Chakaa Website Redesign
My Role:
What is the project:
Designed by:
UX Researcher and Designer
A website redesign project improving the usability and engagement of a local boba shop website.
Kate Hong and Sehee Kim
1) Project Overview
My partner and I both have a passion for enjoying boba drinks, yet discovered not many boba shops have user-friendly websites for their businesses. For the purpose of growing our practical skills and supporting local businesses, we decided to redesign the website of our favorite local boba shop called Chakaa, located in San Diego, CA – focusing on identifying problems, conducting user and customer research, analyzing our findings, and applying it into a newer, user-friendly redesign.
2) Problem Statement
One of the largest problems for Chakaa is that the website is not professional or complete with multiple subsections either blank or still in the original template form. There are not many CTA buttons or utilities for the user to interact with, and the information provided is unclear and hard to find. The original website looks outdated and lacks a branded look; it is difficult to relate this website with their boba drinks. Additionally, the calligraphy font utilized is difficult to read, obscuring the customer’s experience. Overall, we found that the website generally lacks good discoverability, customer engagement as well as a solid aesthetic/ branded theme.
3) Research
In order to find direction on how to go about the following problems to create a more beautiful, and user-friendly design, we needed to conduct research. We conducted several interviews: with Chakaa Tea Shoppe, with customers who have used the website, customers who have not, and people who have never had Chakaa.
Questions we considered for Chakaa and their website:
1. What do you hope this website will achieve? (ex. more online orders or enhancing customer experience)
2. Element(s) of the current website that needs improvement?
3. Element(s) of the current website to maintain?
4. What demographic does your brand reach the most? (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
5. What is your brand's general mission statement/ goal?
Questions for customers & non-customers:
1. On a scale from 1-10, how easy is it to navigate the current Chakaa website?
2. When would you use a boba shop website?
3. Have you used Chakaa’s website? If so, why?
4) Findings from Research
Results:
The average customer views boba shops' websites when they want to:
- View the menu
- Look at pictures of drinks
- View store hours
The average score of the current Chakaa site navigation:
- 7 on the scale – easy to navigate, but there is no content
*Note: Most have not used Chakaa’s website
There are two main things that we pulled from these research findings:
1) what the current site is good for and 2) what the current site lacks.
From our research, we found that the current site is primarily used for viewing menu options and store hours. Customers who use the site have only used the site on average 1-3 times.
However, we found that the site lacks discoverability and customer engagement, due to its lack of information and content. There are not many features the user can interact with, and there is a lack of Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons. I believe the site can also be made easier to navigate, despite the average site navigation score of 7/10. Some existing content on the pages are repetitive/ unnecessary, which leads to difficult navigation of the site. Examples of this include the display of the instagram account feed, “@urban.weekends”, which have unrelated photos displayed two separate times on the homepage.
We hope to make this site one that is representative of Chakaa’s values and unique design, but incorporative of more user-engaging content. In order to address the problems and achieve our goal with the new site design, we plan to add an online ordering system to the site, more photos with descriptions of the menu options that maintain the store’s aesthetic, a list of store locations and hours, as well as a clear contact page.
5) Competitive Analysis
6) User Personas
The company desires a stronger brand identity that can captivate the customer when they use the website. Adding on, they want to include their store hours and menu their customer can easily access.
