Steininger's Cleaners Website

2018 • UX/UI DESIGN • WEB DEVELOPMENT • COPY

Steininger's Cleaners is a family owned business where I've had the opportunity to experience many different roles. One role of most interest consisted of the redesign and improvement of the online experience.

Tools: Sketch, Illustrator, WordPress

The Redesign Goal

The goal of this website redesign was to ultimately improve the company's online presence. In collaboration with company's owner, we recognized that in order for the company to stay competitive in the market, we needed to make the overall customer experience a priority. In order to help accomplish that, a modern, useful, intuitive, and cohesive website was necessary.

The Design Process

Research and Empathize

To understand how to best redesign the website, I started with the users. I conducted a website usability survey with customers that went into the stores. I had them take an online survey that asked questions such as: "have you ever used the Steininger's website", "how easy is it to find the information you're looking for on the website" and "what do you find most frustrating about the website"? I also conducted a survey with users who were unfamiliar with the business to get an outside perspective as well. Lastly, I conducted a heuristic evaluation of the site to inspect the general usability of the site.

Define the Problem

I was able to identify the website's areas need for improvement through the analysis of the user survey data and the heuristic evaluation I conducted on the site. The major issues included a lack of proper information architecture, information that was disconnected and required several clicks to get to, and UI that was outdated and non-adhering to the Steininger's brand.

Ideate and Prototype Solutions

The next step was to develop a redesign solution for the website. This process involved sketching out ideas, developing user-flow and sitemap diagrams, and creating low-high fidelity prototypes.

Design Layout

One of the main goals with the redesign was to make the site more user-friendly and to organize important information for the end user to easily access. My primary focus was on the layout and design of the home page, which I envisioned being a flowing snapshot of all the relevant information regarding the company. I organized the information in a manner that informed the user, yet at the same time wasn't overwhelming. Additionally, I worked to design the page so that it highlighted the value that the company brings to its customer.

IMPROVE NAVIGATION

Another area for improvement from the old website was the information architecture. Users commented that the organization of the site was confusing and hard to navigate. To solve this problem, I worked to simplify the navigation by reducing the number of parent links within the main navigation and moving less-pertinent links, such as 'Employment' and 'News', down to the footer. Although, I was also careful to make sure the footer remained organized and relevant.

The Steininger's brand

The final element to a successful redesign was to represent the Steininger's brand consistently throughout the site. This included defining appropriate font styles for the brand, incorporating brand colors tastefully throughout the site, and writing content that captures the value and personality of the company.

Branded Content

"Your Complete
Professional Cleaners"

"Family Owned
Dry Cleaning and Laundry"

"Serving the Greater
Susquehanna Valley Area"

Color Palette

Primary

Secondary

Font Styles

Montserrat

Primary heading

MONTSERRAT

Secondary Heading

Montserrat

Body

Receive Feedback and Improve Design

Throughout the ideation and prototyping phase I received feedback from users and employees of the company to ensure I was headed in the right direction. I went through several iterative design phases until the final product was delivered.

The New Online Experience

A modern, useful, intuitive, and cohesive​ experience.

Future Plans

Within the near future, we intend to incorporate an online customer portal through an API that connects the site with the company's new POS system. This portal will allow for customers to create and edit their accounts, request garment pick-ups, view garment status, and pay for their orders. Currently on the site there is a "Create Account" feature where customers are able to open an account online without having to go to the store, however in the future this will all be incorporated within the portal. With this change brings new opportunity for further online engagement, which will call for pages that inform customers of what they can do on the online portal, how they can do it, and encourages them to sign up.

steiningeriv@gmail.com • 570 556 0348

© 2022 Charlie Steininger. All rights reserved.