Beauty Salon & Livestreaming Music Event Platform
The Challenge
VINYL was voted Best Salon in Austin in its first year of existence. They also had a strong community presence as a record shop and location for live music. While they were very successful in real life, they had a minimal and unorganized website, with no presence of their music model. They knew what their dreams were, but this wasn't present in their website, nor was it monetizing. Then COVID-19 hit.
My Role
Product Design, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, UX Research, Wireframes, Mockups, Content Strategy, UX Copy, SEO.
The Solution
It was time to make the website work. How do you translate a successful live business model into working digitally? Product Design.
Maintaining the existing aesthetic of the site, my goal was to have VINYL Online enable people to make salon appointments, while also functioning as a record store and community hub for their popular music and vegan events. The shop functions as more than one type of business, and this had to be present in the redesign.
Team
Myself.
Timeline
One month.
My Tools
FINAL VERSION
ORIGINAL VERSION
RESEARCH
It was important to understand why VINYL's customers are so devoted--what they connect with in the live experience, and how that can translate into a digital experience.
So I made a survey.
Then I took the existing colors in the original site and made their palette.
The survey found the heart of the VINYL experience: users felt it was a community for self care that included a music experience. In fact, more users answered that they spent money monthly on music than on beauty (which was currently the bulk of VINYL's income.) Yet there was no access to the music aspect of their business in their site, beyond a nod to aesthetics.
Then COVID hit. And VINYL needed to create and maximize multiple streams of income that aren't centered around the live beauty experience.
WHAT ELSE WAS MISSING? INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
It was difficult to know where I was, find what I needed, and know where I was going in the original site.
After mapping the site, it was clear that there are 3 important paths at VINYL:
1) Book an appointment
2) Buy a Gift Card
3) Events and Live Music
(Which was not present at all in the site.)
VINYL had a lot of community love, which you couldn't find on their original page. I added it front and center and linked to their robust Yelp and the Best of Austin win.
I had them open a Discogs account and establish an online inventory for people to buy records, and reach out to one of their core audiences--vegans, as they are a vegan salon.
HEADER REDESIGN
Call to action, for the most important website function.
VINYL functions as several businesses at once:
1) Beauty Salon
2) Record Shop
3) Live Music & Event Booking
How could I make this clear immediately upon landing? Content Strategy. An impactful and clear header.
COMMUNITY
They had a well established Instagram community, but it wasn't visible on their page. I added the account as a live feed, and had them establish a hashtag to encourage people to post the looks they had gotten at the salon.
VINYL had also established relationships with many organizations and artists for whom they had fundraised and had events. This wasn't present in their existing website, so I included their relationships and links on the site.
WHERE ARE THE MUSIC AND EVENTS?
VINYL was a salon and record store with live music events, whose co-owner interviewed local musicians. Yet, on their site, there was no mention of the record aspect of their model, no way to buy records, and no online streaming of their live events. They needed a platform that could stream, allow them to have online events, and sell their records.
People should be able to go to their site, especially during this quarantine, and be part of the VINYL community. I called this VINYL Mainstage.
Original COVID Information
Even though COVID makes businesses have to convey a lot of legal jargon on their site, it needs to strive towards--
Clarity
?
Hard to read
Redesigned COVID Information
IMPACT & NEXT STEPS
VINYL is now about to stream their events and expand their lifestyle and culture reach. The addition of the online record shop has also created a new revenue. Prior to the online account, they sold 0 records per week. In the first week, they sold 15.