OVERVIEW

Model Citizen was born out of response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lack of easy access to personal protective equipment (PPE).

With the supply chains for PPE over-stressed, it became nearly impossible for the public to rely on access to face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer.  Store shelves, real and digital, became empty.  Model Citizen found a supply source and their mission was to create a convenient and affordable way for people to get these necessary items, while prioritizing giving back to communities that can’t afford them. Using a subscription model, customers get the convenience of receiving quality products at an affordable price, guaranteed monthly. For every mask sold, Model Citizen will donate one to a group in need because individual health is dependent on the health of our collective communities.

THE CHALLENGE

Redesign their website in 6 weeks to encourage more engagement, build trust and ultimately increase conversion.

Upon initial launch in mid-July of 2020, Model Citizen didn’t feel like they were getting the user engagement they had anticipated. With massive lockdowns and limited in-person shopping, most of the general public resorted to online shopping for PPE products. It was important to create a user experience that operated seamlessly in a digital atmosphere.

USERS AND AUDIENCE

Storytelling a common problem during a pandemic: fear of scarcity. 

Our persona hypothesis included three different archetypes that were created through discussions with stakeholders about their intended target audience. We also took inspiration from our own lives, including friend’s and family’s situations. Within those personas, we explored various work/life situations in correlation to their need and access to PPE supplies. This allowed us to develop a clear idea of how Model Citizen would engage and help those people.

MY ROLE

I worked closely with the company’s co-founders, a web optimizer and developer to produce this project.

This was a small operation of about 6 people. I led the UX and UI work on behalf of Pow Interactive. I produced and presented all major deliverables with guidance from my mentor. Model Citizen’s team was composed of two co-founders. They brought in a web optimizer from the digital advertising agency, Waverly Co, to provide guidance on techniques that have worked for a successful, subscription-model client of theirs.  The final design was prepared for an outside developer using the collaborative effort between Sketch, Craft and Invision. Handing off the website this way gave them the ability to measure margins and padding, get exact sizes, pull HEX colors and download assets.

SCOPE AND CONSTRAINTS

No time to waste in a pandemic.

This was a pro bono project with quick turnaround of 6 weeks to research, design and implement a new website. With the pandemic growing by the day, the clock was ticking to get a redesign out there to engage with people and get them the resources they were having trouble accessing.We also wanted to get a leg up on the competition. With a tight turnaround and segmented team, we had more of a waterfall approach to the project.

PROCESS

Stripping a website down to the studs.

We started with a preliminary user experience audit of the initial site. This included doing a SWOT analysis, creating hypothetical personas, comparison audits of assumed competition and inspirational sites and a look at heuristics. We also looked at the Google analytics gathered from their launch to give us an idea of where to improve. 

Click on images below to enlarge

From the gathered information, I proposed optimized wireframes. 

These optimizations included:

OUTCOMES AND LESSONS

Good Intentions and lessons learned.

The final product was a well-designed website that featured more of the product and brand in personable photographs, copywriting, reviews and testimonials. 

I used google analytics to compare the launch of the new website to the old. 
Here’s what we found:

•   User sessions increased 23%

•   Returning visitors increased 8%

These numbers above show that we were able to increase engagement and build trust. One of the owners also cited that there was an increase in items being added to the cart. Unfortunately, those carts were abandoned and we didn’t get the conversion we were looking for. A couple months later, financial factors lead to the company shutting down shop.

As for why we didn’t get the results we were looking for, there’s a lot we can speculate. It’s possible that a subscription model may have been the wrong path or it’s possible that people were able to start finding products through other sources again. Potentially sites they had already built trust in.
However, If I learned anything since transitioning from print design to digital, websites need to be treated like living, breathing organisms.  Otherwise they become dead space on the internet that people forget about. From what I noticed after we handed off the website in early September, there was a lack of social media presence. Instagram posts fell off mid-July and so did Facebook interactions in early August. These platforms could have been leveraged more purposefully while we were redesigning the site. Content creation, digital marketing and resilience can lead SEO, gain traffic and ultimately create results. In hindsight, I should have advocated for more of that strategy. 

Sam Gostnell, Co-Founder

Testimonial from Model Citizen