Case Study
Tot Squad
Website and Onboarding Process Redesign
Overview
Tot Squad is a marketplace where parents can easily find and hire the developmental providers they need like sleep consultants, doulas, lactation specialists, and nutritionists. Currently, Tot Squad has a website that is mobile friendly, but it is still being built out. The company has mostly focused on the parent’s journey for finding the best provider, but not much time and attention has been spent on the provider side of the platform.
For this project we will be focusing on a website redesign, form redesign, and rethinking the whole onboarding experience. The target users are service providers who are signing up to be a part of Tot Squad’s web application. Our goal is to create the most delightful user journey for Tot Squad providers by streamlining the onboarding process to increase the number of providers that utilize the marketplace platform.
Client: Tot Squad
Team: Leigh Yonemoto, Jenny Ng
Tools: Figma, Miro, Whimsical, FormStack
My Role
I contributed to all phases of the design process including: research, user interviews, usability testing, and data synthesis. I concentrated a large part of my individual efforts to the creation of the wireframes, prototyping, and move to high fidelity.
Problem Statement:
Tot Squad needs a better way to onboard providers and create a better user experience on the website platform.
🠓 🠓↓ scroll to view the research
The Solution:
RESEARCH
Collect provider feedback on the existing onboarding process.
INTERVIEW PROVIDERS
Understand the main motivators for joining a marketplace.
SURVEY PARENTS
Understand what parents need to know when selecting a provider.
WEBSITE REDESIGN
Propose changes to the existing marketplace and user interface based on research findings.
The Process
RESEARCH
The first step in the process was to conduct research to gain a better understanding of Tot Squad’s users and the industry competition to uncover which areas we needed to put most of our attention towards.
Competitive Analysis
In order to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Tot Squad against its competitors, we created a feature inventory. The intent was to identify the services and features new parents expect when visiting these sites to ensure that our design solution would meet their needs. The moon icon indicates which features are included for each competitor.
Parent Interviews and Survey Responses
When asked, “What is the most important thing you look for in a provider?,” parents responded that reviews were the most important and that they sought reviews from multiple sources: Google, Yelp, Healthgrades, Mom groups, friends, midwives, pediatricians and other health professionals.
They also overwhelmingly stated that cost was something they looked at prior to deciding whether or not to contact a provider. These respondents specifically asked whether or not this was something covered by insurance and two asked about payment plans if services were not covered by insurance.
Outliers that were mentioned besides utilizing reviews and checking for cost were the matter of location, the importance of credentials, and understanding specific approaches and education.
We then asked parents to rate the importance of the following:
reviews
Parents overwhelmingly stated that they trust reviews from friends, family, doctors (pediatricians and OB/GYNs), and mom groups.
Previous Experience
Knowing the provider’s previous experience is helpful to determine if parents and providers will work well together.
Education
The background education of the provider is important, but more emphasis is put on the methods the provider utilizes and what experiences and successes they have had.
Availability
A provider's scheduling calendar should be available for parents to book and view availability. Parents also want to know if they will be able to contact a provider if emergencies arise.
Community
Parents were neutral when it came to having access to a private community. Most parents prefer 1 on 1 sessions with a provider but many are also open to group classes depending on the service.
Fun facts
Including “fun facts” is a way for parents to determine provider fit. Emphasis is placed on having like-minded values when it comes to parenting.
Provider Interviews
6 providers interviewed
Responses organized by category
Quotes placed on similar cards for anonymity
Key Takeaways
- Tot Squad providers felt uninformed during the onboarding process due to lack of follow-up and details about what it means to be a part of the platform.
- The Tot Squad onboarding form is lengthy and confusing.
- Providers have difficulty marketing their services and many resort to social media sites or referrals from current parent clients.
- Parents want to see a provider’s reviews and professional background to aid in their decision making process.
- Due to COVID, virtual services are becoming more common.
SYNTHESIS
We synthesized the data we collected during the research stage and to understand the problems our users are facing. This tells us why we are making changes to Tot Squad’s existing platform.
SWOT Analysis
This SWOT analysis outlines what Tot Squad does well, what they are lacking, how to minimize risks, and ways to take advantage of opportunities for success.
Strengths
- Free advertising for providers
- Various support services (breastfeeding, sleep coaching, car seat assistance, nutrition)
- Personalized provider profile
- Large retail partnerships
- Ability for providers to integrate reviews from external sources (i.e. Yelp and Google)
weaknesses
- Website is still being built out
- Disorganized onboarding process for providers
- Lack of communication and follow up with providers after they apply
- Lack of resources and guidance once providers are accepted onto the Tot Squad platform
- No uniform way to inform providers and provide updates
- Limited number of providers and lack of parent users
- Low social media engagement
- Insurance is not supported
Opportunities
- Growing market need for newborn service providers
- Social media and the utilization of Facebook groups and Instagram can be a powerful marketing opportunity
- Partnerships with small businesses in target locations specializing in baby products can be a trustworthy resource to attract more parents to the site and boost brand recognition
- Walmart partnership: upon purchase parents would have the option to utilize Tot Squad to help with additional services
- Communication with providers throughout the onboarding process
- References to help providers understand how marketing works
Threats
- Competition from existing online service provider platforms that offer similar services to new parent users
- State of COVID-19 and restrictions/limitations regarding in-person services
- Decrease in target users due to the predicted decline in birth rate in 2021 due to COVID-19
- Poor reviews on external websites (i.e. Walmart, provider groups)
- Providers talking through their network groups about ineffectiveness of the site making other providers not want to join
User Personas
Creating personas is one of my favorite parts of the design process. Empathizing and understanding your users is the key to providing meaningful help. The following personas were created as composites of the users we interviewed and surveyed. They gave life to the problem and allowed us to refer to a person rather than a faceless generic user. This humanized our design process.
