Website Redesign
Data Analysis
Business Impact
Redesign the website to vibrant, intuitive experience
Nine Studio is a creative art studio for a wide range of art enthusiasts, from K-12 students to adults. While redesigning the end-to-end website, I analyzed website analytics, assessed user needs, and applied analysis building a comprehensive design system. My goal was to create an straightforward user flow for busy parents, reduce class interruptions for teachers, and align the website with Nine Studio’s vibrant brand identity.
You can check out the redesigned website here!
Role
UX designer
Timeline
September - November 2023
Project
Website Redesign
tools
Figma | squarespace analytics
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator
Overview
The Challenge
The website is unclear while parents are busy and teachers get interrupted
Parents struggled to find class information on the existing Nine Studio website due to confusing navigation and scattered information. This led to frequent complaints, which disrupted teacher's workflow. Because parents are busy, the studio needed a more intuitive and accessible flow that quickly provide class details and process registration, thus reducing the administrative burden on staff.
Solution & Impact
Intuitive design and linear user flow that enhance website effectiveness
I addressed these challenges by simplifying user flow and creating a visually inviting interface aligned with Nine Studio’s creative spirit. This redesign ultimately made the site more intuitive for parents, reduced teacher interruptions, and improved overall studio operations.
Final Design
Context
Project Timeline
Company Context
What does Nine Studio do?
To understand Nine Studio's values and operations, I held meetings with the studio owner and spent time in the studio, and observed how classes were run and how parents interacted with the staff.
Nine Studio is an art education studio offering creative programs for K–12 students, known for its strong community and hands-on teaching approach. My goal was to explore how its digital experience could better reflect the warmth and clarity of its in-person environment.
Project Context
Studio is already thriving with walk-ins, so why redesign?
Although Nine Studio draws about 1,300 monthly website visitors, fewer than 1% made online checkouts. Most of parents preferred to register at the front desk or over the phone. The website was not properly meeting the needs of either new or returning users. This gap (high numbers of visitors and low conversion rate) raised a key question.
what's stopping users from completing checkout online?
To answer this, I began by analyzing real parent-to-parent conversations and followed up with interviews with teachers to listen their voice.
Teacher Interviews: How Website Inefficiencies Impacted Workload
Since teachers often worked as intermediaries between parents and the studio, uncovering underlying issues caused by the website’s inefficiencies was crucial to understanding both user pain points and operational challenges. I conducted 1:1 interviews with 3 teachers and analyzed teachers' email logs to identify recurring parent complaints.
How many calls, emails, or messages do you typically receive from parents in a day?
How long does it usually take to respond to each inquiry?
What are the most common questions or complaints?
How do these interruptions affect your ability to focus on teaching or lesson planning?
How do you try to help them solve their questions?
Where Parents Got Stuck
Navigation Audit & Key Findings
I started by examining the website navigation by breaking down step by step on how user navigate in the website. There were three critical breakpoints which causes needs for help for parents and repeated interruptions for teachers.
Ambiguous menu tabs
Overlapping tab names forced parents to guess which to click and detour to Home
Text-heavy program pages
Dense paragraphs buried important information, making hard to scan
Invisible cart state
Without clear "Add to Cart" interaction, parents leave unsure their selection saved
Analyze Metrics and Data
Since the beginning of 2023, bounce rate went up and down but the highest record was 85.53% and average of 65%. Nine Studio was 9% higher comparing to average bounce rate of 56% for art and entertainment business.
65%
Average bounce rate
for 10 months
70 sec
User engagement time
46%
Dropped off after 2nd page
Research 2
Survey: Started as Setback But Deeper Understanding of Users
To better understand the needs of parents, I sent the survey to 48 parents. However, I received only three responses.
But instead of waiting for more responses, I reflected on why and realized this was actually a key insight: parents are extremely busy. Even if they want to share their thoughts, they may not have the time to sit down and fill out survey answers.
Receiving only 3 responses out of 48 parents
Parents are BUSY!
Pivot to Usability Testing with Parents
I quickly pivoted to short, in-person usability testing with 5 parents when they came to the studio to pick up their kids. This method allowed me to gather richer, more actionable insights in just a few minutes per interaction. These testing revealed key pain points, such as difficulties navigating class registration and poor legibility of course description, which directly informed my redesign.
