The manual approach used by the Bali.Love team for assisting clients with their weddings has proven to be inefficient and time-consuming
Planning a wedding, especially in a different country, involves managing various aspects such as venue booking, accommodation, catering services, and hairdressing. This process can span over a year and requires coordination among multiple stakeholders. However, relying on tools like WhatsApp, Google Slides, and email for communication and booking management presents challenges in terms of resource consumption, communication efficiency, and scalability as the client base expands.
Clients: we want to bridge the gap between couples and vendors, simplify the wedding planning process.
Business: we want to increase revenue, reduce team workload, and improve our services. Additionally, promote the web app to attract new clients.
Our product launch brought relief to clients and improved workflow for our Bali admin team. The business has thrived, and designing a solution with a positive impact is fulfilling. Feedback from our project manager, who also owns the business, has been consistently positive:
"Emma is fantastic to work with and a talented designer." - Tom
"Mo (Emma) is amazing to work with. We can brainstorm creatively, have unclear briefs and objectives and she'll think deeply and pull it all together into beautiful and well thought through UIs. Very highly recommended." - Tom
Adapting design process for efficiency and communication
While a comprehensive design process typically involves research, analysis, wireframing, UI iterations, and testing, I adjusted my approach based on project needs. With our project manager occupied with other responsibilities, we minimized meetings and relied on screencasts for conveying problem statements and requirements. Analyzing requirements, identifying underlying problems, exploring design solutions, screencasting design explanations, and gathering feedback became the core of our process. Research was conducted as needed, with a focus on similar products like Easy Weddings and drawing inspiration from platforms such as Airbnb.
Design file disorganization, tight schedule, and remote collaboration
Upon joining the team, I found the existing design work to be highly disorganized. The designs were stored in multiple files, including a large UI kit file that caused slow file access. Additionally, components were scattered randomly on the canvas, making progress tracking and collaboration difficult. The lack of a clear handoff process also posed challenges for the development team. Furthermore, the project had a tight schedule, and working as a part-time freelancer in a remote setup added to the complexity.
Now we have a newly built
Design system, which I’ll talk about later.
Streamlined booking flow with wishlists
The booking flow is one of the major flows of the product, and Wishlist is an important part of the flow. Making bookings through the Wishlist page enables our clients to have an overview of the entire wedding package price and compare it with their budget before the payment.
Instead of traditional wedding packages, we opted for wishlists, allowing clients to easily customize their selections.
While designing the Wishlist card, I tried different ways to show the content.
Effective feedback and user-Centric iteration
Although we lacked a formal user testing process, we received immediate user feedback. Our project manager collaborated closely with clients, gathering feedback immediately after the design launch. This enabled us to swiftly identify and address issues, iterate rapidly, and refine the product.
Addressing price confusion and currency conversion
Client feedback revealed confusion regarding price changes during wedding planning. Deposits are paid upfront, and the remaining amount is paid over time. The fixed price in Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) at the time of booking can fluctuate due to currency rate changes. To address this, we proposed displaying the fixed price in IDR instead of the converted price. However, clients still need to know the equivalent amount in their currency.
Efficient communication with inbox feature
To enhance communication efficiency, we introduced an inbox feature to overcome the limitations of email and Google Slides. Clients frequently have multiple questions, making it challenging to track progress and linked discussions. With the inbox feature, clients can initiate chats on specific pages, automatically linking the related issues.
Our admin team gains a comprehensive view of message details, communicates with vendors, and tags team members, all within one centralized platform.
Task management system refinement
We had existing designs for the task management system that required refinement and improvement. Here is a comparison of the before and after versions:
Planning stage one design refinement
A designer joined our team briefly and created the initial design for the Planning Stage One. I then took on the responsibility of refining her design to align it with the project requirements. Here is a comparison between the two designs:
After completing the initial development stage, I had time to focus on building a robust design system and refreshing the existing designs.
File organization & handoff
To ensure efficient file organization and streamline the hand-off process, I implemented the following strategies:
