Project overview
The Lodge Virtual Tour App:
The Lodge is a popular wedding venue located in Saratoga Springs, NY. The Lodge Virtual Tour application allows couples to see the venue space as well as read information about the wedding venue before deciding to book an in-person tour. The goal of this project is to save time for the couples in their wedding venue search, and also save time for the sales representatives by having couples who have a better idea that this venue will be a good fit for their ideal wedding.
Project duration:
January 20, 2022 - June 12, 2022
The problem:
Most wedding venue websites or apps do not have enough information about the venue, or an accurate representation of what the event space looks like.
This causes a lot of frustration
for couples, who often book an in person tour without even knowing if the venue is large enough to fit the amount of guests they are inviting, or if the venue is
even in their budget. This costs not only the engaged couple a lot of time and stress, but also the sales representatives that work for the venue.
The goal:
The goal of The Lodge Virtual Tour App, is to provide potential wedding bookers with an accurate representation of the venue, and what it has to offer, before they book an in-person tour. Providing couples with this will save them time in the long run, and create stress free wedding planning. This will also save the sales representatives time, because the couples will have a better understanding if this venue is a good fit for their ideal wedding, before reaching out.
My role:
UX designer, designing The Lodge Virtual Tour app from conception to completion.
Responsibilities:
Conducting interviews, competitive audits, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility and iterating on designs.
Understanding
the user
-
User Research
-
Personas
-
Problem statements
-
User journey maps
User interview questions:
I conducted interviews with four participants and created empathy maps to understand the users and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was working adults age 25 - 40, newly engaged, and included participants of different genders.
4. What Challenges do you face in the venue tour
booking process? How does this make you feel?
5. Is there any way in which you feel these
challenges could be resolved?
1. Can you describe your current schedule and how you balance your responsibilities with wedding planning?
2. While looking at a venue website, what do
you look for?
3. What is the most difficult part of deciding what
venues to look at?
User research: summary
This user group confirmed initial assumptions about searching for a wedding venue. Research also revealed that difficulty finding cost was not the only factor limiting users from booking an in-person tour of a wedding venue. Other user problems included lack of information of the venue capacity and layout, as well as lack of information of what services the venue offers.
User research: pain points
1
1
1
No capacity information
Users said there was
a general lack of
information of the
size or layout of the
venue space.
2
Not enough photos
If there was not a decent
amount of photographs
of the event space, both
filled and not filled, users
said they would move on
to find another venue.
3
3
Lack of information
on the venues
Not enough information
around pricing, catering
options, decoration
options, or availability.
4
Outdated Websites
A lot of websites are out
of date, which gives
the feel that the venue
is outdated.
Persona: Jada
Jada is a 28 year old student from upstate NY, currently pursuing her master’s degree in nursing at FAU. She lives with her fiance who is pursuing PA school at FAU. Between school and clinicals, Jada and her fiance do not have a lot of time to travel to New York to see venues for their wedding. They want to get married closer to family. They are relying heavily on venue websites to help decide what venue they will choose. They find that a lot of venue photo galleries don’t give a good feel of what it’s actually like to have a wedding there, or they only show professional pictures of one wedding.
“I need as much time saving opportunities as possible when planning this wedding.”
Jada
Age: 28
Education: Master's degree (pending)
Hometown: Queensbury, NY
Family: Lives with fiance
Occupation: Student
Problem statement: Jada is a busy student who attends school in a different state than where she wants to have her wedding. Jada needs a venue app that will allow her to get a good feel of what the venue
looks like, without scheduling an in-person tour.
Goals:
-
Have a good feel of the wedding venue before taking a tour of the facility.
-
Know what extras the venue offers before calling a sales representative.
Frustrations:
-
Online venues only show pictures of one wedding at the venue.
-
“I want to have an idea of what it feels like to be at the venue before I schedule a tour”
User Journey Map- Jada
Mapping Jada’s user journey revealed that having a good understanding of the venue’s layout and the services that the venue offers is helpful in deciding to get in contact with a sales representative.
