Rhino Construction
Summary: Time to Renovate
Position: UX Designer & Brand Consultant
Type of Company: Construction Company
Project: Customer Surveys, Interviews, Site Design, and Visual Refresh
Technologies: User Survey, User Interviews, Card Sorting, Sketch, Affinity Designers, Photoshop, Illustrator
Rhino Construction is a construction company delivering landmark residential, commercial, and industrial projects throughout America. As the Senior UX Designer & Brand Consultant, I collaborated with marketing, leadership, and the owner to create a user experience curated for their desired clients.
Goal
Define the user experience for both mobile and web within 6 months to provide value for premium construction clients. I would create a consistent user experience regarding user flow, visuals, tone, and behaviors based on user research.
My approach was to collect feedback from existing and potential customers, bring past projects to light in a shareable form and place them as a leader in the online construction community.
Problem: "Fixer Upper"
The site was losing target customers due to outdated brand choices, legacy web standards, and broken mobile pages. It looked pretty straight forward. However, user testing would reveal how a key feature was missing from the beginning.
Collecting User Feedback
Not every project needs a survey, but every company needs feedback. I wrote and conducted surveys to create natural experiences utilizing feedback loops. After reviewing current feedback, I wrote surveys that could be used before, during, and after a project. While working with the front desk administrator, I understood feedback was coming in but not being documented. The surveys helped inform my decisions and future projects. My goal was to:
Discover clear and actionable insights
Write clean, simple, and unbiased questions
Ask the right types of questions in the best order
Focus on completion time instead of the # of questions
Project Survey
5 sample Rhino questions:
Was the quality of the work what you expected?
Did the job start on time?
Were the workers on the job courteous and professional?
Was the job completed in a timely manner?
Would you refer our company to someone else?
Branding Survey
5 sample Rhino questions:
Share 3 words you'd use to describe Rhino Construction?
What do you think this company does?
Is this logo trustworthy?
Would you change any of the colors of this logo?
What comes to mind when you look at this logo?
Contractor Survey
5 sample Rhino questions:
How would you rate your experience with our contractor?
Were they able to answer your questions or concerns?
Would you like to work with this person again?
Overall, how would you rate their performance?
How could they improve the Rhino experience?
User Testing
5 sample Rhino questions:
Was the Rhino website easy to use?
What would you change about it?
How would you describe the Rhino site?
What are you hoping to accomplish by visiting our website?
How would you request a quote?
Survey Says!
Giving negative feedback can be challenging. I delivered these findings in person, prioritized the problems we can solve, and provided a plan for addressing those problems. I used best practice examples to keep negative news from being taken personally. Applying the format of Good, Better, Best prevents the feedback from sounding bad and more as options for improvement. Here are some key results:
100% of mobile users said requesting a quote is their main priority
100% disliked the quoting system
16% could locate quote form in under a minute
84% would not hire them based on their site alone
The results for Rhino Construction informed the owner and marketing about their image and ease of use. Hearing feedback from outside the organization confirmed their hypothesis on several issues.
Let's Put Our Results to Work
3 Personas
Based on past client data, stakeholder interviews, and our first round of testing I was able to create 3 personas. One for residential, commercial, and industrial. Some shared aspects are:
High net-worth
35-55 years of age
Already owns buildings or lots
Interested in high-end and modern amenities
Attracted to crisp, clean styling with natural light
"Quote Button" in Navigation
After the first round of testing, I included a "Request a Quote" to my wireframes. Multiple versions were tested and placing the button above the main navigation bar proved to be best. We reduced the previous quote request system to name, phone, email, and description field. A question residential, commercial, and industrial was added to help filter results internally.
Designing a Floor Plan
Before you can jump into building a house, you need a logical floor plan. I used my UX Kits - Website Deck to help remind the clients of possible options and wrote down additional ideas with dry erase on the back of the cards.
Information Architecture: Sketch
I wanted to take both the clients' and users' needs into account, improving upon the site's current functionality. In Sketch App, I've constructed a sketch web-flow library. It helps speed up IA tremendously and is something I can maintain myself.
Wireframes
We approved these wireframes in two rounds, skipping a mid-fidelity mockup. Content creation was clean and quick. Our mantra was, "show don't tell." The copy was kept brief, allowing images and testimonials to shine.
Rhino Construction
Final Results: Quotes Up 84%
Rhino Construction's goal was reached, ahead of schedule and within budget. Before launching, the site received some minor updates to fix immediate problems. The "Request a Quote" feature proved to be a big win for Rhino as gave away to immediately funnel requests to the correct person. This feature came directly from user flow & testing.
Online quote submissions increased by 84% from last year
Visits to Rhino Construction increase 3x from mobile visits
Additional metadata improved Google results
Site load time is now 2 seconds compared to 14 seconds thanks to cleaner code
Quotes Up 84%
3x As Many Visits
Easier To Find
Site Speed Improved
What I Learned
I learned about creating an environment of feedback. When giving notes, be mindful of how connected someone is to their job and company. Someone poured themselves into a previous project like the logo or website. Respecting their creators and remembering how they helped get Rhino Construction to this point was always on my mind.