2021 — UX/UI Design
In 8h or less, improve the UX and UI of any page in Grip's website.
The success metrics were to present clear rationale about changes and decisions, ability to identify improvements and lastly, improvement of existing brand and visual execution of concepts.
Grip is an Amsterdam founded start-up, that believes it should be possible for anyone to make informed choices based on data about their own body and fertility, rather than national averages. They enable this by selling at-home female hormone test kits to check on your hormonal health, a personalized report and a free medical appointment.
With many ambitious growth plans in the line, it's crucial that their value proposition is clear, improving the understanding about the product.
I chose to work on the Homepage because I believe it's the most important page in terms of accesses and has the most potential in increasing the acquisition of new customers.
The current iteration feels a bit messy visually, making it hard for the user to navigate and also to clearly understand the value proposition of the service.
Since I don't have access to the company data and had only a few hours to complete the task, I had to base my process and decisions on assumptions, trying to validate them when possible.
I believe it's important to know whom I'm designing to, what their goals and needs are, and how the service can help them achieve said necessities.
To understand and define this information, I explored Grip's website and Instagram, and revisited my previous talk with Grip's product designer.
1. What's the main target group?
People with ovaries who are planning on having kids or are not sure if they want kids or not
Mid 20s to late 30s
2. Why are they interested in Grip?
To find out if they could be at risk for the most common reasons why women struggle to conceive
To check if everything is ok with their hormones
Want to become more informed about their decisions and possibilities
With the target group defined, I created a poll on Instagram to find people to talk to, so I could really understand the problem and customer needs.
One person who voted 'yes' agreed to be interviewed. Alongside that, I also sent Grip's site to other friends who fit in the target group, and asked them to have a quick look and tell me what they understood and thought about the service.
The main goal of the interview was to find out what the customer understood about the service Grip provides: what the product is about, what it offers, how it works, etc.
Thanks to our talk, I could find improvement opportunities and think of actionable solutions and also compare the interview's findings with my initial assumptions and thoughts on the site UX and UI.
While waiting to talk with the user, I went ahead and started compiling my thoughts and assumptions on Notion.
I went through each section of the homepage and made notes about their goal, usability and visual design - always keeping in mind the user profile and needs. After the interview, this document was revised and the assumptions iterated over.
— 01
The hero section is a crucial part of any homepage and currently, it misleads the user with a negative message and image, clouding the service's value proposition and leading them away from conversion.
Hypothesis: Rethinking the copywriting and UI will make the user easily understand what Grip can do for them and its benefits, reducing the cognitive load and bounce off.
— 02
Users are confused about what the test entails. Currently, you can't find clear and easily digestible information about it anywhere on the homepage.
Hypothesis: Prioritizing this type of content over other sections like the founder's bio for example, combined with complementary images will make it clearer for the users what they get by buying the test, possibly increasing conversion.
After wireframing and defining the content, it was time to start with the UI design.
I took on a experimental approach for the redesign, for example, choosing illustration over photography because they're often faster and cheaper to produce, easier to customize and the user indicated that they felt uneasy by the site's current choice of imagery.
Work on the rest of the homepage sections and revise the site's information architecture.
Reevaluate the copy, as I believe it has room for improvement and it's crucial to make the brand stand out and feel relatable.
A mobile version - the current website is not responsive and mobile use is probably very expressive in Grip's target group.
Conduct more qualitative interviews, with an usability test to validate (or not) my hypotheses.
As this was an exploratory and quick case study, I had a lot of freedom on how to conduct the redesign process while making fast decisions as a consequence of the time limit.
The UX improvements and restructuring of the homepage were well received, but some of the visual decisions I made proved to be a bit off after presenting and talking about my work with Grip's product designer, proving yet again that involving teammates in the design process is crucial.
I got insightful feedback, such as Grip's customers actually like the bold and bright colors - they appreciate the brand not being overly feminine and juvenile. This type of inside information would definitely have been taken into consideration when deciding the illustration and photography treatment, and UI redesign.