Sacred Needle
Sacred Needle is an acupuncture and healing arts clinic that many people did not know about because it didn't have a website. In this day and age, an online presence is essential for establishing credibility and connecting with potential customers. For this project, I designed and built a responsive website from scratch which included branding and a logo redesign. During a global pandemic, Sacred Needle's website allowed my client to easily communicate with her customers and share about her safety protocols.
Tools Used: Figma, OptimalSort, Otter, Wix website builder
Duration: 5 weeks, July-Aug 2020
Team: Just me, freelancing and wearing many hats
Challenge
Help Sacred Needle's owner have an online presence and authentic brand that connects with her target audience and assists with booking appointments. An additional challenge was to finish the project within time, resource, and budget constraints that were impacted by the pandemic.
Solution
I combined insights from competitor and user research as well as discussions with Sacred Needle's owner to design and build a website that they felt accurately conveyed the brand while meeting identified user needs. I then built the website on Wix for ease of hand-off and integrated an affordable third party platform for booking.
Research
• Competitive Analysis
• User Interviews
• Card Sorting
Develop
• Personas
• POV/HMW
• Site Map
• Low-Fi Wireframes
Test
• Prototyping
• Usability Testing
• Reiterating
Deliver
Branding
High-Fi Wireframes
Develop
The Process:
Research
I conducted competitive research to better understand the world of healing arts. I looked at dozens of Eastern medicine and holistic healing websites to get a sense of recurring patterns and identify common features, for example having an ability to book sessions online, frequently asked questions, and testimonials.
I then conducted 6 user interviews talking to current and potential acupuncture clients to learn more about their consumer behaviors and the role digital touchpoints play in their decision-making. During these interviews, users completed a prioritization card sort of website features.
Key Takeaways
• How people find a new acupuncturist: 100% of people looked to personal referrals and online reviews to find an acupuncturist - which means that in addition to building a website, it would be important to manage the clinic's online reputation on sites like Yelp, Google, and Facebook
• What people want: People expressed how important it was for a website to be especially welcoming to first-time clients, and to be able to book and access paperwork online
• What people don't care about: People unanimously agreed that maintaining an active social media and blogging were the least important features when it comes to picking an acupuncturist (which was a huge relief to my client who did not want to maintain those features but thought they were expected!)
Develop
I constructed three distinct personas representing the range of market consumers I identified from user research. After reviewing these with Sacred Needle's owner, we decided to focus on Judy since she represented the clinic's target market, while also paying attention to potential easy lifts to connect with other audiences like Cindy and Steve.
Click to learn more about Judy, Cindy, and Steve
POV Statement
So what does Judy need from our website?
Judy NEEDS... to feel informed and confident about booking a session
BECAUSE... the process of finding a new acupuncturist is frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive.
HMW
How might we... address Judy's needs?
Pulling from the POV statement, I created two HMW statements and brainstormed potential feature solutions using knowledge gained from the research phase. This is a simplified version for your viewing pleasure:
1. HMW... HELP JUDY FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT AN ACUPUNCTURIST?
Professional AND
personal info in bio
Frequently Asked Questions
Info about pricing, policies, and services
Offer free phone consultation
2. HMW... MAKE BOOKING LESS TIME-CONSUMING AND EXPENSIVE?
Intuitive navigation menu
CTA for booking
Paperwork online and offline
Info about insurance, cancellation, payment, etc.
Site Map
An information architecture Judy would approve of
Since Judy needed a navigation that would make her experience easier and less time-consuming, I performed a card sort with 12 participants to see how people would organically categorize pages. I used this data to create a site map:
*Note: While discussing development resources, we decided it would be easier and cheaper to use a third-party booking platform my client was already familiar with, rather than design and build a customized booking page.
Low-Fidelity Wireframing
So what should the website actually look like?
I created low-fidelity wireframes for all key pages as identified in the site map. My goal was to strike a balance between creating an emotional connection with visitors while also providing important information needed to feel safe and comfortable booking an appointment (especially during a pandemic). Beyond this, I tried to keep the design relatively simple and straight-forward.
“The simplest solution is almost always the best.”-Occam’s Razor
User Testing
I turned the low-fidelity wireframes into a prototype and recruited 4 participants for usability testing. Based on their test results and feedback from my client, I made changes to each page.
For example, the Covid-19 banner at the top of the page was seen to be more alarming than reassuring, so we decided to remove it and instead only talk about pandemic-related issues in the FAQS.
Wrapping Up
I facilitated a branding and logo workshop with my client. With a finalized palette and logo, I created high-fidelity wireframes for a range of screen sizes. These were used to develop a website on my client's chosen platform. The project ended with me handing off the completed website to my client and providing support services as needed to teach them to make their own updates to the website.
Reflections: What did I learn?
Importance of being able to roll with the punches and deliver good work. While this was a crazy time period for someone to try to think about the future of their business (the project started July 2020 in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic), I was able to create a website from scratch that made my client (and her clients) happy. #winwin
What my client had to say...
“Meira helped bring my dream to life. She was really easy to work with and came up with some amazing ideas. I really love my website and how it reflects my personality."
-Julie Hwang, Sacred Needle Owner
