Coco & Creme Event Design
A beautiful website designed to increase the online presence of a small event design duo, streamline the event design process, and engage their audience in a virtual space.
Project Type: B2C Event Design
Role: Research, UX/UI Design, Branding
Duration: 80 Hours
Project Overview
Coco & Creme is a Portland based event design business that specializes in baby and bridal showers, anniversaries, engagement celebrations, birthdays, and much more. It is a newly developed business that is run by a two women team. Their current online presence is minimal and exists almost entirely on Instagram, and they are in need of new ways to engage clients and establish a larger online presence.
The Challenge
Coco & Creme is a small company with a minimal web presence and an unestablished online identity. They currently have challenges with client engagement and retention. In what ways could a new brand identity and website bring more value to clients, and create a more memorable experience?
The Solution
Design a brand identity and a responsive website that has unique features to allow clients to tour venues and explore their events in a virtual space; increasing engagement, trust, and memorability.
RESEARCH
Research Plan
Coco & Creme was looking to expand their brand from a small social media presence into a strong web experience with a trustworthy brand identity. In order to accomplish this I needed to understand the needs of their clients, and uncover the current challenges that were preventing event bookings through their existing platform. I set out to understand how I could:
Increase the number of event bookings
Create a unique and memorable experience that appeals to the target audience
Create an experience and identity that would build trust and better reflect the business
Challenges
Due to the size of the business and lack of online presence, there wasn’t any concrete data or analytics to gauge the success of their current situation. My design decisions would be informed solely by user testing and feedback, and competitor analysis.
Competitive Analysis
I looked mostly at local companies that offered similar event design and planning services to better understand industry trends, what the expectations would be for clients, and discover ways that Coco & Creme could stand out in the industry. I learned that:
Most companies were focusing primarily on wedding planning
Photos and reviews were mainly used to engage users
There was strong focus on getting users to call and email
User Research
I connected with customers of similar businesses to better understand what made their experiences memorable, and what their expectations were when visiting websites and dealing with event designers. I mainly wanted to find out:
What types of events are users most likely looking to have planned or designed?
In what ways do users look to contact their preferred organization?
What are users looking for when they visit an event designer/planner’s website?
In what ways were their previous experiences positive or negative?
Research Findings
Experience Focused
Most users would only engage with companies that had things like past events, testimonials, reviews, and years of experience very prominent on their website.
Large Events
Planning and design services are sought out primarily by people planning larger events such as weddings, and corporate events.
No Barriers
Businesses that portrayed themselves as being trustworthy, organized, and conveyed information in a transparent way; were much more likely to earn the business of customers I spoke with.
DEFINE
Meet The Users
Based on my reasearch, I created two user personas that embody two different types of users most likely to engage with event planning and design businesses. Building two personas felt necessary to fully understand the variety of needs users would have based on their circumstances.
Reframing The Problem
Using my personas as a guide, I was able to pin point the main frustrations among users to find a solution that could meet both the needs of the users, and the needs of the business.
I was able to reframe my initial problem statement into a few different questions:
How can we establish trust with new users?
How can we efficiently get users the information they are looking for?
How can we keep users engaged with a strong line of communication?
Keeping Things simple
The answer to the previous questions seemed rather…simple. That would be the key to helping our users feel confident in their choices.
I set out to create a website structure that would be simplistic to fit the needs of a small business, highlighting only the key aspects of their services. I also began brainstorming ways to make the overall experience more memorable to drive more traffic to the site.
User Interactions
The main purpose of this website is to ultimately drive users to connect with the company to book an event. When looking at user flows, I prioritized making contact with the company as easy as possible.
I also explored a couple of other interactions to make sure navigation to all portions of the site was simple and intuitive.
IDEATE
Exploration
I started by creating wireframes for the desktop version of the site in Figma, trying to pay attention to design patterns of similar services.
Creating The Brand
I knew that the brand would need to stand out, and I also wanted to have a logo design and overall image that was fun and sophisticated, without feeling overly casual or formal.
I made the decision of keeping a fairly neutral color palette in order to allow event photos and videos to be front and center, and become the focal point of the brand’s overall image.
PROTOTYPE
TESTING
User Testing Overview
I conducted one round of user testing with 11 participants with the main goal of discovering these key factors:
How do users navigate the site as they complete specific tasks?
What elements cause confusion or frustration?
Are there any barriers hindering users from accomplishing tasks quickly?
How do users feel about the Virtual Tour feature of the website?
Key Takeaways
Navigation And Layout
Overall users found the navigation of the website to be very fitting and easy to understand. Some users felt that there were some inconsistencies that caused minimal confusion.
Unique Feature
The virtual tour option was well received overall. Users thought it was unique and helped the brand stand out. However, there would need to be further development of the interface to avoid confusion.
Branding
Most users commented that the overall brand was memorable and consistent with what you would expect from an event design business. Some of the photos felt out of place for some users, but with more time the treatment of photos would be more of a consideration.
Next Steps
This website was created mostly in the absence of the company owners, with the intention of having it be a framework for their future website. My next goal for this project is to open up a stronger channel of communication with the owners and dive deeper into their specific needs and business requirements, in order to push the boundaries of this design further.
This project challenged me to keep my design within the scope of real business needs, while contending with the ansence of client feedback. It was fun to learn how to work through these challenges, relying mostly on market research and user feedback to guide my design decisions. It also allowed for some creative liberty to explore new ways of engaging users with interactive concepts like tours of event venues in VR.