TOP Career Coaching: Launching a new business
Responsive Website - Commercial project
Andrea is an accomplished early career coach with experience in HR, recruiting, and sales. He approached The Design Aid intending to showcase his skills and attract new clients. His aim? To have a website that not only stands out in the online market but also convinces visitors that he's the perfect solution to their career challenges.
How it started & my role
In 2023, my friend Daria and I decided to open a design studio. Andrea was our first collaboration under the new business, The Design Aid.
Both of us were equally involved in the process from beginning to end. For better efficiency, I took the role of final decision maker and facilitator for the UX aspect of the project while Daria for the UI side of it. I decided the next steps for the research part and consolidated the final data to present to Andrea.
Defining the problem
Currently, the market is flooded with numerous coaches and websites. After conducting online research, we concluded that users are overwhelmed with choices and are confused about how to make the best decision.
Building upon this insight, we asked ourselves:
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How might we create a website that is easy to navigate, allowing visitors to find information quickly?
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How can we make it stand out from competitors?
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And, lastly, how can we guarantee a high conversion rate, ensuring visitors will sign up for a first consultation?
Empathizing with the customers:
Persona & CJM
The first step in our design journey was to understand Andrea's customers - their needs, struggles, and behavioral specifics - and define what design solutions would work best for them.
We created an average prototype of the target clients and looked into their journey.
We've identified 2 types of personas: young professionals (Marco) and fresh graduates (Anna). The targeted country is Italy, and the service will be provided in 2 languages - Italian and English. We also took into account different genders and personality types to ensure we cover the majority of customers.
Once we had in mind our audience it was time to dive deeper and understand how they search for a career coach to solve their career-related problems. We wanted to look into the journey from the moment they realize they have a need until they finish with their coaching program and leave a review.
Defining the business:
Analysis of the competitors
After looking into our customers, it was time to assess our competition in order to devise a strategy on how to make our website stand out and attract clients. To do this, we selected 6 coaches who represent both direct and indirect competition for Andrea and analyzed their offers and websites.
The competition investigation included the analysis of visual aspects, website structure and content, features, the presentation of their unique value proposition (UVP) as well as the general impression and feeling the website gives to a visitor.
Defining the business:
Analysis of the competitors - MAIN INSIGHTS
The main insights we found from our dive deep into the competitors' market can be divided into 3 categories:
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CONTENT TO USE: we want to ensure to display the prices for transparency, add lead magnets, and have each page personalize and with a strong brand identity
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TO AVOID AT ALL COST: add too much text in each page, and have a blog page which is outdated
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NICE FEATURES TO HAVE: real pictures of Andrea to create trust and emotional connection, and customised service packages for the users
Website structure:
Information Architecture
To create a good website structure is to craft a seamless journey that addresses most of the visitors' questions and concerns and piques their interest in the product or service. One of our goals since the beginning was to create an easy-to-navigate website that allows users to find the answers to their questions and make a decision to sign up for a first session with Andrea.
Time for ideation and design:
Wireframes & Prototypes
To ideate our solutions, we started by sketching some wireframes on paper for each page of the website. We've reviewed our options and added a star next to the sections or aspects we liked the most.
Once these parts were decided we moved on to digital wireframes and prototypes so that we could ensure our website could undergo user testing before finalizing the design.
Onto the most important part of the process:
The user testing
It was now time to test our previous assumptions as well as our research so far.
For this part, we enlisted 4 participants from our target market and conducted a moderate usability study. We asked them to complete several prompts, answer follow-up questions and give us their thoughts and feelings during the whole process.
Let's make adjustments to the website
Once we collected all the insights and feedback from users, it was important for us to understand which ones were repeating, why, and how they could be adjusted in the new version of the website.
The main changes made were the following:
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As the majority of participants found the home and service pages too similar, we have re-designed and adjusted some features to ensure a clear distinction as well as a more unique style for each page
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As all participants were expecting the "book free session" CTA on the contact page, we decided to add the CTA on the main header instead of the "Call me" option. This way we ensured all pages had this option and we didn't spam users with this CTA as some participants thought there were too many calls to action on all pages.
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Lastly, as most participants didn't find "services" as a keyword they were looking for, we have researched a more common wording for this section and changed it to "Pricing".
Before VS After Homepage
Before VS After Pricing page
Before VS After Header
My learnings so far
Testing for me was the toughest part of the process, yet the most crucial.
Running tests for each of the iteration helped me train the muscle and know what worked in the end. Our initial assumptions were either confirmed or challenged. For instance, we though that using a vertical design for the FAQ categories would give a WOW effect to our customers. It turns out that users during the testing found it unfriendly and difficult to understand.
UI Design:
The logo, color palette, typography & UI kit
Now that we had the general idea of the solution we wanted to design and we've tested it, we moved to the design stage.
The logotype was provided to us by Andrea, hence we picked the color palette and stylistic elements to match with it.
We decided to go with a blue color palette for the website due to its associations with trust, reliability, and professionalism, which aligns well with the tone Andrea wanted for his audience. Additionally, blue is a calming color that can promote a sense of tranquility and stability.
We also decided to embrace the triangle shape facing up that is present in the logo. This symbolizes progress, direction, and forward movement - which perfectly describes career coaching and its goals.
Designing the Homepage & Adaptives
The homepage is the website's starting point. As it's the first thing our customers see, it has to be attractive and make them want to navigate and learn more.
For our homepage, we decided to include a glimpse of the most important parts of the website. For example, the companies where Andrea's client found a job to ensure credibility and trust, the packages offered so that users know what to expect, and a short paragraph about Andrea with pictures so that customers can connect emotionally with him from the start.
We also recognized the significance of mobile users in today's digital landscape, so we prioritized the creation of adaptives.
It allowed us to visualize and tune the smartphone's layout, ensuring optimal usability.
About me/Blog/Services Highlights
What's Next?
Each project has time, budget, and other restrictions. For this first part, we put together some crucial features to ensure Andrea could start his business and build his online presence.
Once the resources allow it, we have discussed with Andrea the possibility of adding additional features to ensure the goals set at the beginning will be reached even faster. These include:
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the possibility to leave reviews directly on the website
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for each article in the blog section, add either the number of times the post was viewed or an option to leave a like/comment
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add a calendar for booking where it’s possible to see the available slots and directly book free sessions from the website
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create an internal page only for clients where it’s possible to share material, book recurring sessions, and network with other users