House of Discipline

A responsive website for the House of Discipline martial arts studio located in San Diego, CA.

client
House of Discipline

my role
User Research
Branding
UX/UI Design
Prototype Testing

duration
4 weeks

House of Discipline is a martial arts studio in San Diego that has been teaching classes for over 20 years. The owner is passing on the studio to a new leader who has goals of refreshing the brand and becoming more visible online.

The studio has historically recruited students through word of mouth referrals and more recently through Instagram. They previously had a website up, but it has been deactivated for years.

the challenge

While House of Discipline has been able to gain a sizable amount of students throughout the years by referrals, the new owner hopes to use digital strategies to expand their reach and attract new students. In addition, the owner hopes to implement a brand refresh to modernize their company without straying too far from their roots.

The website must be designed for creation in Wix, so that team members can easily make information updates to the site in the future.

the process

research

goals

Learn what features are utilized by users to accomplish their shopping goals
Discover what features users think would enhance their shopping experience
Identify pain points of users' online shopping experiences
Determine what websites/apps users currently shop from

methods

Competitive Analysis
Project Goals
Empathy Research
Customer Personas

competitive analysis

I began my research by identifying Mirror's closest competitors and familiarizing myself with their websites and apps. Observing these sites from a user perspective, I paid close attention to the different features offered, design patterns, overall usability, and brand messages.

Copy of Copy of Research Ramp Up (7).png

provisional personas

I began my research by identifying House of Discipline's local competitors and familiarizing myself with their websites and apps. Observing these sites from a user perspective, I paid close attention to the different features offered, design patterns, overall usability, and brand messages. I found that many of the sites were a bit repetitive or had an overload of information displayed.

Copy of Copy of Research Ramp Up (8).png

observational study

In order to get a better grasp of House of Discipline's customer base, I paid the studio a visit and sat in for a few classes. I was able to chat with parents and observe the on-boarding process of students. Allowing myself to experience the programs gave me better insight on how to design the site.

user interviews

In order to get a better understanding of what parents look for and value when signing their child up for an extracurricular activity, I conducted 3 user interviews via Zoom. The participants were made up of 2 females and 1 male aged between 34 and 46 years old.

See a summary of the findings below:

All participants mentioned wanting their child to learn important life skills (Confidence, community, hard work)
All participants mentioned having a calendar or schedule on a website is crucial
All participants mentioned the importance of their children being physically active and challenged
2/3 participants mentioned being frustrated with cluttered website with too much information
Participants also mentioned valuing reviews on the site, trusted referrals, and easy access to instructors or staff.

needs

Quick access to important info
Organized content
Easy contact
Customer reviews

pain points

Cluttered websites
Overload of information
Outdated information

desires

Pictures of coaches and staff to feel more personal
Ability to pay online

define

user persona

Based on the insights gathered during my empathy research, I created a user persona that captured the needs, desires, and pain points shared during my interviews.

sitemap
Based on the research completed up to this point, I created a sitemap to organize the site's content.

task flow

Based on my user persona i created a task flow for a future iteration for a trial class scheduler, to be added as a feature after the initial website launch.

project goals

I took time to compare and contrast the different business and user goals as well as the technical constraints that may occur during this project. These notes allowed me to determine effective goals for this project and would serve as a helpful reminder when designing the product.

design

sketching ideations

Before working on my wireframes in Figma, I sketched out different layout ideas for the homepage and class page.

Copy of Copy of Research Ramp Up (9) 1.png

Copy of Copy of Research Ramp Up (10) 1.png

low-fidelity wireframes

I created low fidelity wireframes that displayed the responsive screens of the home page, class, contact, and about pages. I wanted to ensure users had easy access to important information without being over-cluttered.

branding

When refreshing House of Discipline's brand, I was given clear instructions that the logo had to resemble the original design due to the amount of merchandise they had that featured the original logo. The owner wanted to keep the main shape and elements along with the words featured on the logo. I decided to remove unnecessary parts of the logo and modernize the rest. See below for a before and after.

before

after

When it came to refreshing the rest of the brand through the website, I chose to incorporate some fun modern elements, getting creative with visual elements, spacing, and icons.

high-fidelity mockups

I brought my wireframes and branding to life by creating high fidelity mockups of the Mirror homepage and various other pages. During this process, I ended up reorganizing the hierarchy of my original low fidelity wireframe designs based on feedback from my mentor and other peers.

test

usability testing

I created a high fidelity prototype in Figma to test the usability of the current product. The usability test consisted of 3 participants aged between 36 and 52 years old and took place in person at the House of Discipline studio.

Objectives

Test the ease of the site's usability when navigating between pages
Discover what information participants found helpful, confusing, or wished was present
Gather first impressions of the site

summary of findings

All participants were able to successfully complete their instructed tasks
All participants found the site to be simple and easy to navigate
All participants mentioned appreciating how the site didn't feel cluttered
2/3 participants mentioned the value of adding video to the site to enhance the experience

affinity map

Participants actions or comments when completing tasks were displayed on an affinity map to better connect patterns that occurred during testing.

takeaways

This project was an especially valuable learning experience for me as I was able to work with a real client. Because of that, there were many more parameters and delays for this project as I had ongoing conversations with stakeholders and their needs.

I also found so much value in being able to immerse myself in the environment of the user and speak with current customers. This allowed me to better empathize and design intentionally. It was a joy to be able to help House of Discipline's business in a tangible way.

next steps

Implement priority iterations:
- Add a scheduling feature for trial classes
- Add video loop for hero image
- Add Class Schedule to footer for easier access
Areas to consider for the future:
- Creating a Meet the Instructors page (Images & bios weren't ready in time for this project)

prototype

Test out the latest prototype below, featuring the new trial class scheduling feature and other priority revisions.

Copy of Copy of Copy of Children's Bank (15).png

client House of Discipline

my role User Research Branding UX/UI Design​ Prototype Testing

duration 4 weeks

research

goals​

​

Learn what features are utilized by users to accomplish their shopping goals​

Discover what features users think would enhance their shopping experience

Identify pain points of users' online shopping experiences

Determine what websites/apps users currently shop from

methods​

Competitive Analysis​

Project Goals

Empathy Research

Customer Personas

user interviews​

​

In order to get a better understanding of what parents look for and value when signing their child up for an extracurricular activity, I conducted 3 user interviews via Zoom. The participants were made up of 2 females and 1 male aged between 34 and 46 years old.​

See a summary of the findings below:

​

All participants mentioned wanting their child to learn important life skills (Confidence, community, hard work)

All participants mentioned having a calendar or schedule on a website is crucial

All participants mentioned the importance of their children being physically active and challenged

2/3 participants mentioned being frustrated with cluttered website with too much information

Participants also mentioned valuing reviews on the site, trusted referrals, and easy access to instructors or staff.

needs​​

Quick access to important info

Organized content

Easy contact

Customer reviews

pain points​

Cluttered websites

Overload of information

Outdated information

desires​

​

Pictures of coaches and staff to feel more personal

Ability to pay online

define

user persona Based on the insights gathered during my empathy research, I created a user persona that captured the needs, desires, and pain points shared during my interviews.

sitemap Based on the research completed up to this point, I created a sitemap to organize the site's content.

task flow​ Based on my user persona i created a task flow for a future iteration for a trial class scheduler, to be added as a feature after the initial website launch.

project goals​ I took time to compare and contrast the different business and user goals as well as the technical constraints that may occur during this project. These notes allowed me to determine effective goals for this project and would serve as a helpful reminder when designing the product.