Clay Clubhouse
Building clay community for all by redesigning Clay Clubhouse platform
My Role :
User Research Lead
Interaction Designer
Timeline :
June - August
Tools :
Figma, Google Suite, JIRA
Methods and Approach :
User Research, Affinity Mapping, Card Sorting, Personas, Journey Mapping, Competitive Analysis, Site Mapping, Feature Prioritization, Wireframing, Prototyping, Hi-Fi Mockups, Usability Testing, Branding, Style Guide
Challenge
A notable challenge is providing users with the ability to easily book open studio time slots. Many individuals aim to enhance their ceramic skills through consistent practice, and our goal is to ensure they can access and reserve studio time seamlessly. This challenge revolves around improving the booking process to accommodate users who share this aspiration, enabling them to conveniently access the studio for skill development.
Our current project revolves around addressing key business challenges: streamlining scheduling for classes, private and open studio bookings, enhancing member accessibility, and boosting brand awareness and social engagement.
Impact :
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Increased accessibility and smoother booking processes lead to higher conversion rates.
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Redesigned navigation improve user experience, facilitating smoother interactions.
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Revamped events page offers comprehensive insights into past and current events.
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Dedicated classes page provides clearer expectations, resulting in more sign-ups.
Solution & Focus Areas :
To enhance the user experience we did the following website improvements :
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Prominent Classes Section: Elevate the visibility of our classes on the landing page, making them the focal point for easy access.
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Events Page: Create a dedicated Events Page to showcase past and upcoming events, providing a comprehensive overview of our community activities.
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Frequently Asked Questions: Develop an FAQ page to swiftly address common queries and guide users effectively.
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Comprehensive Information Pages: Build detailed pages for classes, open studio sessions, memberships, and more, offering comprehensive insights into our offerings.
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Content Refresh: Update website photos and copy to maintain a minimal, clean, and inviting aesthetic that doesn't take itself too seriously.
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Extended Booking Window: Extend the sign-up window to allow users to register for classes and sessions up to two months in advance.
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Add to Cart Feature: Implement a user-friendly 'Add to Cart' feature to simplify booking and reservation processes.
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Newsletter Subscription: Incorporate a newsletter subscription option, enabling users to stay informed about the latest news and events.
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Payment Feature for Members: Integrate a payment feature tailored for members, enhancing convenience and inclusivity.
Phase I - Discover :
Empathize :
Meet Jo Boyer, The Owner!
In 2020, Jo Boyer, a ceramic artist from Oakland, founded The Clay Clubhouse. Jo, who's queer and nonbinary, wanted to create a space where people could come together, bond over clay, and build a community. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the clubhouse stands strong, built on resilience and determination. Jo and The Clay Clubhouse aim to share this positive energy with everyone in the community.
Competitor Landscape :
In order to better understand the landscape in Clay Clubhouse when it comes to their website navigation, booking sessions, I had to venture out to find out who else in the area had similar offerings.
In the immediate area, the most direct competitors with similar offerings are Clayroom, Pinckney Clay, Merrit Ceramics, Dusted Blue, Hickory Clay. Indirect competitors are TasteBuds Kitchen, Pain with a Twist, Blo-Dry Bar. I looked into Navigation from the landing page, categorization, booking sessions, payment methods and visual aspects.
Phase II - Define :
Learning About Our Users :
We wanted to look at the current Clay Clubhouse website holistically hence we interviewed both members and newcomers.
By interviewing these participants we wanted to learn about the current issues they were tackling while booking classes and open studios.
We also wanted to hear about their overall experience of using the Clay Clubhouse’s current website.
Methodology :
Virtual User Interviews over Zoom.
Number of Participants :
11
Key Takeaways :
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Folks feel that CC is a safe space, especially for the LGBTQ+ community
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Folks love the calm and inviting vibe of the studio
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Folks feel an inconsistency of communication through email
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Folks want to be able to book multiple sessions at a time to be able to start and finish a project.
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Folks are wanting more Open Studio times after workday
“ I think it's nice when it feels accessible– it feels like anyone can learn and and participate.”
“ I like knowing that I have three open studios lined up because I at least know I can complete something full cycle”
Primary Persona :
Secondary Persona :
Problem Statement
Brooklyn needs to be able to book multiple open studio time slots because she wants to enhance her ceramic skills through consistent practice.
Phase III - Design :
Ideation :
We used our Client’s prototype flow as a starting point for ideation. It gave us an understanding of the tasks our users needed to navigate through: to sign up for classes, adding sessions to cart, getting to know about upcoming events, memberships and frequently asked questions. We got together to develop questions to spark ideation.
Workshop :
We also included our stakeholders to an ideation workshop where participants chose their favorite ideas and offered additional thoughts to solve each question. For each idea, we discussed why it was impactful and how it should be prioritized in our designs. We chose the following features to implement in our designs.
Key Findings :
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Clear categorization
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Have read more bread crumb for detailed information about the class
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They have a join waitlist option that’s great. It’s hopeful message to the users rather than saying no slots available
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Details about instructor/ About Instructor page
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Having mentioned “What to Expect”, sets right expectations upfront.
User Flows :
Testing Our Prototype :
After developing a mid-fidelity prototype, we wanted to conduct usability testing to uncover any points of friction in navigation.
Takeaway :
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Likes the events are shown- would check here to see what’s going on in the studio
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Loves FAQ page
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Likes info about private lessons- feels informative
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Likes that there are designated studio photos- lets folks know which side they will be working on (members vs classes)
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Likes length of copy and level shown ( beginner vs intermediate)
Recommendation :
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Suggests making Classes highlighted more to stand out
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Suggests to move Try- It class last to align with the rest of the classes
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Want to see a comparison chart for memberships- what does Full Moon have that Crescent doesn’t?
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Suggests having Book Now CTA on both top and bottom of page
