Inside Out Therapies
Website & UX Design for a local business
Written by Jonathan Cruz | Last modified 2022-04-18
OBJECTIVE:
In May 2021, I joined a group of three fellow student developers. We were tasked with re-designing a local business' website using Balsamiq Wireframes for our mockups, using Bootstrap for UI design, and applying various User-Centered Design principles. Our design needed to be quick and easy to use for new clients, and the information needed to appear convincing enough to those intimidated by alternative therapies or services they have never tried before. Thus, our objective was to improve the user's experience when seeking information on alternative remedies, and ultimately increase the number of bookings created through the website.
DESIGN CHOICES:
Header Banner — The new header consists of a wide banner with the same aesthetic as the graphics already used on the site (green, earthy tones with natural imagery). We kept this aesthetic since it fits the healing and holistic image of the business.
Navigation Bar — We chose a fairly standard layout with the navigation bar falling directly below the main banner. Since the visitors’ ages range from 17 to 60+, this classic layout will ensure those visitors will have a basic intuition of how the site works. The menu items are in upper case so they stand out from other links on the page.
More Options — These options were originally found on a side menu. We decided to integrate this into the main navigation bar as its own menu item called ‘More Options’'. When clicked, a tabbed sub-menu appears. The submenu items are italicized to contrast from the main navigation menu, and so we don’t overwhelm the visitor with multiple rows of uppercase links.
Footer — We decided to preserve the links to Inside Out Therapies’ social media accounts and information on their two locations. The business' website originally had an ‘About Us’ paragraph here, but we removed this to keep the footer focused on distinguishing between their two store locations.
