Website Redesign for
Business Model
Restructure
The Problem
A small recycling startup is facing extinction due to sudden policy changes overseas and the company needs to make a significant pivot from providing free recycling for businesses to a paid service aimed at homeowners and apartment-dwellers.
Users & Audience
The target audience for this project are residents of cities where recycling services are not yet provided, but where there is a general interest.
My Role
User interface and experience designer.
Scope & Constraints
As the company's existence depended heavily on the successful completion of this new website, the project was scheduled to be completed between one and three months.
The team for this consisted of me, the company's owner/CEO, and one developer.
The Process
Research
Competitive Analysis
To start the UX process, Ryan, Recyclops’ CEO, and I take a look at the websites of the company's closest competitors, Republic Services and Waste Management. While neither company currently offered residential home recycling, they did have homeowner-facing sites that helped us get ideas of what worked and what did not.
Data Analysis
Next we took a look at the data that had been gathered based on who had expressed interest in the service in their city, their age demographic, and location demographic.
User Feedback
User feedback from current-customer surveys was analyzed in order to get the most accurate personas and user stories possible.
Planning
User Stories & Flow
At this point we were ready to create personas based on our research and dive into designing the most effective flow for taking a customer from seeing an ad on Facebook or Google to signing up for recycling.
This flow included landing pages for the specific geographic location of the potential customer to show that the service was a local offering and emphasize the company's "family" values, and "local first" mindset.
Analysis
Testing
With the site finished, we were ready to send it out to targeted areas and see how effective the site was at it's goal: gaining new customers.
The tests showed great positive results the site was used in a wider area, once again testing the waters.
At this point some minor flow adjustments were made and the site was sent live to all customers.
Results
Recyclops has since experienced exponential growth, expanded across the country, been featured in articles by Forbes and FastCompany, and attracted many investors.
The website and it's design has helped to smoothly incorporate thousands of new customers and solidify Recyclops as the leading recycling provider in rural areas of the US.
As for me, this project was an exceptional growth opportunity and solidified in my mind the ability for UX to make a positive impact on the world.
~
Exploration
Brainstorm, Sketch, Wireframe
At this point we were ready to tackle the actual design of the site, bouncing ideas off of each other, passing sketches back and forth and determining which elements needed to appear in the final site.
Our research revealed that the site would be visited most heavily via mobile devices as people clicked on ads in Facebook, so the site was heavily optimized for mobile layout.
It also became important for us to determine the tone of voice for this website and for the brand as a whole. This also led us to use witty micro-copy, bright, vibrant colors and a healthy dose of easy-to-understand iconography in order to clearly and quickly communicate the feeling of the brand and it's values and put a potential customer at ease with signing up for a new service.
For several weeks, I worked back and forth with the developer and CEO, as we worked through the building process, getting everything nailed down with the proper UI, voice, and message.