Overview
Spring is the start of a new season for Calderon Lawn Service. At the beginning of March, Calderon’s busy period starts, and clients reach out the most seeking their services. They have over 1,000 satisfied clients in the DMV and have been in the market for over 30 years.
Calderon Lawn Service is one of my oldest clients. They are a residential lawn care company with clients all over northern Virginia. They have recently reached out to me to redesign their website, which I first developed when responsive design was not as popular as it is now.
The Problem
In the last few years, Calderon has lost some of his most loyal clients to other companies offering better deals. The problem is that they are already offering some of the lowest prices in the market and can’t go any lower as they must pay their workers, who, on average, have been in the company for 20 years. Additionally, they have work-related bills and insurance to pay. They know that to stay in business, they need to find new clients while trying to keep their current ones.
The Goal
We plan to launch an interactive, comprehensive, easy-to-navigate. The focus of this website was for current clients to return every season and to continue developing a strong bond with Calderon Lawn Service. Additionally, I wanted to increase his clientele by developing a website that is easy to navigate and know that Calderon is a company that can be trusted. Once this is achieved, the objective is to provide potential clients with options for a free, no-obligation estimate. We developed the website using three key factors on why they are the better choice:
• With many satisfied clients and over 30 years in the market, they can guarantee results.
• They have some of the lowest prices in the region while having experienced employees.
• They are licensed and insured, which cheaper companies may not be and can expose homeowners.
These factors will remind his current clients why it is important to remain with Calderon Lawn Service while promoting his company and its services to potential clients and choosing them over their competitors.
One of the critical components of this website is the accessibility and options to request service.
Status
The website’s interactive prototype has been completed and tested successfully. It is currently under development and will launch in early Spring.
Process
Research
The project began with a meeting with the client, Mr. Josue Calderon. We did a combination of qualitative and quantitive research. On a hot summer day in May, I got to speak with him and his crew. I learned of their process and about their most requested services. I also interviewed some of his current clients and asked them a few questions to learn about their needs and pain points. I was able to interview a pool of clients with different demographics, such as age, gender, marital status, location, and home type. This last one, to me, was very important because I wanted to learn whether or not the services requested are the same depending on whether it’s a single home or a townhouse. To my surprise, the size of the house did not matter. Every person interviewed had the same needs. The only thing that changed was the pricing and the time spent at their location. We also research large companies in the lawn care field to see what’s working and not working for them. We learned that a lot of companies have a vast list of services, and sometimes, that overwhelms the clients, or important information, such as requesting a quote, gets lost or overlooked.
Personas
As mentioned earlier, I developed two personas by meeting current clients during the research phase. These two personas consisted of an older person living alone, unable to do most tasks, and another person in their 30s with a family and new to home ownership.
User Flows
What’s the main purpose of developing the website? I had that question, and using this method made the answer clear. I wanted users to end up in Calderon’s inbox or phone history. I wanted his website to be the link between his company and users seeking lawn care services.
Sitemap
From an early stage in the process, I learned that many of his clients are older individuals with basic web navigation skills. I also learned that many of them use a desktop instead of their mobile, so I wanted to create a website with as few web pages as possible.
Design
Sketch Concept
I had plenty of ideas, and this stage helped me visualize them. I conceptualized what would become the final product. Unfortunately, some of these ideas didn’t make it to the final product because I felt they were less valuable than I initially thought.
Prototyping
I gathered 10 people of different backgrounds and ages for the testing phase. I split the participants into two groups so that they could test the website on both web and mobile. I provided the participants with 12 tasks, which any of them found challenging to complete.
One of my concerns was that I had focused too much on providing users with options to reach out to Calderon Lawn Service. I often repeated “Free Estimate,” especially on the landing page, where I have the “Free Estimate” button and phone number on the navigation bar, another button on the hero image, and the phone number before the footer. After observing users, my concerns disappear. Especially when one of the positive feedback I got from the participants was that they liked that the phone number was repeated at the bottom of all pages. This was especially true after reading the company’s background or learning about their services, as they could just dial up the number to either schedule an appointment or ask any questions they may have.
Visuals
The visual identity really put the website together. Instead of focusing on the services, like having images of workers mowing the grass or trimming hedges, I focused on his clients. I wanted happy people enjoying their yards and beautiful landscapes.
I learned from his clients that they like Calderon Lawn Service because of Josué Calderon. Josué is a very charismatic, welcoming individual that clients can trust. The challenge with this was that he was shy when it came to being photographed. I wanted to show him in action to create a connection between him and potential clients. Therefore, I decided to use color psychology instead. I chose warm greens as they not only represent nature but also represent trust and security. That being said, I wanted potential clients to feel safe and that they made an excellent choice by choosing his business.
Additionally, I developed his logo to show a fresh start. I wanted his current clients to know that Josue Calderon is more present than ever.
Give it a try!
