Collaborative work: Website redesign
TEAM
Fong Ho Mobolaji Adeyemi
Shobhith Shidhar Aalok Akbari
ROLE
UX Researcher, UX designer
TOOLS
Pencil, paper, Axure, Sketch, Sticky notes
INTRODUCTION
Mother’s Little Helper is a Montreal based home care agency with 20 years of experience in providing expertise and personal services such as childcare, senior care, and housekeeping.
Brenda Adessky (Co-Founder of Mother’s Little Helper) has relied on her vast network within the Philippine community in Montreal to grow her business. The communication model of the company up till present day relies on a “word of mouth” form of communication. This means the business has grown through referrals by existing customers to potential new clients. All interactions between mothers little helper and clients are via, text messages, emails, and phones call.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Introduction
The process of redesigning the MLH website will initiate by jotting down the existing website’s first impressions and content audit followed by identifying the two categories of target audiences. It will also include a strategy to establish online communication methods and finally deliver an improvised usability and user experience of the website.
The key stakeholders for this project are the end users who are the people looking hire Mother’s Helpers (nannies and caregivers) and people looking to become Mother’s helpers and finally the Mother’s Little helper management and staff.
The problem
The communication model of the company up till present day relies on a “word of mouth” form of communication. This means the business has grown through referrals by existing customers to potential new clients. All interactions between mothers little helper and clients are via, text messages, emails, and phones call.
The MLH website needs to be redesigned regarding user experience, visuals, architectural overhaul, strategy to establish online communication and improve usability.
The Solution
Conducting researches to successfully deliver an online communication strategy, Strategy to establish brand identity through social media, content structure and guidelines, and wireframes of the new MLH website.
Methodology
Agile methodology
Existing website and Information Architecture
The existing website gave an impression of lack of a contemporary design as compared to their competitors. There is lack of basic functionalities which were addressed in the updated wireframes.
The website needs to convey more information. Usually, the home page is supposed to have all the links to subpages, but currently, they all seem to be main pages. The home page definitely needs more information about the company and the services offered by MLH. The content on the Homepage and the content on the About Us page are quite similar and repetitive. The home page also has links to ‘Employment’ and ‘Our services’ page although these two pages are placed right below the home page.
The 'contact us' page only has a form that requires being filled in order to be contacted by the company. The form gives a choice to send the request to MLH, Brenda, Patti, and Heidi but gives absolutely no clue as to who they are. We sent a request in order to test and we still haven’t received anything back. It would have been great to get an automated email which states in how many hours or days I can expect a reply.
It could be one of the ways to lose new customers who check the website. Would be great to mention proper contact details (Email address, phone number, company address, etc.)
The Services page consists of three dead links, CHILDCARE, FAMILIES AND SENIORS, and HOUSEKEEPING. These seem like links, but nothing occurs when clicked. Since MLH places nannies from the Philippines it would be better to mention that on the website along with French or Spanish Au pair.
Employment page only consists of on link, it would be better to mention all the open positions in the company. That would save some time for the people applying for a job and for people looking through the applications to hire them. This feature will also help the company attract more eligible candidates for the available job prospects.
MLH FIRST IMPRESSION AND CONTENT AUDIT
UX RESEARCH
Competitor Analysis
Our team carried out an evaluation of MLH’s competitors in order to better understand the business environment MLH operates within. From the competitive analysis, we were able to determine Mother Little Helper's weaknesses, strengths and assess in comparison to their direct and indirect competitors
A key area that was immediately apparent was that MLH competitors provide more than one contact option for users, such as email, phone number, address and social media. The information users are required to provide in the contact section of the MLH website is not detailed. The MLH competitors have more comprehensive content flows and direct users to the right path.
However, a key feature that is present on the current MLH website is the immigration advice feature. A valuable asset that provides assistance to applicants. This feature should be emphasized immigration service is not offered by competitors, so that Mother Little Help could optimise this service to attract users.
MLH Users
MLH has taken a community approach to growing the business over the years. The MLH users and clients have always been the focus of the organization, MLH has been connecting the community by ensuring the services provided by the company are readily available and by creating employment opportunities for people from within and outside the MLH immediate business environment.
Target Audience
The MLH agency is a meeting point for clients looking to become nannies (Mother’s helpers) and for clients looking to hire nanny services such as housekeeping, home care, and adult care.
