Funeral Print Service Case Study
Information website design – UX UI Designer
Introduction
About
Funeral Print Service is an established print service based in London operating for over 30 years. The company wanted to branch out to funeral printing products such as faith and non-faith printing materials for loved one’s send-offs.
Responsibilities
– Quantitative & qualitative research
– UX research
– Visual design
– Interactive prototyping
– User testing
– Working alongside development
My contribution
I was hired as the lead UX designer on the team to work closely with the stakeholders – Sunil & Hansa (UK), and the development team (Canada). My work consisted of the research, synthesis, designing and prototyping main product as well as working on support materials, such as facilitating workshops and designing features of the platform
Team size
– x1 end to end UX Designer: Me
– x2 Stakeholders: UK Based
– x1 Copywriter: UK Based
– x4 Developers: Canada Based
Step 1 Discover
I started with a team discussion to better understand business requirements, gather existing stakeholder knowledge, expectations and create roadmap on plans and priorities for a product, its direction and key milestones.
The problems
– No online presence and only showing previous work and taking orders from customers in their studio through referrals from funeral directors slowed their process with lots of paperwork while some faiths had tight funeral arrangements.
Their own research was undertaken by a 3rd party and the results showed automation and selling online would speed up their process.
• For me, this presented many challenges as it would take away the personal approach to selling their services using sympathy and empathy.
• Budget already spent for research.
The goal
The decision was made, I would undertake the user research for free, validating what their users really wanted, needed and were frustrated about whilst finding funeral printing for their loved-ones send-offs. To create a fully functional mobile-first website design that provided fulfilling user experiences and maybe even set the benchmark in the Funeral Industry.
Competitive analysis
During the initial team discussion, by asking stakeholders about their industry I was able to find useful information about their direct competitors, I learned the ins and outs of how the competition works and identify potential opportunities where we could out-perform them.
Competitive analysis – Key findings & assumptions
• 2 of 3 only non-reputable reviews on the website
• 0 of 3 catered for specific faiths
Looking at their competitive analysis I needed to understand first-hand experiences by users.
– Knowing the competitive landscape and our technical limitations, how can we design an equally inspiring shopping experience?
– Previous customer reviews are important, does it matter if written via third-party applications like Trust Pilot or similar, will that persuade the purchase decision?
– How important is mobile optimisation, is this where the site will be viewed the most?
– Was it important to have which faiths are catered for on the website, why is that?
Identifying users wants, needs and behaviours
– Can you tell me about the last time you shopped or searched printing for a funeral or similar services?
– Where did you go online and could you explain to me your journey and experience?
– Can you think of any frustrations you might have experienced in the past when shopping online for these services?
– On what devices did you shop or browse when searching for funeral services? (i.e. computer, mobile, tablet)?
– What factors were important when you shopped or enquired about funeral printing needs?
– How important do you feel it is when a company provides a process of how they will work, given the task on hand of such a delicate subject?
– Based on your faith, how would you expect the category to be shown on the website, please explain?
– Can you explain where was the best experience you had during online shopping or making inquiries during your search for funeral services? And Why?
Step 2 Define
Affinity map and key findings
By synthesising the user interviews, I was able to gather qualitative information about the users and group their answers by categories, this helped me create one actionable visual.
Personas
Alex
35-55 years old
Works – Professional
Location: London
Alex’s quote
“During my aunt’s funeral who was buddist, I was an emotional wreck, I like to see the actual products and know it will be delivered on time, I feel a human connection is important during my purchases for funeral services,”
About Alex
Relies on personal service.
Likes actual product images
Easily frustrated when the product doesn’t match the initial images shown.
Maria
56-80 years old
Works – Professional
Location: London
Maria’s quote
“My sister’s funeral was stressful, knowing the process of how this works for the faithful Church of England is important and the products will look the same as the site and wordings will match my sister’s personality”
About Maria
Good to see clear and concise information.
Likes company reviews, knowing someone else has already been in her shoes.
Stressed not knowing if delivery will happen within the time frame because of her sister’s faith.
I focused on 2 personas from the user interviews, each with its own characteristics that enabled me to know whom I am designing this product for.
“During my aunt’s funeral who was buddist, I was an emotional wreck, I like to see the actual products and know they will be delivered on time, I feel a human connection is important during my purchases for funeral services,”
56 – 80 years old, near the end of her professional life and also lives in London, her sister’s faith was the Church of England
“My sister’s funeral was stressful, knowing the process of how this works for the faithful Church of England is important and the products will look the same as the site and wordings will match my sister’s personality”
User journey- experience map
I created the experience map to help me see the bigger picture of users’ journey to further understand their needs and pain points. It made collaboration between myself, development, and stakeholders easier, effective, and focused throughout this process.
Experience map explained
– Both not expecting a call, especially from an unknown number, both feel hesitant to answer.
– Been told to organise a funeral if they want, not sure of the process.
– Funeral directors explain what happens and give a list of companies to contact.
– Both likes what is available and seen so far, feels good will be looked after, arranges a day/time to speak with Funeral Print Service.
