WedReviews is a social platform matching couples about to wed with the perfect service providers.
The platform uses the power of authentic reviews of couples who share their wedding stories and recommend (or warn) others about the service providers they used.
WedReviews allows users to easily search and review a variety of suppliers and venues.
WedReviews
Background
In my private life, I was the first of my friends that got married. I didn’t really have anyone to consult with about wedding planning, or how to choose service providers.
I went online but the little information
I could find was scattered across different blogs of anonymous strangers.
I wasn’t sure if I can trust what I found, if the people are reliable, or if the service they provided reflected how I imagined my dream wedding to be. I ended up wasting precious time and continuously felt
I had to gamble and hope I’ll like their style on the wedding day itself. The whole thing became a complicated and lengthy project.
This is exactly the problem that WedReviews seeks to solve. The company was founded in 2013 with the aim of helping engaged couples easily plan their wedding without wasting time.
Engaged couples can get authentic reviews from newlywed couples who used different service providers, and decide who is the right supplier for their special day. The WedReviews platform connects suppliers and couples via reviews left by newlyweds.
The Problem
It’s been a while since WedReviews was launched, and meanwhile, the digital world completely transformed.
WedReviews was facing many challenges both commercially and in terms of UX/UI. For example, competing websites popped up, the platform’s look & feel became outdated, the desktop and mobile customer experience were completely different,
the recommendations weren’t relevant for all couples’ personal style and preference, and they also didn’t seem authentic enough.
Not to mention the search function in the website wasn’t well utilized, and a rather small number of leading wedding service providers were enlisted in WedReviews.
Project Goals
To make WedReviews the leading platform in the wedding industry, and become the marketing platform of choice for wedding service providers, we brainstormed how we can solve the current problems and totally reimagine the platform.
Create a simple to use platform with smooth user experience
Refresh the platform’s design by using new fonts, a unified color plate, and a clean and esthetic design that is less text-heavy. In terms of UX, the goal is to improve the search function and the overall navigation within the website.
Create a responsive user experience
Create a unified experience across platforms, so users could switch between desktop and mobile devices without friction. This way, users won’t need to learn new things or miss any features when using mobile.
Find service providers quickly and easily
Helping users find the right suppliers with menus, navigation, advances search and filtering options. This way users can easily find all the service providers they need to plan the perfect wedding.
Differentiate the website from competitors
By having authentic reviews that fit a multitude of wedding styles and preferences, WedReviews will offer additional value to a broader target audience.
Encourage users to leave an authentic review after their wedding
After our users (the couples) get married, we’ll encourage them to leave an authentic review about the suppliers they used. This way, their recommendations or warnings will help engaged couples find the right service providers and make the right choice for their own wedding.
Introduce a secret Facebook group to enhance customer experience
WedReviews has multiple products. One product is the popular ‘Urban Brides’ blog, which has a secret Facebook group of newlywed brides that share stories, reviews, tips and advice about arranging the perfect wedding. Combining WedReviews with this group will create a better customer experience, strengthen the perceived authenticity of WedReviews, and eventually become a powerful information sharing system.
Become a leading marketing channel for service providers
Make WedReviews an industry standard and encourage service providers to purchase premium subscriptions with the aim of increasing their sales volume. Of course, this will also increase the revenue stream of WedReviews.
We wanted to give couples a 360° solution for all their wedding planning needs, so they could easily plan a wedding without wasting time.
In parallel, we wanted to increase our customer base of service providers, and entice them to sign up for a premium subscription that will allow them to advertise their services.
Meet the new WedReviews
The Redesign
THE ISSUE
Basic UX problems and unappealing design (e.g. no main header, unclear navigation menus, different UX in mobile and desktop, and more).
THE GOAL
To create Israel’s leading marketing platform for service providers in the wedding industry.
THE SOLUTION
New design system
Changing fonts to create a trendy, appealing and more ‘light’ look & feel
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New color scheme
A unified color plette with 3 main colors - white, black, and mainly pink
New icon sets
Up to date icons that matches the color plate, branding and overall wedding theme
Information Architecture
Creating a clean and aesthetic design, that is easy on the eye, logically structured and not so text heavy
Responsive design
Creating an identical and smooth user experience on desktop and mobile, without losing any feature.
