Revamping a cat lounge website for a smoother experience
El Jefe UX Redesign
Overview
El Jefe Cat Lounge isn’t just a place to hang out with adorable cats—it’s a space for fostering connections, hosting events, and helping rescue cats find their forever homes. But while the in-person experience was warm and inviting, the website didn’t offer the same ease and clarity. Visitors struggled to find key information, leading to missed bookings, lower event turnout, and confusion about the adoption process.
The Background
The website’s usability issues created barriers for potential visitors and adopters, making it harder for them to engage with the lounge.
Hidden Event & Adoption Info – Users struggled to find details about upcoming events and how to adopt a cat.
Low Booking Button Visibility – The booking option wasn’t prominent, making it harder to schedule visits.
Unclear Adoption Process – The steps for adoption were confusing, leaving potential adopters uncertain.
These challenges affected engagement, bookings, and adoptions, ultimately limiting the lounge’s impact.
The Problem
I redesigned the El Jefe Cat Lounge website to create a smoother, more intuitive experience that connects users with the information they need. The new design improves navigation, makes booking effortless, and presents adoption details clearly. By prioritizing usability and accessibility, the redesign helps users spend less time searching and more time bonding with cats—whether online or in person.
The Solution
The process of problem identification & solution ideation.
Research & Findings
To understand the needs and expectations of the users, I conducted a series of surveys. These were designed to uncover the major pain points and areas of improvement for the El Jefe Cat Lounge website.
A few of the key questions included:
What are your primary reasons for visiting the El Jefe Cat Lounge website?
What difficulties do you face when navigating websites for pet adoptions?
What do you value most when visiting a cat lounge?
I interviewed 6 participants, gathering valuable insights that helped me form the basis for the redesign.
To ensure a more inclusive user experience, I conducted an accessibility audit of the El Jefe Cat Lounge website. The goal was to identify and address accessibility issues based on WCAG standards.
Key Findings:
Empty button labels: Buttons lacked descriptive labels, complicating navigation for screen reader users.
Poor contrast: Some text failed to meet minimum contrast requirements, making it hard to read for users with visual impairments.
Missing first-level headings: The homepage lacked clear headings, hindering navigation for screen reader users.
Unlabeled forms: Forms on the subscription page had unclear labels, affecting user understanding.
Low contrast elements: Some buttons and text had insufficient contrast, impacting readability.
Heuristic Evaluation
I wanted to dig deeper into how the website’s design was impacting users, so I took a closer look through a heuristic evaluation using Nielsen’s 10 usability principles. This helped me uncover some areas where the site could do a better job of guiding users and making their experience smoother.
Poor Visibility of System Status
Breadcrumbs appear only in the ‘Merchandise’ section, and navigation buttons don’t highlight the active page, making it harder for users to track their location. While these issues don’t block tasks, they add unnecessary friction to navigation.
Inefficient Use Flow
The site lacks a “Favorite” feature for adoption cats, requiring users to scroll through the page repeatedly. Additionally, the event registration process is inefficient, requiring extra steps to manually select events after being redirected from the main page.
User Interviews
Accessibility Audit
Ineffective Error Prevention
Required fields do not trigger real-time validation.This delayed feedback can lead to user frustration since they must wait until after submission to identify & correct errors.
Usability Testing
After diving deep into the website's navigation and identifying the usability issues, we wanted to see how real users interacted with the site. So, we invited a small group of visitors to put the website to the test. Our goal? To pinpoint the exact pain points that could be slowing them down or causing confusion.
We gave them a few key tasks to complete: navigating through different pages, making a reservation, and purchasing tickets for events. As we watched them click, scroll, and sometimes frown in frustration, we saw firsthand where the website was falling short.