goal of hiring Love Home as a consultant for their interior design business. The map provides an overview of:

• User goals
• Touch points where the user would interact with the product 
• Feelings experienced interacting with the website
• Opportunities for maximizing user engagement

Design & Usability Testing
Color and typography were established based on the Love Home branding. Contrasting accent colors were used to highlight a call to action for the user. ​

The low-fidelity, digital wireframes were divided among the team members (examples listed below). Once each page was designed based on user needs gathered through extensive research, the team met to discuss next steps. 

User testing was conducted on the digital wireframes and changes were made accordingly, including: 

• Establishing design consistency across pages, including header and footer 
• Logo placement
• Interactive animations for users to learn more about services provided​

Digital Wireframes

​Mockups

Click to view "Mailchimp Co Microsite"