Findings & Insights
Based on the quantitative & qualitative research, these are the most significant issues that needed to be addressed.
01
Discovered Underlying Problems
Distinctive problems are interconnected, all pointing to a deep-rooted central issue: an inconvenient and confusing website. This means that redesigning the website can address different issues.
02
Scattered Information in Home Page
Users expressed that the landing page does not accurately reflect the studio's environment. This was also a particular difference noted in competitor research.
03
Unclear Navigation
A major issue expressed by every tester was the difficulty in navigating the menu in the navigation bar due to its unclear wording, unnecessary items, and lack of intuitive design.
04
Legibility & Readability Issues
Most users were confused about understanding the descriptions for programs, and often, users would ask for detailed elaboration through email or messages. Additionally, unclear fonts and colors hindered readability.
"How might we simplify website navigation and streamline the registration process so that parents can quickly find and enroll in classes, reducing disruptions for teachers?"
Ideation
Exploring Possibilities
Before I make any design decision, I mapped out major issues from research and their potential solutions.
New User Flow with Linear and Minimalist Design
Given current complexity of choosing the program and course registration, I mapped the steps to checkout in a straightforward and sequential manner for our target users. By combining ambiguous two menus of programs and registration, I made easy path to program registration, minimizing users' cognitive load and risk of losing customer by frustration or confusion.
Visual Design
In addition to UX Design, I also created poster, banner, and character design which goes cohesively with website design system.
Final Design Overview
Design Deliverables
Final Design - Program Page
Two column smart checkout process
A split view layout that keeps booking tools in sight while parents explore details, cutting decision time and increasing text legibility.
Scroll and stick information
Let the information flow top to bottom but keep the key actions within the view throughout the scroll.
Updates for date and time selection
Within one section, updates are applied to streamline registration and reduce cognitive load of thinking of schedules and prices.
Outcome
What happened after launching the redesign?
I wrapped up with final design deliverables and implemented changes on the website two weeks before opening Thanksgiving Camp registration. After releasing the redesigned website, I went on website analysis again to see how it address user pain points and business frictions.
↓ 20% Bounce Rate
On overall pages, we made major drop from 65% to ideal bounce rate for art business of 45%. Clear navigation labels and putting up brand identity on the first pale helped users find relevant programs faster and reduced early exits.
↑ 3X Checkout Conversions
One year ago, only 7 parents registered online for the Thanksgiving Camp, despite an average of 50 total students attending. This meant 40+ parents chose in-person or phone registration instead of online checkouts.
After the redesign,
⁃ online checkouts more than doubled to 16
⁃ conversion rate rose from 1% to 3%
While there's still room for growth, this marks a meaningful improvement for a small business and an early sign that the new user flow is building trust and reducing drop-offs.
Visual Identity
Design System Overview
The heart behind all the consistencies and cohesion of the platform. I build a scalable system using Atomic Design Principles which helped organize components from foundational elements to full templates. It allowed me to reuse elements across the entire website, simplify handoff, and rapidly test new designs without starting from scratch.
Foundation: Typography, Color, Buttons
I established a core visual language aligned with the Nine Stuio's warm and playful tone and stakeholder input. Used accessible type scales, color tokens, icon sets, and interactive button states. These foundations were shared with developers as design tokens for clarity and consistency in implementation.
Component Library
I created reusable, flexible components. For example, the sidebar design were built with variant controls to prototype micro-interactions linked between components.
Given that, text-heavy nature of the pages for program information, I intentionally utilized consistent layout patterns to maintain readability and visual clarity of components.
Takeaways
01
Data-driven project
This project has been more focused on data analysis than ever before, requiring me to learn new vocabulary to understand its implications in data metrics fully. It has significantly broadened my analytical skills and deepened my understanding of web dynamics.
02
Precise design concept
The most significant visual improvement stemmed from implementing a unified design system. Every user from the second usability testing mentioned its notable visual design and showed high satisfaction. A consistent style of design attracts users to stay longer, potentially leading to further exploration.
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