Reimagining the website experience at Bellevue Badminton Club.
2022
10 Weeks
Client Project
Web Redesign
UX Designer
Researcher
The Bellevue Badminton Club is a leader in the badminton community both locally and nationally. Founded in 2005, BBC has owned over 5000 members across 3 locations in the Great Seattle area.
The current website serves as a channel to display the club’s information and offers external links for visitors to rent courts and sign up for events.
During 2021, Bellevue Badminton Club has been experiencing a drastic decrease in new member sign-up rate and an average of 20% of courts empty in all locations, causing a decline in revenue. Bellevue Badminton Club assumed it’s website looked old and out of date, they wanted to take action immediately and requested a redesign of its website.
We used 10 weeks to complete the redesign, from understand our client's needs, defining success metrics, conducting qualitative and quantitative research to strategize goals, to creating a complete design system of the new design.
We defined specific goals and metrics after meeting with our clients and talking about both expectations and constraints. Our goal for redesigning the Bellevue Badminton Club website is to help users easily find the information and actions they need to play badminton at Bellevue BadmintonClub.
To assess the current Bellevue Badminton Club’s website, we used 4 research methods to identify existing issues, pain points, and goals.
Analyzed three months of customer data from BBC’s front desk, including calling time and key questions.
Create a consistent and professional impression for users at the first glance.
Conducted five 45-minute semi-structured interviews to learn about the user’s perceptions of the current experience.
Created and distributed a survey to understand existing user’s experience of the current website and expectations towards the new website.
Based on our user research data and analysis, we identified 4 major pain points in this current version of the BBC’s website.
「What benefits I can have by joining?
The website presents information that First-time visitors and guests had difficulty understanding.
For example, first-time users or members who are not professionals in badminton did not understand what a ladder or open play is and how they could join it.
「Where is equipment rental?
The website’s information architecture is chaotic and redundant in its extra page clicks. It blocks and complicates users from finding the information they want easily or quickly.
For example, the equipment rental page was originally placed under the court reservation navigation tab. A few users mentioned that it should not be under court reservation, and also, it does not clearly state how to rent the equipment.
「The policy is so complicated ...
The whole interface contains too many plain texts without categorization according to user needs & tasks. This sometimes prevents users from learning important information.
For example, the benefits and policies for different memberships, ladders, and open play are pretty wordy, which places too much cognitive effort on users trying to learn how to enjoy these ways of playing.
「How can I understand this chart?
The website contains many tables that are unnecessarily complicated and inconsistent in style. This takes users a long time to find information.
For example, users find it hard to understand the pricing for each location of Bellevue Badminton Club. Also, different membership plans are listed separately. Users need more time to clarify their differences and still need to contact the club for benefits information.
Based on the research insights, we further specified 4 design rationale to help us in the redesign process.
Create an information architecture that matches user’s mental models to help them find information efficiently.
Allow users to accomplish their goals easily, quickly and pleasantly while establish proficiency.
Create a visual system that matches the brand identity of Bellevue Badminton Club.
From the user research, we defined three groups of targeted users. Guests and new visitors who want to become members are the ones that will most likely browse everything on the website. The existing member's primary goal is to reserve a court or sign-up events.
We conducted an open unmoderated digital card sorting exercise with 14 users to create an information architecture that best matches users’ mental models rather than the companies.
Combined some repeated information tabs & used words to match users’ mental model. After the card sort, we can see the major pattern and difference is:
We used our results from our card sorting to create an IA that shows the underlying organization and structure of the website.
Each of us created a paper prototype based on user research, and then came together as a group to discuss different variations and possibilities of our prototypes. We also researched existing design patterns of our design elements.
We then combined our insights and feedback from our paper prototype and created mid-fi wireframes using Figma.
We conducted remote usability testing with guests, potential members, and existing members based on their goals and needs.
We created a branding survey and sent it to our stakeholders to understand how our users think and feel about the brand. We then analyzed all the results and developed 3 brand tenets and translated them into design translations to help inform decisions in the design process.
Bellevue Badminton Club provides equal access to players of all backgrounds and age ranges. We want to let players play badminton easily and affordably.
Professional training programs are coached by experienced players for people at all skill levels. Produced the top athletes, not only in the region but in the nation.
We believe playing badminton is fun, delightful, and energetic. We hope to create a community that connects friends, family, and strangers.
We created a branding survey and sent it to our stakeholders to understand how our users think and feel about the brand.
We addressed existing painpoints using design and research methods.
Our user research showed that new users have difficulty in locating information.
Our design used content and language that are understandable for newbies and used graphics to show the processes and procedures of different services and events.
The previous website had large paragraphs of text and was difficult for users to understand.
We used graphics and flows to provide visuals that allow users to understand the information easily.
The previous website had a chaotic information architecture. Users are unable to locate the information they needed effective and efficiently.
We used Card Sorting, Tree Testing, and flow maps to ensure clear navigation.
The previous website had large paragraphs of text and was difficult for users to understand.
We used graphics and flows to provide visuals that allow users to understand the information easily.
Strategize and Prioritize
Completing a website redesign that includes 20+ pages in 10 weeks was challenging. We set goals and scope after communicating with our clients, then we created a timeline and project outline with prioritizing these goals. This helped us to complete the project with effectiveness and efficiency.
Client Communication
We involved our clients in all stages of the project so that we were on the same page. We met with our client after every deliverable had been completed for thoughts and feedback. This was very helpful when it came to the end of the project.
After the project had been completed, we handed off our designs to our client for development. We are providing design assistance in the development process. In addition, we plan to conduct more usability testing with the iterated version of the website.
