Meadowlark CSC
(Counseling, Supervision & Consultation)
A responsive website redesign for a private therapy and counseling practice aimed at providing group and individual teletherapy services and resources for the journey into parenthood and beyond.
The Project
Meadowlark CSC is a business dedicated to providing teletherapy services to individuals from all walks of life. While they offer a variety of services, they operate with a focus on new mothers and parenthood. Our job was to enhance the user experience by developing a content strategy and redesigning the business's website to improve the accessibility of information. This project is currently in the development stage.
Team
Myself - UX Researcher & Content Strategist, UI Designer
Mariel R. - UX Researcher
Timeframe
1 month
OVERVIEW
The journey into parenthood and beyond is no easy task. In addition to the responsibilities and challenges of welcoming a new little one into the world, physical and emotional imbalances can lead to perinatal and postpartum depression. For individuals seeking professional help, a few essential questions emerged:
What services and specialties are offered in my area? Will insurance cover the cost of my sessions? How can therapy sessions fit into my busy schedule? What can I do to feel supported between sessions?
Problem
Individuals at all stages of parenthood who are seeking professional mental health support need a clear and efficient way to discover services and resources in order to make informed decisions prior to booking an appointment. Additionally, new and returning clients who are seeking indirect support need access to organized learning materials and other relevant resources.
Solution
To meet stakeholder goals and user needs, the solution was to redesign the content and layout of the homepage to clarify what services are offered by the business and to clearly state business goals and objectives. Additionally, by restructuring the information architecture of the current site, users will be able to more easily locate and access the information they are searching for.
Thank you! 🤗
RESEARCH & EMPATHY
My first objectives were to identify the goals of the business owner as well as uncover existing frictions on the current site. A stakeholder interview was conducted with one of the co-owners of Meadowlark CSC to explore the scope of the redesign and a heuristic evaluation was conducted to assess the website's current usability.
Heuristic Evaluation Analysis
Research continued with a competitive analysis of similar-sized mental health practices. The competitive analysis consisted of local competitors as identified by the practice owner as well as local competitors that had high SEO rankings. Overall strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities were compiled together.
Overall Strengths
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Content clearly addresses the target clientele
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Clear CTA and navigation
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Easy to skim to locate information
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Search and filter options for educational resources
Overall Weaknesses
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Inconsistent internal standards
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Unrelated educational resources
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Busy/overwhelming main navigation
Opportunities
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Downloadable resources for target clientele
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Search and filter options for learning materials
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Ability to book directly with therapists through the website
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Live calendar updates to search for availability
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Improve overall flow and structure of content to clearly establish business goals
CONCEPTUALIZATION
Keeping in mind the practice's target client, a user journey was developed. By identifying the user's emotional response from discovery to return, we uncovered the triggers that led to frustration and the events that resolved them.
The developed user flows focused on identifying the content that potential new clients were most likely to interact with prior to booking, as indicated by usability testing and user interviews. At this point, we also planned for optimizing client return to the site. Both flows focused on making valued content more accessible. The same line of thinking was also applied to sitemap construction.
User Flows
Booking an Appointment
Exploring Learning Materials
USABILITY TESTING & USER INTERVIEWS
Following this, we conducted user interviews and a usability test on the current site. Our goal was to determine any friction in the booking process as well as gather initial impressions of the published website. For this interview cycle, we recruited participants from all stages of parenthood, the target clientele as identified by the stakeholders.
Data Analysis
"I don't know what 'ABC Lark' means, I don't think I'd click on that for information."
“Seeing the baby made me think, am I in the right place?”
“At first, I wasn't sure what the site was for. I thought it was a blog."
To our surprise, relatability and inclusion were the two most common pain points uncovered when participants explored the current site. Participants felt that the current site did not reflect all stages of parenthood. Participants had difficulty locating information on what services were offered and identifying the expertise of the therapists. In interviews, both of these areas were identified as highly valued information when making decisions about therapy. Interviews also confirmed concerns identified during the heuristic evaluation.
On the other hand, we were pleasantly surprised to find that all participants found the booking experience to be efficient and enjoyable. Data also showed that once participants were able to locate the information they desired to make an informed booking decision, despite initially feeling excluded from the content, they enjoyed the ease of booking and convenience of teletherapy so much that they were still interested in working with the practice.
When looking at the top priorities from the stakeholder and user needs, a key opportunity emerged! Potential clients are able to easily accomplish their goals of booking a session to support their mental health, but only after understanding who they were working with and what was offered. On the business side, a brand audit revealed that the website was dense and text heavy. By restructuring the content on the homepage and improving the information architecture, both business and user needs will be met.
DESIGN
The first wireframes sketched for Meadowlark CSC included the redesigned homepage layout as well as pages of the website that contained content most valued by potential clients when making decisions about booking. These screens included the design or redesign of Services, Therapist Profiles, Specialties, and the Blog for mobile and desktop.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
This mid-fidelity mobile prototype showcases the proposed layout and content of the homepage and pages that contain content necessary for making decisions about booking therapy (as indicated by user interviews).
ITERATION
After presenting the first set of mid-fidelity prototypes to the practice owner, we were asked to consider a few key changes to reflect aspects of the currently published site.
Design Changes
1. Picture links from the original website were not immediately recognized as interactive elements. The final design includes standard buttons as an additional pathway to how to get started.
2. We promoted inclusivity by providing additional information about specialties under "Learn more." In addition, to support findings in the brand audit, we limited text by incorporating general information rather than cards for each specific area of expertise.
3. "ABC Lark Guide", an internal resource, caused confusion for potential new clients. This was moved to the new resources section which will focus on return clients.
UI ELEMENTS & STYLE GUIDE
To wrap up this first phase of design, a style guide was developed to maintain internal consistency across all social media and client outreach. Within the style guide, brand colors, tone, imagery, and UI elements are established. With the business already having a broad social media presence as well as an established client base, we wanted to maintain overall consistency as well as maintain the essence of the original website.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Explore the Following: Homepage, Our Team > Kristy Champignon's Profile, Services, Specialties, Resources > Blog
CHALLENGES & REFLECTIONS
The main challenge we faced when approaching this redesign was laying out a plan for how to retain all of the necessary content without cognitive overload. The original design was text heavy and extremely dense, but upon closer examination, we recognized that much of the content was valuable in understanding the business's offerings and in setting a tone for the business. Additionally, due to the nature of the content, the practice owner shared concerns about targeted content that could be triggering to potential clients viewing the site (e.g. Mother's experiencing loss and seeing content aimed at new mothers and vice versa). When developing the content strategy for the redesign, these were all taken into account.
Ultimately, by restructuring the information presented at the initial entry point, the homepage, by providing alternate pathways to essential information, and by reducing the complexity of the information architecture, we were able to successfully meet business and user goals.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The next phase of the design will focus on returning clients and their access to learning materials that can be used between sessions. Based on user and stakeholder interviews, continued learning and support were both identified as important factors in maintaining mental health growth. To address this need, the plan for the next phase of design will be to add search and filter features for related resources and blogs. This will be followed by a round of usability testing to assess the functioning of the new features. Follow up questions during this round of usability testing will also address initial impressions to determine the effectiveness of the redesign.