Meet Sierra
Problem Statement
Sierra, a current Tot Squad sleep consultant, needs up-to-date information about marketing strategies, changes, and opportunities on the Tot Squad site in order to offer relevant services to grow her clientele.
Meet Trisha
Problem Statement
Trisha, a entrepreneurial postpartum doula, needs a platform to showcase her services effectively in order to connect with potential clients and to network with fellow service providers.
Meet Claire
Problem Statement
Claire, a tired and frustrated new mother, needs an efficient and trustworthy way to compare and find a provider to help support her so that she can better care for her baby, her family, and feel like she can return to work when it’s time.
IDEATION
Keeping our users at the center of our decision making process, we brainstormed solutions that would address their problem statements.
Task Flows
We created a task flow for each persona to help visualize the journey of each user on Tot Squad’s platform. We also wanted to make sure the screen to screen navigation was logical and users could accomplish their goals.
Site Map
To improve the information architecture and the navigation of Tot Squad’s website, we created an inspirational site map. We revised the service navigation to lead to the appropriate provider listing page. We also updated the account tab in the top navigation to be dependent on whether the user was logging in as a provider or a parent. Organizing the content in this way would make navigating the site more efficient and intuitive for both providers and parents.
Rethinking the Form
We received feedback from current providers that the eight page onboarding form was wildly complex and confusing, causing many providers to question whether or not they wanted to follow through with the application process. We completed the form ourselves and also conducted task analyses with 3 users to uncover the sections of the form that were irrelevant and redundant.
We were able to cut the form down to one page to include only the information needed to determine whether a provider was qualified to join Tot Squad. We presented the simplified form to our client and received positive feedback. Tot Squad agreed that the additional information originally included in the eight page form was unnecessary and would make more sense as a verbal discussion during the interview process.
Initial Sketches
Before I began wireframing, I sketched out a general layout of what I wanted my main pages to look like.
PROTOTYPE
This phase focused on the redesign of the website UI. We wanted to maintain Tot Squad’s brand identity as we took the product from low-fidelity sketches, to mid-fidelity wireframes, to the high-fidelity prototype.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
We began creating the home page, profile page, and the provider listing page. We included information users found important during our user interviews.
Users wanted to know how to choose a trusted provider, so we included that information at the top of the home page. Users also wanted to see a provider’s credentials and reviews on their profile. Lastly, we received feedback that the filters on the provider listing page was confusing and didn’t always work. We created a drop down filtering system organized by category to make filtering results easier.
Hi-fidelity Prototypes
Using my mid-fidelity wireframes, I created a desktop prototype to replicate what the live Tot Squad website would look like. We wanted to create responsive designs for the site, so we built a mobile prototype as well.
TEST
Using our desktop and mobile prototypes we began usability testing. We gave users tasks and had them navigate the prototype.
Usability Testing
We received feedback on the Tot Squad homepage and made the below changes to improve our UI and overall content structure.
In the How it Works section, our user said it isn’t that clear that these were steps to be followed. They wanted it to look more like a process or a flow.
We added numbers to the How it Works section to make it easier for users to understand the process for booking a provider.
Our user said the Blog Post section made it look like the posts weren’t clickable.
We changed the text to be underlined and received feedback that they now looked like links, not just images and text.
Upon first glance, the two buttons for Find a Provider and Become a Provider looks like the same button. This makes it look like a duplicated button.
We made the Become a Provider button a different color to make it stand out and avoid confusion.
Users who do not know about Tot Squad will want proof that they can trust the services provided and that it a reputable company. They suggested that moving the Accreditations section higher on the homepage will build trust among parents and providers and will make them more willing to utilize the marketplace. We moved this section right below the How it Works section on the homepage.
Next Steps?
Given more time with our client, we would address the following:
Strategic Marketing to Acquire Parent Users
The scope of this project was to focus on the provider side of the Tot Squad marketplace. Once Tot Squad is able to acquire more providers, the goal will be to get more parents to join the site. Although we assisted with redesigning the pages on the parent side of the website, marketing strategies need to be implemented in order to gain more brand recognition and get parents to create an account and use Tot Squad’s services.
Streamline Scheduling and Booking Process
After interviewing parents, the importance of a simple and user friendly way to book services and view a provider’s availability was important in deciding whether to work with a provider. On the provider end, a major pain point was disorganized scheduling methods and not receiving notifications when a client would book a service. We would like to explore ways to streamline the scheduling process and design a booking method to enhance the user experience for both parents and providers.
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Design Challenges
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