Sezi’s Studio is an e-commerce website for Sezi and their high-end hair design studio based in Vancouver Downtown. The client and owner, Sezi, needed a website to display services, stylists’ portfolios and more about the studio. They also needed an online store for their own branded hair products as well as other brands.
This website was a course project where we learned how to work with clients and achieve the main goal of creating a website that satisfied them and their needs. In this case, Sezi was a fictional client played by our teacher. We were given a list of specific requirements that needed to be met at the beginning of the project. We were meeting weekly or bi-weekly with the client to present the progress made on the website.
The studio located in Vancouver Downtown caters high-end services to women mostly, although men are welcome as well. The studio has over 30 staff and sports a clean ultra-modern interior.
FRESH • FUNKY • YOUNG • FUN • CREATIVE
With the help of the information that was given to us by Sezi, we were able to create a user survey to get more information on what the customers might want or not want in the website. We created a 27-questions survey in the hopes of getting to learn more about how customers would complete different tasks and their preferences regarding their salon’s website. Based on their feedback, we would then be able to design the first prototype.
Based on the feedback we gathered from the user survey, we created a list of must-haves for Sezi’s website. All these elements had to be present in the final version of the website.
After establishing the key pages and elements that we needed for Sezi’s new website, we created a site map to help us visualize what each path between pages would look like. It helped us streamline the process of navigating the website and remove any unnecessary page or element.
The second step into designing the user interface for Sezi’s website was grey-scale wireframes. We created a mid-high fidelity prototype for the website where we were able to do a first round of user testing and validate our ideas with users.
During our meetings with the client, Sezi did mention they were looking at something modern and clean. I created a few iterations of a logo using the letter Z and line work. We then decided upon this final design which is a line work of the letter Z, with a little twist: there is the letter S and another letter Z included in the logo.
Following our research and ideation process, we jumped into user testing. We conducted these testing sessions with our target audience to gather their thoughts on the experience of navigating Sezi’s new website. We applied the changes that were pointed to us to create the best version that we could build for the website. Before sending off our design to our client, we did a final round of user testing to validate all of our ideas and confirm what we had created.
Some of the names that we were using for the tabs in the navigation bar were confusing to some users. We initially had a tab dedicated to Sezi’s portfolio, but it was too confusing with the other tabs we have. Then, we had a “store” tab and a “products” tab. Users thought they were the same, so we had to change them to “about us” and “shop” instead.
During our usability testing, a few users mentioned that they would like a way to start the booking process directly from a stylist’s portfolio page. Initially, the user had to go through the “services” or “book now” pages to book an appointment, but now they can do it from any stylist’s portfolio.
In our last usability testing session, some users pointed out that some new clients may be unfamiliar with salon jargon and they thought having some touchpoints would be helpful. To prevent too much text overwhelming our users, we decided to add a prompt to suggest contacting the salon for advice.
After validation from our users and all this hard work, we were able to create a successful website for Sezi's Salon. The client ended up being highly satisfied with the work. We even got picked as the best website for Sezi out of multiple groups that were creating a proposal for them.
View final version