Talk to a venue representative
Task list
Improvement
opportunities
Feeling adjective
Action
Go to venue app
Evaluate venue
information
Contact Venue
A. Fill contact form
B. When representative calls discuss all options and book a date for the wedding.
A. Decide if venue is big enough
B. is overall aesthetic acceptable
C. Have a good understanding of venue and services provided
A. See availability for event at the venue
B. Find contact information
Hopeful
Excited
Nervous
Venue events calendar
Contact form
Excited
Worried
Guarded
Strategic
Optimistic
Satisfied
Worried
Excited
Optimistic
Worried
Curious
Guarded
Clear navigation
Virtual tour
Overall map of venue
A la Carte list of rental offerings
Experience notes throughout the tour.
Events person reach out within 24 hours
A. Search app
B. Navigate venue events information
Persona: George
George is a retired military veteran who now owns his own gym in the Schenectady NY area. His 26 year old daughter recently got engaged to her boyfriend, and George and his wife are paying for the entire wedding. The guest list for the wedding is around 150 people, and George wants to ensure that his daughter gets her dream wedding, his guests are comfortable, enjoying themselves and haveing a great time.
“My daughter deserves the best in both a husband and a wedding”
Problem statement: George is a busy yet efficient business owner, as well as the father of a bride. He needs a wedding venue app that has all of the capacity and venue information upfront because his daughter is having a wedding reception with a large amount of people. He doesn’t
want to waste time in his busy schedule, viewing venues that don’t meet his needs.
George
Age: 55
Education: Bachelors degree
Hometown: Rotterdam, NY
Family: 2 daughters, wife
Occupation: Retired Military, Personal trainer/Business owner
Goals:
-
Find a venue that is big enough to host a large amount of people for his daughter’s wedding
-
Ensure enough space so that people have room to move, and dance.
Frustrations:
-
Online venues don’t provide capacity numbers to see if there is enough room for the reception his daughter wants to throw.
-
“I wish I could see the layout of the room”
User Journey Map- George
George’s journey map reveals that having important information such as capacity numbers available in the app
is an essential feature.
Talk to a venue representative
Task list
Improvement
opportunities
Feeling adjective
Action
Go to venue app
Evaluate venue
information
Contact Venue
A. Fill contact form
B. When representative calls set a time and day to have an in-person tour.
A. Decide if capacity is right.
B. is overall aesthetic acceptable.
C. Have a good understanding of venue layout.
A. See availability for event at the venue
B. Find contact information
Hopeful
Excited
Venue events calendar
Contact form
Excited
Guarded
Strategic
Optimistic
Satisfied
Curious
Excited
Curious
Guarded
Clear navigation
Capacity limits clearly listed
Virtual tour
Overall map of venue
Rent offerings
Events person reach out within 24 hours
A. Search app
B. Navigate venue events information
Starting
the design
-
Paper wireframes
-
Digital Wireframes
-
Low-fidelity prototype
-
Usability studies
Paper wireframes
Drafting iterations of each screen on paper ensured the features that best solved the user’s pain points were used in the digital versions. For the home page, I prioritized the photography of previous events to help users have a good idea of the venue’s aesthetic, and what services the venue can offer them.
Drafting iterations of each screen on paper ensured the features that best solved the user’s pain points were used in the digital versions. For the home page, I prioritized the photography of previous events to help users have a good idea of the venue’s aesthetic, and what services the venue can offer them.
Digital wireframes
While making my initial designs, I made sure to keep in mind the feedback I had received during my research.
I remember that one of the pain points was that users couldn’t see the layout of the venue. A 3D virtual tour will help them navigate though the venue space, and make them feel like they are there.
This is a 3D Matterport
virtual tour that users can click through
and see a “walking” tour
of the venue.
This button will allow users to get to the
contact from quickly.