Proposed user flow
How might we’s… (Design goals)
– Show Funeral Print Service empathy and staff’s personalities to the website and enhance the caring and supporting feel?
– Show enough details on the product page whilst keeping it simple?
– Display a detailed process of ‘how we work’ with each product/service and when it will be delivered and how?
How to:
– Show the Unique Selling Points (USPs) of the business?
– Successfully show company TrustPilot reviews?
– Appeal to a diverse demographic including faiths and cultures?
To help with the facilitation of the design workshop
Facilitating design workshop
– Solving problems for the mobile-first design
– Exploring proposed user flow
– Used ‘how might we’ design goals
– Fun stakeholder collaboration, sketching ideas.
– Presented sketches to each other.
– Using colours post-its voted for the best ideas.
Design workshop sketches
From the ideation session, below are the sketches which won the most votes for the features and functionality of the product and homepage. The other pages would follow the same design and structure.
Wireframes & validation: Mid fidelity – MVP (homepage)
Mid fidelity
MVP
– Users understood this was a showroom website of funeral printing products and they could not buy anything but view products based on the person’s faith who had passed away.
• | 3 of 5 felt there weren’t enough faith options to cater for all faiths, they missed the expand arrow.
• | 3 of 5 needed a quick glance at all the products/ services available early on and couldn’t find the list at the bottom.
• | 4 of 5 wanted to know the story behind the company ‘about us’ if they were a local family business and not a corporate company before understanding their process of how they worked.
Wireframes & validation: Mid fidelity – MVP (process page)
Mid fidelity
MVP
MVP header
• | 5 of 5 wanted sympathy and feel supported through the process and read how FPS would do so, I added a description and arrow type graphics with each step that illustrated the easy processes.
• | 4 of 5 felt the ‘faiths we cover’ & Call us buttons were repetitive, they knew to swipe back to the home screen to select a faith or could press the call button on the header.
Wireframes & validation: Mid fidelity – MVP (process page)
Mid fidelity
MVP
– Not much changed on the product by faith page as the design was perceived as very intuitive.
• | 3 of 5 felt overwhelmed wanting to only view only 4 main products, more could be viewed in the consultation.
• | 3 of 5 mentioned they might feel lost if scrolled down and couldn’t see if they were still on the right faith.
I added faith on top of the product card and deleted the arrow showing more products to view.
Wireframes & validation: Mid fidelity – MVP (product page & call back)
Mid fidelity
MVP
MVP
– As users weren’t purchasing products on this solution, they required empathy and sympathy and a handheld experience with support from the FPS team. During a meeting with stakeholders, we agreed to put the call back feature on the product page as a collective.
• | MVP – 3 of 5 felt the callback feature on the product page was a fantastic idea but would’ve liked to see paper options instead.
• | MVP – 4 of 5 felt delivery played an important part in the product, funeral timings were strict and this needed to be highlighted.
– | MVP iterated – The product page now has essential information and options with ‘delivery promise’ higher up the information hierarchy. Accordion in place for easier access to paper options.
– | MVP iterated – The call back feature now has its own page, it’s easy to get to from the product page by pressing on a ‘call to action.’ (Button)
– | MVP iterated – The send button in the ‘call back’ feature is inactive until all the necessary fields are all filled in, ensuring the team has all information needed to successfully set up a callback.
MVP launched! – Areas that required improvement – 133 sessions – Google Analytics
• 13% clicked to see prices tab and sent messages asking about prices (Stakeholders refused to show pricing before speaking to their customers)
• 20% dropped off at the footer with 2 maps, even though one was the detailed version once in the business park.
• 10% pressed the green call button after staying on the about us page, most calls were about who the company was and what they were offering.
• 11% browsed other faiths on the same session and tried to view other products.
Development Process
I have supported and collaborated with overseas developers in Canada, providing design reviews and milestones, to ensure my experience and product is delivered as designed, on time.
Step 4 Deliver – final version
The pre-launched website can be viewed here: www.fps.vikasuxdesigner.com
Walk through coming after launch!
What I learned
• I learned that the first ideas for the website are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and stakeholder feedback influenced each iteration of the design.
• I also learned working in collaboration with members of the team is so important to the success of the project. Performed our own tasks within a specified time frame/ budget and relied on each other’s time-sensitive input.
• I learned how to collaborate with developers working in the EST time zone, scheduling meetings and calculating the difference between time zones to the success of the project.
Challenges and adapting
• Users had a tendency to lose focus and begin conversations about their loved ones. I found it difficult to steer them back to the question.
• Most hadn’t researched any funeral printing services and relied on the funeral director for giving them the list of suppliers. Getting users to open up and discuss related experiences was difficult as it reminded them of the passed away person.
As a result, the interview process took longer than expected, however, I gained valuable insights into the experiences and opinions of users who were shopping for related or indirect products and services.
What I would do differently next time
I would collaborate with stakeholders and the development team earlier to establish the working time zone so that I could manage my time more effectively, arrange meetings, set working hours and communicate better by recording meetings to listen and refer back to, in case I missed anything at 11 pm GMT zone.
