A site for people who want to understand and improve their lower back health on their terms.
In brief (tl:dr)
The objective was to create a new website to more effectively connect with the client’s target audience and improve sales of online programs. User and competitor research insights resulted in positioning the business’s brand, product offering and website to offer a unique value proposition: a site specialising in lower back pain, with a treatment designed to flexibly slot into the target audience’s schedule.
About the client
As a practicing Chiropractor with a background in pilates instruction and personal training, the client offered online pilates programs via Udemy, addressing a range of areas from pregnancy and weight loss to various back issues. The programs received strong user reviews but with sales volume consistently low and the client’s separate blog-style website receiving little visitor traffic, they wanted to update their online presence to be more cohesive and engaging. With ‘lower back pain’ programs their best seller, the client wanted to focus on this target audience moving forward.
Role
User interviews
Personas
Experience Mapping
Competitor analysis
Information Architecture
Content strategy
Copywriting
Conversion funnel
Wireframing
Branding
SEO
Tools
Whimsical
Figma
Wordpress
It's all about
control
I spoke with people who experience lower back pain to understand its impact on their life, how they deal with it and what matters most to them.
Two groups emerged with vastly different lifestyles but with the same challenges, behaviours and drivers when dealing with lower back pain, summarised into two user personas below.
Ibrahim
The fitness fanatic
Sarah
The dedicated mum
For both personas, lower back health is a deeply emotional issue as it represents their ability to lead a meaningful life through participating in their valued activities. The fear of losing these activities to lower back pain is so strong they do not want to face the situation formally, resulting in a DIY approach.
Key insights
Can’t or won’t
change their schedule & prioritise their valued activities over all else
Feel regret, guilt and sadness when lower back pain stops them doing their valued activities
Fear their back issue is degenerative & not wanting to ‘make it real’ by talking to a doctor
All resulting in a preference for self-diagnosis and treatment, over professional medical intervention
Never considered pilates as a solution or had but thought it would make their issue worse
Lifestyle extremes
are responsible
While one persona over-exerts their lower back, the other does practically no exercise. Coupled with little awareness of lower back health maintenance, in both cases these lifestyles result in lower back issues.
specific criteria
when seeking
Users have specific
criteria when seeking
information and treatment
information and
treatment
Users want to understand the medical science behind what is causing their lower back pain so they can seek out and evaluate potential solutions confidently. They also want a treatment they can administer themselves, when and how they want, but that supports them to stay on track so they successfully complete it.
What users are looking for
Medically valid
Specialised, matter-of-fact
information
Targeted
solution
Habit support
Achievable
Flexible
application,
minimal disruption
Users have
to find a suitable treatment
cause so aren’t equipped
Users can’t identify the
Looking at their end-to-end experience, it's clear they cant determine what course of action to take via online research or by speaking with other lower back pain sufferers. Instead only finding: well-meaning but unverifiable recommendations; sprawling medical information sites with difficult medical jargon, poor navigation and sometimes conflicting advice; and health / fitness providers offering bloated ‘whole-of-lifestyle’ change programs.
Experience map:
Dealing with lower back pain
There is a distinct market gap that is specifically relevant to the client’s target audience: a single source of truth where users can understand, self-asses and access treatment for lower back pain efficiently and flexibly.
Competitor analysis
both personas
address unmet needs of
Client well placed to
As a qualified Chiropractor with a background in pilates instruction and personal training, the client has the ability to provide medically grounded information and advice that users will trust, communicated it in straight forward, practical terms that users can easily understand, within a site that removes the noise by focusing solely on lower back issues and pain.
Their existing ‘lower back pain’ pilates programs also combine this experience into simple, easy to do, well explained exercises and behaviour change advice.
The Strategy:
Reposition the business as a
lower back pain specialist
Client well placed
to address unmet
needs of both
personas
Specialising would enable the client to offer a unique value proposition to their target audience: a site dedicated to lower back pain with easily understood, medically-based information and treatments.
Strategy execution through design
To ensure the client engaged as effectively as possible with their target audience, the key challenges, emotional drivers, solution-seeking behaviours and user preferences were placed at the centre of all design decisions.
Rebranding
​
Clear, easy to understand offering
Appealing to target audience preference for simple, down to earth, matter of fact presentation
Brand colours balancing security and expertise, with approachability and hope
Product mix and structure redesign
Offer only lower back pain related programs
Structured as short-form, weekly sets that can be done anywhere
Added a suite of support materials to assist users in forming positive habit and successfully completing programs
IA and Conversion Funnel
Simple, easy to navigate site structure
A conversion funnel created using flows consciously designed to guide visitors from entry points (home and blog) along the purchase decision journey to the checkout
Responsive design prioritisation
Based on user insights, and to keep delivery time and costs down, prioritised desktop layout, with responsive design for tablet devices when accessing program pages
Visual design
Simple, clear site colour palette
Minimalist design with ample white space
Clear visual hierarchy and CTA’s
SEO
Common search phrases sourced from users and integrated into site via blog, page content, site meta-data, image labels, etc
Blog to incorporate more search phrases through new posts addressing more specialised activities, lifestyle areas and issues
Design developed iteratively
Sketches used to rapidly explore different design approaches, layouts, interactions and features
Wireframes created to refine layout and visual hierarchy, get client feedback, and ensure their understanding and buy-in around design decisions
Live site incorporates client feedback, whilst maintaining design strategy and standards (such as accessibility)
to the target audience
cohesive site that speaks
Resulting in a compelling,
Post-project reflection
If time and budget constraints were not present, the below activities would also be carried out:
Usability testing
Test prototype with users from each persona group to get feedback on:
​
Public pages
Get feedback on look and feel, content discoverability, and to what extent the site enables them to achieve their research and self-assessment goals. Also to identify any unaddressed questions, concerns or barriers getting in the way of users purchasing a program.
​
Member's area
Check ease of use for key tasks (e.g. login, search and interact with exercise video).
Identify additional features to include in future iterations.
Google Analytics
Establish Google Analytics 'goals' to determine effectiveness of the conversion funnel by measuring click through of CTA's and identifying user drop-off points.