Search auto-complete
Smart search with search-as-you-type function that matches what a person types
Mega menu
Reduces text volume, provides clear headlines and suitable imagery
Counter
Shows the number of couples who reviewed suppliers as way to demonstrate social proof and encourage others to do the same
Before
After
Finding suppliers easily and quickly
THE ISSUE
The home page search isn’t located in a prominent place and does not call to action. The search field isn’t a smart search. The icons and visuals in categories’ homepage are outdated and not fitting to the target audience. Each category page is text heavy and doesn’t allow for proper filtering.
THE SOLUTION
Smart search
Creating a large and prominent search bar right in the middle of the homepage. Improving search functionality to create an easy and intuitive smart search using natural language, as well as icons (to filter for categories).
The search bar also allows for autocomplete, which is particularly important because it leads users to better search results, thus improving the overall user experience.
Search by category
Clicking on icons will lead to a search in a particular category. Afterwards users can search with additional filters (e.g. venue, budget, style, number of guests, etc.).
Before
After
Service provider page
THE ISSUE
The way service providers and venues are presented is not aesthetically appealing, and not well structured in terms of UX. There are issues with adding a new review, no options to filter reviews by location or style, no way of viewing up to date pictures unless you leave WedReviews, and more.
THE SOLUTION
Filters reviews by style / facebook friends / reviews from the Urban Bride blog
Tags
Encourages users to add a review after their wedding
Add review
Instead of asking service providers to manually add pictures, connecting to their instagram allows for sharing the most updated pictures in one click
Connect via Instagram
Shows posts from the secret facebook group of Urban Brides, strengthening the feeling this is an authentic review of real people giving their honest opinion
Credit post
Shows blog posts with supplier reviews from the Urban Brides blog, giving service providers additional ‘advertising space’
Blog feed
Before
After
Adding a new review
THE ISSUE
The ‘Add review’ button isn’t prominent, and the review form is not intuitive to use. This creates friction for users, making it less likely for them to leave a review.
THE SOLUTION
Review button
Moving the ‘Add review’ button to the main menu and adding it to individual service providers’ page.
This way we encourage users to leave a review
Better review form
Creating a short, intuitive and simple review form that will increase the percentage of completed reviews
Before
After
Credit Post
THE ISSUE
The recommendations weren’t relevant for all couples’ personal style and preference, and they also didn’t seem authentic enough.
THE SOLUTION
WedReviews has multiple products that revolve around the wedding industry. All these platforms offer high quality content that helped WedReviews become the market leader.
One product is the popular ‘Urban Brides’ blog, which has a secret Facebook group of newlywed brides that share stories, tips and advice about arranging the perfect wedding. These reviews are incredibly popular because they are authentic, covering the hottest trends in weddings, and occur in real time.
That’s how this idea was born: we designed a new feature that takes the review posts in the secret facebook group, and places them in the website too.
The key advantage is that engaged women could read recommendations from the secret Facebook on WedReviews, see the bride’s pictures of the results, figure out if this fits her personal style, and if so - read on to see what other service providers this bride used. These posts not only include pictures but also recommendations of others on the same service providers (e.g. facebook friends that loved the DJ or thought the hair and makeup were perfect).
This new feature allows us to use the information from the secret Facebook group also in the WedReviews system, and share the most up to date info with couples that aren’t in the secret group.
What I learned
When I started to work on the WedReviews product,
I discovered many user experience gaps and glitches in the product. In addition, the company’s goal was to grow its customer base, position itself better in the wedding industry, increase the number of user reviews, increase the number of daily visitors, and onboard more suppliers so that WedReviews will become one of their preferred marketing channels.
To realize these ambitions, we reimagined the product and figured out how we can solve the current issues. Unfortunately, we had to stop the implementation of the solutions we’ve developed due to COVID19.
This project overview shows the thinking, approach, and planning I used to level up the product, even though eventually we did not get to launch it.