Project Overview

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Approach & Methodology

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Role & Contributions

Working closely with the Head of Finance, Marketing Manager, and Studio Manager, I was the sole researcher and designer for the engagement.

Function	Contribution
Heuristic Evaluation	Audited existing website using Nielsen’s 10 heuristics; identified 13 discrete usability failures spanning error recovery, IA, mobile responsiveness, and CTA inconsistency
Stakeholder Interviews	Facilitated 18 user sessions across members, staff, ClassPass users, and co-owners via 1:1 interviews and focus groups; synthesized findings into affinity maps
Competitive Analysis	Benchmarked 5+ competitors on SEO, load time, visual design, and private event page strategy; surfaced domain naming tactic that improved search ranking for high-value booking queries
Requirements Definition	Translated business goals (revenue prioritization, persona segmentation, youth IA isolation) and user needs into structured design requirements in collaboration with the Head of Finance and Marketing Manager
Information Architecture	Reduced top-level navigation from 9 to 6 links; validated revised IA through remote tree jack sorting sessions on Optimal Workshop; resolved broken links and menu discrepancies
Persona & User Flow Development	Developed 4 distinct personas; mapped 5 user flows with differentiated entry points and CTAs aligned to revenue priority tiers
Prototyping & Usability Testing	Built mid-fidelity Figma prototype; conducted 2 rounds of usability testing with 9 participants; iterated on visual hierarchy, negative space, and hamburger menu iconography based on findings
Accessibility Compliance	Redesigned UI to meet W3CAG color contrast standards; applied cognitive accessibility principles (multiple navigation pathways, simplified IA) to serve a disproportionately neurodiverse user base

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Research Insights That Drove Decisions

The revenue hierarchy had to be explicit in the IA

The Head of Finance was clear: classes are the primary revenue driver, private events are the growth lever, and everything else is secondary. Research confirmed that users encountered all of these equally on the homepage, with no hierarchy. The redesign restructured the hero CTA, navigation order, and page prominence to mirror this priority stack.

The target audience skews neurodiverse — the site needs to be built for them

A co-owner noted that Laché disproportionately attracts neurodivergent individuals. The existing site violated multiple cognitive accessibility standards: too many font styles, insufficient color contrast, inconsistent navigation patterns, and a mobile experience requiring excessive scrolling. These were not cosmetic issues — they were conversion barriers for a core segment of the user base.

Private event potential was entirely untapped digitally

Interviews revealed that many users were unaware of Laché’s private party and event offerings. Competitive analysis showed that rival studios were capturing bachelorette and private event search traffic through dedicated landing pages and secondary domain names. This gap represented a clear, actionable revenue opportunity that the redesign directly addressed.

Personal bias required active management

As an existing Laché customer and aerialist, I assumed that class cancellations were a major pain point and that series-format classes were preferred. Both were disproven by research data. This experience reinforced the importance of structured research methods over intuition and shaped how findings were presented to stakeholders throughout the project.

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Skills Demonstrated

This project demonstrates a skill set relevant to UX, business analysis, product strategy, and operations roles:

• End-to-end research ownership: screener design, participant recruiting, moderation, synthesis, and stakeholder presentation
• Business requirements gathering: translating financial priorities and operational constraints into design specifications
• Information architecture validation using remote usability testing (Optimal Workshop tree jack sorting)
• Competitive and market analysis to identify positioning gaps and revenue opportunities
• Persona development and user flow mapping are tied directly to revenue tier prioritization
• Accessibility compliance (W3CAG) applied in practice across visual and cognitive dimensions
• Iterative prototyping with quantitative usability testing across two test rounds
• Cross-functional stakeholder communication across finance, operations, and marketing

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Reflections & Learnings

This project sharpened two skills that are difficult to develop in larger, more resourced teams: working around stakeholder availability without losing momentum, and managing personal bias when you are also a user of the product you are designing.

At first, the team was small and stretched thin. Adapting the research plan in real time — shifting between 1:1 interviews and group sessions based on who was available, using competitor copy as placeholder content to keep prototyping moving — required the same kind of pragmatic problem-solving that characterizes strong BA and PM work.

On the second, pre-existing familiarity with the product created assumptions that had to be actively surfaced and tested against data. Two of those assumptions were proven wrong. Documenting that process transparently in stakeholder presentations built credibility with a team that initially needed convincing on the value of a research-led approach.