Brand identity and website design for an independent counseling service that promotes self-growth, self-care, and self-love.
Overview
Britney Turner is a licensed professional counselor with a master’s in psychology. She specializes in relationship conflicts, adolescents, anger management, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse/addiction. She started Turner Counseling Services, a Dallas-based counseling private practice focusing on client-centered therapy. She focuses on helping clients’ development of self-actualization by providing unconditional positive regard, encouragement, and understanding.
I developed a full brand identity guide, including logo, website, and marketing material. I also provided a basic competitive analysis of the local market in her industry.
Challenge
Establish a brand presence in the marketplace and create a way for potential clients to sign up for services.
Solution
Develop a complete personal brand presence with a website for potential clients to discover Turner Counseling Service and sign up for services.
What I did
User Research
Persona Development
Competitive Analysis
Sketches
Wireframing
User Interface (UI) Design
Prototyping
Website Design
Usability Testing and iteration
Logo Design
✌My Design Process
Design Thinking Process diagram
Discovery Session
I started the project with a meeting to gather information and insights about the client's goals, objectives, along with budget and timeline.
Research Process
I began the project by laying out a research plan. Setting aside time for both primary and secondary research sessions.
Interviews
Starting at the discovery phase of this project, I conducted interviews with the stakeholder to gain insights into the main goal, needs, and challenges of her business. This stage was important for understanding the past experience with the client intake process, client demographics, and billing process.
I also conducted user interviews with 5 users that have received counseling services both in the past and currently in order to get a better understanding of their experiences.
Market Research
With the learnings from the initial interviews with both the stakeholders and users, I began secondary research on surrounding counseling service providers to get a better view of their market presence. Areas of focus,
ADA Compliance
Overall UX
Pro v. Cons of navigation & usability
Social Media presence
Marketing channels
Unique Features/Services
Survey analysis comprised of 32 DWF surrounding counseling providers.
Research Findings
After gathering all the data and analyzing all the various data points. It gave me a clear view of gaps and highlights across all the websites I surveyed. I then compile the report to go over the areas to focus on with the client.
Turning research data into key findings
Empathy Map
I developed an empathy map from the interviews I conducted with users to start synthesizing all the user insights. Some common findings from this mapping exercise are:
Lack of motivation/support
Social stigma
Lack the understanding of the process and benefit
Financial difficulty
User interviews were the key resource in transforming qualitative data into empathy map
User Personas
From the interviews conducted, I developed two different types of user personas along with their common goals:
Build better relationships with family, friends, and coworkers
Help accomplish their personal/vocational goals
Overcome social anxiety
Build up their self-esteem
Overcome depression
“I need a counselor that understands me and that I can build a long-term relationship with.“
User Journey
Based on the interviews conducted with the stakeholder and users, I was able to map out the user journey after synthesizing each key insight. I mapped out the user flow to see how I could simplify their journey to help them reach their most important goals with the website. I tried to look for the low points within their journey to solve for. By mapping out the user journey, it helped me clarify the steps they would take to accomplish the task flow.
Breaking down the user journey into four distinctive stages: Motivation > Research > Sign-up > Usage
Opportunities
After the journey mapping exercise, I gained insights into where user's mindsets and emotions throughout the journey. It became apparent the areas of focus are:
When the user is motivated to seek out counseling service
During sign-up process
The counseling process
The approach to head off the concern and help prevent users from dropping off is to educate users about the benefit of counseling, services, the entire process, and fees. Making the sign-up process simple and straightforward. Explain the counseling approach and method to build trust and ease users into the healing process as a collaborative effort.
Card Sorting
To map out the structure of the website, I decided on the main categories of the website with a Card Sorting session. Since the client wanted to focus on making the website simple to use and help lead users directly to their specific needs, we opted for a closed card sort method. The exercise was conducted remotely with 8 participants.
Closed card sorting method
Sketches
I usually start the design process with low-fidelity sketches for ideation. This is the way I run through many design options quickly. I presented the sketches in design sessions with the stakeholder to discuss various sections of the website and how the user will run the flow. From the user research, I know often time users might be under stress during the research phase of the journey. So the goal is to make the website structured with simple navigation, clear and concise copy, and easy signup information. I made 6 variations of the website and narrowed it down to 2.
Closed card sorting method
Initial Website Mockups
Once the pages and structure of the website have been established from the card sorting exercise, I began laying out the initial mock-up of the site. I presented this layout to the client and discussed options for the final design.
Closed card sorting method
UI Design
After conducting usability testing, the emphasis was on ease of use and leading users quickly to where they needed to be. Following the brand guideline I developed, the website has a simple and minimal design. I started the screen designs on Adobe XD, and later completed on Wordpress.
Usability Testing
Before launching the product, we conducted usability tests to reveal possible usability issues.
Testing Criteria
Navigation
Ease of use
Tests were done on both how-fidelity and high-fidelity stages
In-person moderated testing
Tests conducted with both students ages 8-10 and adults
7
Rounds of iterations
4
Usability tests conducted
9
Screens
64%
Increase in client signup
Reviews
"I am extremely happy with the services provided by Justin! I initially used his service for my logo design and loved it so much that I have continued to use him for all my business needs!"
Britney Turner
My Take-Aways
Through this project, I learned the importance of mental health, but most importantly the struggles of users who seek care for mental health. There are still a lot of social stigmas and a lack of understanding about mental health and its importance. Because of these stigmas and lack of understanding, many users go through lots of challenges in receiving care. During the ideation phase, we thought of many ideas for features for the website; however, based on the user research from the empathy map and user journey, we focused on the user's possible stressful state of mind we narrowed the scope to the core offering and kept the website simple to use.
After launching the website, we had some minor adjustments. Even the website has already been launched and past scoped revisions. I proceeded in making the adjustments per the stakeholder's requirement. I wanted to make sure that I provided a complete product to set her up for success!
