Let's get you up to speed
Oh So Simple Weddings is a two-sided marketplace that is focused on helping couples and planners navigate the wedding planning process.
Side One
The app connects couples with professional wedding planners. Couples can pick the services they need and not feel bound to a contract.
Side Two
The web-based platform will connect planners with couples. It will be a one-stop shop for the planner to be able to build a profile to market their services, accept and manage their clients and bring in revenue.
Task
Create a web-based platform for wedding planners that is easy, efficient and intuitive to use.
My design team was given 3 weeks to exercise our UX process. Our stakeholders, a team of two, brought a wealth of knowledge in both web development and wedding planning. This was extremely valuable when communicating our research findings and design decisions throughout the entire project.
Date // 2019
Role // UI/UX, Research, User Interviews, Wireframes, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Problem
With the increasing popularity of DIY weddings, couples are searching for affordable options when planning their big day. Wedding planners need a way to connect with these couples in order to offer their services, prove their value and assist them in any stage of planning.
Hypothesis
We believe that by creating a web-based platform which allows wedding planners to create a profile to market their services and manage clients, we will achieve a way to help planners provide support for the DIY market.
Research//Research//Research
I wanted to dig to uncover the “why” to validate the need for creating another platform that supports couples planning weddings and wedding planners.
Over the last 5 years, the number of weddings in the US has slowly increased from 2 million to 2.2 million per year. This came as a suprise to me as had assumed fewer people were getting married each year.
From 2008-2018 the number of couples shifting to DIY weddings has continued to increase. While most planners and platforms are marketing to the 27% as shown in the chart bellow, OSSW should focus on the needs of the 73%.
MVP
This was my "ah-ha!" moment. Realizing that there is a huge gap in the market that has been left unattended. This is where we needed to narrow our focus so that we could deliver a powerful MVP for our stakeholders by simply proposing wedding planners shift with the DIY market. Encouraging them to think outside the box by offering hourly rates to couples in the form of online coaching.
Solution
By creating a platform that allows wedding planners to think outside the box by offering hourly rates to couples in the form of online coaching, we will fill the gap in the DIY wedding market. The Oh So Simple Weddings platform will provide support for couples who cannot afford traditional wedding planner services while also providing an alternative source of revenue for the planners business.
Competitive Analysis
Next, I needed to find out if this discovery was truly original and if anyone would even be interested in using this type of platform. Most of our competitors offer services that connect couples and planners. Here you can see the areas in which we can excel:
User Interviews
Our initial efforts to contact wedding planners proved to be more difficult than we anticipated as wedding season was in full swing. After exhausting the majority of my own contacts and the local market I finally started to get some valuable feedback.
“I am very very very interested in this! What a crazy thing. I am currently working on a series of videos for clients who need support planning their own events and cannot have a wedding planner.”
This validation comes from Laura, an active wedding planner who is having to get creative with her services in this competitive market. She embodies the type of planner that would thrive using this new platform we're designing for OSSW to bring to the market.
User Experience
Following initial research efforts, it was time to focus on the experience. Creating a dashboard that was intuitive and informative were top priories.
Defining a problem and solution statement, persona, journey mapping and task scenarios guided our design for task scenarios and user flows.
Persona
Customer Journey
Information Architecture
The goal was to help users find information and complete tasks. We spent extra time researching how their content should be organized, displayed and distributed across the platform. This part of the process was something we continued to iterate on throughout the entire design and user testing phase. Understanding the business need for this type of information agility is so important in order to create the best experience for their users which will have a powerful impact on the bottom line.
Below you may click to view detailed artifacts for the final site map, and user flows.
Site Map
User Flows & Task Scenarios
You’re a wedding planner and you’ve just heard of this new platform that allows planners to manage their online coaching services. You’re curious to learn more, go to the website and create an account with all required information to make your site viewable.
After signing up for the platform, you log-in because you received an email stating that you have a request for a coaching appointment. Sign in to view and accept this new request.
A couple of days later you’ve received a reminder email for your upcoming coaching call. Log in to the platform and complete the call.
Design
We held multiple design studios where we sketched page by page and compared ideas. This process enabled us to incorporate the best parts of our individual ideas. Knowing we were building the framework for a two-sided market, our landing page needed to educate and offer endpoints for couples and planners.
As a team we translated our sketches into wireframes so I could create our prototype for our task scenarios. Using Sketch and Invision I was able to share this progress with my team and stakeholders for feedback before usability testing.
Usability Testing
As shown below, you can see our efforts to address the usability issues from version 1 proved successful in version 2. We continued doing iterations for our third round of testing before making our final hi-fidelity mockup samples.
Once again, we had a trying time finding wedding planners willing to take the time to respond, let alone take the time to test our product. We had to get creative and ended up gorilla testing by going to over 10 hotels in downtown Austin, asking to speak with their on-site planners. This method paid off providing us with valuable data and feedback.
I also conducted further interviews and testing with professionals who practice online counseling as that market has been widely accepted by both clients and counselors.
Below you may click to view detailed artifacts from usability testing.
Iteration Samples
Hi-fidelity Comps
Closing Thoughts
Our stakeholders are now moving forward with our design to onboard engineers to further develop the product.
This project was so valuable as a first push into the working world as a UX designer. Having such an incredible team and support from our stakeholders was truly inspiring. While not everything went as planned we were able to think on our feet and get over these challenges.
Being able to work with a professional in the field we were designing for as well as a web developer allowed our more technical questions to be answered easily. Learning to balance the overall communication came naturally and was a positive experience for everyone.
Now, time for another project!