Communication Strategy
The objective of this project is to develop a new communication strategy for Mother’s Little Helper that harnesses the existing word of mouth form of communication but online through the MLH website, social media, newsletters and maillists. Though there is an existing MLH website, it is outdated due to functionality issues that have been left unaddressed and a lack of regular maintenance.
Communication-Existing issues
-The mother’s little helper website has not been kept regularly updated
-The company is yet to establish an online identity various social media platforms.
-It is unclear who is responsible for managing the website and creating content for social media.
-It is difficult for clients to discover MLH online due to its limited online presence.
Internal Communication objectives (Within the agency)
-Getting MLH management and staff to understand the significance of a consistent online presence.
-Motivate employees to put more effort into developing online content.
-Designate employee roles and responsibilities (i.e web developers, user experience designer, social media manager) for development and maintenance of online presence.
-Identify potential opportunities to grow Mother’s Little Helper’s online presence.
-Monitor and evaluate performance through employee input.
External Communication objectives (Between the agency and clients)
-Launch Mother’s little helper website
-Inform clients of Mother's little helper social media platforms (i.e Facebook page and groups, twitter, linkedin, e.t.c.)
-Establish online presence that makes clients feel as if they are members of the MLH by applying a consistent voice and tone to develop content for MLH website and social media platforms
-Maintain consistent communication with clients via ads for social media, relevant content for social media platforms and website.
Voice and tone
In the 'Content as a Conversation' analysis, we suggest content should encourage the user to engage with the website in a manner that is seamless and in a language relevant to the user.
MLH website lacked a consistent voice and tone. This is apparent through the website and other platforms. Mother’s Little Helper should maintain the same voice and tone throughout the service and current website. On the ‘about us’ page, mother little helper not only tells users that their asset, but also gives users proper advice about immigration.
This tone and voice is caring but not over-promising which makes users secure for the service they offer. Homepage maintains the consistency to express an experienced service by a nurturing but not overbearing tone to tell users their expertise.
On the other hand, Mother Little Helper's tone is less formal, but it's more friendly to users. Meanwhile, mother little helper places themselves in people's position and refine their voice to the majority of users.
-Nurturing but not overbearing
-Devoted but not intrusive
-Sweet but not pampering
-Caring but not possessive
-Comforting but not overwhelming
-Committed but not over promising
-Empathetic but not obsequious
Personas development
We focused on creating personas the relevant to MLH’s specific target audience which includes users looking to become nannies, users looking to hire nannies for childcare and users looking to hire caretakers senior care. After recruiting participants and conducting interviews with the, we were then able to establish key personas for the MLH user. We then sent a personas report to Brenda for validation in order to ensure the personas are relevant to the MLH target audience. The personas were then validated and approved by her.
MLH caters to clients looking to hire nanny services for the purpose of child care. This group of clients includes families with young children (2-9) and single parents. These users are a particularly sensitive audience as safety concerns for the welfare of the children is paramount to them. Clients who hire nanny services often do so because of their busy schedule and other availability issues. They want to access services quickly but they also want to be assured that theirs kids are safe, they want to know what activities their kids will engaging while with the nanny and also the meal plan for the day. These users mostly discover MLH via referral and recommendation from friends.
Redesigned Website:Information Architecture, Wire frames
MLH content structure and guidelines
Information Architecture
The structure of the information architecture of pervious website was offering only the basic needs of the user. Therefore, elements like caregiver’s listings and profiles, how it works, FAQs and Live Feed were added to aid user’s needs.
Redesigned Information Architecture
We took ‘User’s first’ approach while redesigning the information architecture. Therefore, the ‘call to action’ elements are given more priority by placing them into proper hierarchy. For example, the user’s of the website are ‘people looking for a caregiver’ and ‘people looking for a job to become a caregiver’. Therefore, ‘call-to-action’ elements like ‘Look for a Mother’s Helper’ and ‘Become a Mother’s Helper’ are placed in front given more priority than other elements. This will aid in user’s decision making process.
Redesigned Website: Wire frames
Interactive Content
Style Guide
TAKEAWAYS
Since the business has already successfully been able to establish that its customers o!en refer MLH services to friends and other potential users, why not give them the option to do so online via website and social media too. MLH will need to be consistent in order to shape the narrative of the conversation that the business wants to have with its users.