Happy Medium
Designing a mobile booking experience for a viral art studio
An art studio in
Chinatown, NYC
Happy Medium is an art studio that provides two types of services.
Art Cafe: self-guided collaging and clay work
Classes: figure drawing and woodworking
I was a customer - and I loved their classes (especially figure drawing)
but the booking experience was difficult that I almost didn’t try it.
Existing Experience
A fragmented booking experience across channels (Instagram, Linktree, etc), and their primary channel did not meet my needs as a customer because:
1. Lack of information or content to make a purchase decision
2. Hard to compare classes and differentiate between each class
3. Difficult to pick dates and times when booking a class
I wasn’t the only one who felt this way
-
“Signing up for art cafe was confusing because it's not on the website”
Kate from Art Cafe
-
“It was annoying to go through so many links just to sign up for a class”
Jai from Figure Drawing
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“What I really want is to see how the activities are like before purchasing”
Seonah from Build-A-Chair Workshop
Happy Medium has 2 main kinds of first-time customers.
Word of Mouth
Because Happy Medium is so special in its classes and experience, a lot of its customers learn about the studio through word of mouth.
50% went on the website
50% went on Instagram
When booking their first class:
Social Media
The other kinds of customers come from viral posts on TikTok and Instagram, curiosity about the classes because of its popularity in media.
60% stayed on Instagram
40% went from Instagram to the website
When booking their first class:
Create an amazing booking experience in Happy Medium’s primary channel for first-time customers.
The goal was clear:
I jumped into wireframes
Wireframes were a way for myself to understand which path would help guide the first-time customer experience without building prototypes just yet.
There were 2 main paths:
Calendar-Focused
Class-Focused
Mid-Fidelity Prototypes
Now that I saw these two paths, I built the mid-fidelity prototypes to socialize with key stakeholders
Calendar Focused
Date Specific: Focuses on date from a monthly view standpoint along with specific filters
Headline Central: Focuses on big picture overall offerings on a macro scale
Daily Focus: Focuses on classes based on a specific day
Class Focused
Homepage: Focuses on daily classes and offerings
Big Picture: Focuses on overview and light on the graphics
Genre Based: Focuses on the two main sectors of Happy Medium
Class Focused was the better option.
The mid-fidelity prototypes used to socialize ideas with stakeholders showed the more user-friendly choice.
1. Uses content to help influence purchase decision
2. Creates ease in deciphering information to help understand the difference between classes
3. Simplifies the cross-channel booking experience, making it easier to book the date
Reimagined booking experience for the first-time customer
I began my process of actualizing the flow and got to work on designing. I started to talk to the free-lance engineer and worked on a simple design system.
To make deciphering difference in information easier.
My biggest takeaway for creating contrast in Art Cafe was to focus on thoughtful UX writing for consistency while utilizing visuals to establish intentional differences between the two offered classes.
Date Picking. Simple yet informative.
While the app is class-focused, the calendar feature is pivotal when simplifying the cross-channel booking experience, making it easier to book the date.
For both the word of mouth and social media customers.
The search bar is an easy way for first-time and returning users to navigate through specific key words.
My biggest takeaway was allowing users to have a space to input choices freely.
If I could measure…
Happy Medium is expanding with its services and opening a second location in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the app development is currently on hold so success metrics can’t be properly measured. Here are two metrics I’d use to determine how the app is performing.
The % of people booking through Happy Medium channel vs 3rd party channels
The increase conversion for first-time customers booking on Happy Medium channel.
From interviews to wireframes to prototypes,
Reflection
I learned how to work as a designer and product manager. In a fast-paced environment, I’ve valued the collaboration with clients and cross-function team members when workshopping solutions.
The most challenging aspect to tackle was creating information flow that was flexible while capturing the livelihood of the brand.
The three main points: simplifying the booking experience, helping compare the difference in classes, and influencing decision making through social proof served as the guiding principle when developing end-to-end design.
