Spirituality goes digital. - whaaat?
Wait, what?
There are so many options to take care of your mind and body, but no one talks about a free of taboo exploration of spirituality. There are numerous holistic services and lots of them support people in self-development. I helped to design a startup that allows exploring those services in a curated and open place.
About the project
Title: Eleven
My role: Project management, Service designer, UX research and market research.
Link: Elevenself.com
Length: 1 month discovery
Company: Djungle Studio
Creating a platform that, on one hand, welcomes users who want to delve into the holistic world and, on the other hand, provides professionals with tools to reach a larger number of clients through digital means and more effective communication
The brief
Where did it start?
I began our exploration by identifying the key questions for the service:
-
Would people be open to booking these types of services online?
-
How can we find the perfect tone of voice for this topic?
-
Who is our target audience in detail, and how extensive is it?
-
Would service providers be interested in getting to know the platform better?
Would people trust "digital"?
To discover this information, I conducted primary research through 12 qualitative interviews. Individuals aged between 20 and 55 years old were selected, who were not entirely skeptical about holistic experiences. Additionally, I conducted a survey to gain an initial understanding of people's views on the matter. This survey covered users' past experiences, the price range they had previously paid, and a cultural investigation into the most requested holistic services in Italy.
Interview insights
"How do I evaluate the professional?"
People often feel uncertain about trying these services because they struggle to assess the backgrounds of the professionals involved. Furthermore, individuals expressed a keen interest in learning about the service provider's personal background, their story, habits in their personal life, and the number of sessions they have conducted.
"I don't know anyone that does..."
People expressed an interest in trying new experiences they had never heard of before. However, they faced a dilemma as they didn't know anyone personally who offered these experiences, and the existing digital solutions failed to instill trust.
"There are too many choices, I get lost!"
There are numerous professionals in this field on the internet, and by simply looking at their faces, people find it challenging to determine what constitutes the perfect service and operator.
"I found it on Instagram"
In addition to word of mouth, we discovered that people become acquainted with these services through service providers who create content related to them on Instagram.
During the interviews, users appeared quite enthusiastic and curious about trying out these experiences. However, our primary goal was to uncover any concerns related to trusting digital platforms and gather insights that could be applied to improve the user experience of the prototype.
Getting to know service providers
To understand the challenges and requirements of service providers and to determine if they would be interested in joining the platform, we actively sought out professionals and tested their services. This allowed us to establish a small network for the initial iteration of the service prototype, making it more feasible.
Findings:
My image!
Service providers expressed concerns about the platform's tone of voice, wanting to ensure that their image wasn't associated with scam-like platforms.
Brand?
Service providers encountered difficulties when it came to self-promotion in terms of branding and effectively utilizing marketing channels to promote their services.
Word of mouth
The majority of their clients came through word of mouth, but they recognized that this approach had limitations, particularly in terms of timing and the number of clients it could attract for their business.
Customer needs
They struggled to translate user needs into tailor-made experiences that could attract new users, often sticking to general and broad experiences instead.
Building prototype
After conducting competitor research and listening to people during interviews, we made the decision to create a clean and uncluttered brand identity that wouldn't overwhelm individuals. The use of gradients was chosen to align with the gentle and soothing tone of the experiences offered. Our goal was to appeal to a curious target audience that had never tried this kind of service before.
Brand identity
Based on the insights from the interviews, we incorporated a "Needs" section on the homepage. This approach allows users to connect with the problems they are currently facing and discover new services that could potentially address those issues, rather than just searching by service type.
Home
The information displayed on the service provider page was carefully chosen based on insights from interviews and user testing. Our aim was to establish trust in their work by providing a comprehensive background, detailing the number of sessions offered, and explaining how the sessions would work. This approach was designed to minimize the fear of the unknown and give users a clear understanding of what to expect from a service provider they might not be
familiar with.
Service provider page
Iterate, test, iterate...
Embracing an agile mindset, after the initial round of sponsored marketing campaigns, we delved into the analysis of heat maps and user recordings provided by HotJar. It became evident that there were a significant number of clicks but relatively few bookings. This insight spurred us to further enhance our offerings, focusing on gaining trust and instilling confidence in people, thereby encouraging them to make bookings.
Start by working on creating videos to showcase our service providers better! I've been actively involved in developing scripts, creating scenarios, and assisting in the video production process. It's a bit like how Airbnb operated in its early days, emphasizing the personal touch to introduce our service providers effectively.
We co-desgined with the service providers to develop smaller, bite-sized offerings. This way, individuals who were curious but hesitant to commit to a larger expense upfront could dip their toes in and give it a try!
How did we do it?
What's next?
I recently put this idea to the test in Brazil, complete with a fresh brand identity, a unique array of services, and a communication style that embraces the local Brazilian flavor! If you're curious and want to take a sneak peek, feel free to get in touch with me—I'd love to share more details! 😊
All about people, places and stories