Another pain point that users experienced was not knowing what availability the venue has before booking an
in-person tour of the venue. Having a calendar that users can click through that shows what dates are unavailable will assure users that the date they would like, or the time of year they would like will be available.
Arrows will allow user to see different
months of the year to book an event.
This is a calendar that
will allow users to
see available dates
for the venue to host their event.
Low-fidelity prototype
Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow I connected was touring the venue, getting all the information on the venue, and ending with contacting a representative, so the prototype could be used in a usability study.
Usability study: details
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups, dictating what to add and change. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
Research Questions
● Is the virtual tour app
valuable when looking for a
wedding venue?
● Do users save time using
the virtual tour app in
comparison to other venue
websites?
● Are there parts of the user
flow that users get stuck in?
● Are there design decisions
we can make to improve the
user experience?
Participants
Study 1
5 participants
● 1 female age 25-35
● 2 male age 25-35,
● 1 male age 40-55,
● 1 female age 40-55
Study 2
5 participants
● 2 female age 25-35
● 2 male age 25-35,
● 1 male age 36-40
Methodology
● Unmoderated Usability Study
● Location: United States
(From participants home’s)
● Date: Sessions will take place
(Study1) Feb 24 & 25, 2022
(Study2) May 23, 2022
● Each participant will privately
record and answer a
questionnaire afterwards.
Each session will last 30 min.
● Participants are people who are looking to book a venue for
their wedding or a family
members wedding.
Usability study: findings
Round 1 findings
1
Not all users can recognize the menu icon
2
Users want to know what their wedding
photos may look like
3
Users want more information prior to
booking a in-person tour of the venue
Round 2 findings
1
Users expressed confusion about the
virtual tour
2
Users had trouble seeing the light yellow
on the packages page
3
Users found it frustrating to have to go
back to the menu every time they wanted
to go the page they were at before
Refining
the design
-
Mockups
-
High-fidelity prototype
-
Accessibility
Mockups
In my usability study findings, users wanted more information prior to booking an in-person tour of the venue.
One of the areas they seemed to need more information for was the packages.To solve this, I made a separate
packages page with more information. Doing this also allowed me to make the text bigger which helped with
accessibility. The packages page can be navigated to through the info page or through the menu.
Before usability study 1
After usability study 1
In my second usability study, users found the virtual tour confusing. They were unsure of how to use the walk through feature of the app. I added a pop up overlay that pops up as soon as you open the tour feature of the app. The pop up displays directions on how to click through the tour.
Before usability study 2
After usability study 2
Key Mockups
High-fidelity prototype
The high-fidelity prototype presented smoother, more thorough user flows for the “walk through” virtual tour.
Also clearer information on the event packages, and more accessible color combinations.
Accessibility considerations
1
1
1
Used icons to help make navigation and lists easier to read and understand.
2
Checked color
combinations with the
A11y Color Contrast
Checker Plugin to ensure
that all colors and
text complies with
accessibility standards.
3
3
Used detailed imagery
of food, and previous
weddings and events to
show what The Lodge
offers its guests.
Going forward
-
Takeaways
-
Next steps
Takeaways
Impact:
The Lodge Virtual Tour app saves people time in the wedding venue search process.
Some quotes from user feedback:
“I do think this app would save me time, all the information I would need is available to me.”
“A lot of venues don’t have as much information, I wish I had something like this when I was looking for wedding venues.”
What I learned:
While designing The Lodge Virtual Tour app,
I learned the importance of usability testing.
In order to make an app that truly is helpful to users, getting user feedback is essential.
Every iteration was influenced by user feedback to make this app work effectively.
Next steps
1
1
1
Conduct another round
of usability studies to
validate whether the
pain points users
experienced have been
effectively addressed.
2
Update app with new
photos from most recent
wedding season, in order
to keep up with current
wedding trends.
3
3
Conduct more research
to update app with
any changes or new
areas of need.
