Providing a Safe Haven for Clients

Product Design Case Study

TLDR;

Lead Designer supporting a local family business with their goal to redesign and modernize their company website.

Note: This project is currently in progress, and as such, this case study is still under construction.

Background

The Angels Garden team has been wanting to upgrade their website’s look and feel for a while now.

I have been working directly with the Founder and Owners to understand their goals and how they envision this website scaling as the business continues to grow. My goal is to help translate their passion for older adult care and unique market offering through a modern digital presence.

Discover

My goal was to understand the client’s current baseline and how it compares to the larger adult care industry.

First, I facilitated 2 stakeholder interviews to gain insight into:

  • the company’s history and offerings;

  • the client’s vision for the new website; and

  • how the new website fits into their overall business objectives.

I also conducted market research to understand the general landscape of the industry. These activities included:

  • Current State Analysis - created a sitemap of the current information architecture and collected screenshots and content for archival purposes.

  • Competitive Analysis - explored 3 competitor websites, noting trends or features to consider for the client’s redesign.

  • Comparative Analysis - explored 2 additional websites (1 daycare center, 1 psychiatry office), noting other patterns for similar services we may want to consider in the redesign.

Initial Insights

While the Angels Garden is beloved by its residents and covers a niche place in the industry, the website’s outdated look and feel has potential clients hesitating to commit.

Strengths:

  • Angels Garden has unique characteristics that set it apart from larger competitors

    • Founder/Owner has medical expertise

    • Small, family-style approach to assisted living care

  • Client is open-minded to a holistic redesign rather than a simple “lift and shift”

Challenges:

  • Login credentials have been lost over time

  • Embedded features are broken, with no ability to recover them

  • Clients will not retain a dedicated Website Manager to maintain the site once it’s launched

Opportunities:

  • Creative freedom to reimagine the client’s website

  • Support the client in refreshing their overall branding

Define

I synthesized my research and consulted with the client to outline an initial approach.

These artifacts included:

  • Feature Prioritization - mapped out which features or patterns were essential, not necessary but nice-to-have, and could be deferred.

  • Updated Site Map - illustrated potential information architecture for the redesigned website.

Design

We are currently preparing a lo-fi prototype for user testing.

Through the design phase, I anticipate creating various artifacts, including:

  • Low Fidelity Prototype - translated the feature prioritization and sitemap outputs into lo-fi wireframes to ensure the initial requirements were met.

  • Mid-Fidelity Prototype - will incorporate insights from user testing.

  • Brand Guidelines - will create documentation based on refreshed brand assets the client is procuring separately.

Usability Testing

Using a lo-fi prototype, our goal is to test the proposed information architecture and further explore mental models around assisted living care.

Usability testing has not yet started.

Deliver

The final output of this project will be a newly redesigned website, hosted on a platform that allows the clients to easily make updates as their business grows.

Website launch is targeted for the end of 2025/early 2026.

Reflection

I plan to take some time to reflect on my work and how I can improve in the future.

I’ll come back to this once the project has been completed!

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