Responsive Website & Design System
"We think of this as an opportunity to reach out to new customers."
- Jenny and William (Owners)-
Radburn Cleaners is a local dry cleaners located in Fair Lawn, NJ. It is a small business yet an important part of the local community, serving the citizens for several decades now. It has been "the place that remembers your name" for the loyal customers and developed strong relationship between the owners and the customers.
Due to a pandemic, Radburn was significantly impacted, despite being an essential business. The clients reached me to help them create a visual branding system as well as a responsive website which allows various contactless services.
Key Features (Web)
1. Schedule a contactless pickup/ delivery on the website
2. Schedule a virtual consultation
3. Schedule an in-store visit
2. Schedule a virtual consultation
3. Schedule an in-store visit
Responsibilities
Logo Design
Research
Responsive Website Design
Design System Development
Research
Responsive Website Design
Design System Development
Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Squarespace
Adobe Illustrator
Squarespace
Goal-Setting
Prior to the COVID-19, many of the local business owners did not find a need for an online presence. Their customers are loyal (for a decade on average) and voluntary promoters of the business. However, as a pandemic happened and many part of the life became "remote", it was especially hard for those business owners who were not digitally ready.
Can I provide anything more than store information?
What do users want from a cleaner's website?
How can this website directly improve the sales?
What do users want from a cleaner's website?
How can this website directly improve the sales?
As a start of this project, I sat down with the owners number of times to clarify the goals, define their motivation, and build a structure together.
Note and sketches from the first meeting
We set two main goals as
01 Create a logo and website targeting new residents of the apartment building across the street.
02 Allow customers to schedule a visit or pick-up services online rather than call, which could be missed when the owners were unavailable.
In addition, the owner specifically mentioned that they do not have a budget set for this project, so they were looking for cost-efficient and simplest solution. So I provided them a list of pricing options and website building services that allow scheduling/ calendar service.
Logo Design
Radburn had an outdated logo from 15 years ago but the owners never used it for a marketing purposes. Since they were willing to print new posters, business cards, and merchandise goods (laundry bags, hangers, and etc), I decided to create a simple and modernized logo for the business.
Thanks to the local community, Radburn could be in the business for over two decades. So I wanted to signify the people. Below sketches show how I began with a simple human figure with a circle and a triangle and evolved a design to resemble a hanger and a letter 'r'. This logo is easy for anyone to read and to draw, just like Radburn is there for anyone to be part of the family. While developing each sketches, I continued to share the process with the stakeholders and received their feedback.
Logo sketch / Click to enlarge
Sample business card design
Design System
Radburn's design system embraces familiarity and reliability to emphasize the business's history. First, I chose red as the brand color to match the city Fair Lawn's school colors. When choosing a typography, I looked at various rounded and wide fonts. Although we wanted to rebrand Radburn as "my parent's cleansers" to "my cleaners", we still remained considerate of our elderly customers. So we chose Poppins, which is easy to read and less tiring to the eyes.
Radburn's marketing flyers, business cards, website, and other custom-made supplies will follow this design system.
Click to enlarge
Wireframes
Although I was going to use Squarespace to build a website, I created wireframes of the landing page and one other sample page to provide a visual guide for the stakeholders. With more detailed wireframes, I could explain better what assets/ content I need to receive from the owners to make the website useful.
This step allowed me to think about the information architecture of the minimal feature website. Prior to executing designs, we set a clear goal that this website should promote contactless services. I constantly tested and replaced the scheduling section for the best exposure in the simplest user flow.
Results
Currently, Radburn is utilizing their website to communicate with their customers by accepting reservations online and uploading insightful information on garment care. It also helped many new customers to discover the business online and gather necessary information before the visit.
We are planning on adding check-out / payment option to the website so the payment process for contactless services could be more convenient for both ends. It is exciting to see how the small businesses, like Radburn, use this hard time as an opportunity to expand and grow their businesses.
