New Identity, New Website: Hypnose Walch
Role: Website UI Designer
Research (client interviews, competitive analysis and usability testing)
Design (site UI, writing, and branding kit)
Prototyping (animations and interactions)
Timeline: March 2025 (3 weeks)
Discovery
Where would you start if you had to rebuild your digital business presence from scratch?
In my freelance digital marketing capacity, I've been with a long-term client based in the land of snow-capped mountains and fondue (🇨🇭!) looking to expand their business' online visibility. My client had been operating in the US for nearly a decade, serving a roster of clientele comprised of friends of friends; now, having recently moved to Switzerland to start anew, they endeavor to jumpstart their business beyond organic tight-knit social circles with the help of the Internet.
When we first started working together, my client already had a website built by another contractor. While there were some problems with the copy and navigation, ultimately they deemed it an OK destination for interested visitors.
But as bounce rates stayed high and minutes-spent low, and as my client's relationship with the previous website contractor approached a close, I was able to convince them that the website needed an overhaul as well.
Planning
It was important to align the website's new design with the needs of the business and the wants of my client. In a comprehensive interview, I captured pleasure and pain points from the old website:
Pleasure points: cohesive use of brand's colors, decorative and engaging animations, thorough German and English versions, and plenty of information explaining the business and expertise.
Pain points: confusing and duplicate information across the website, incomplete articles and overlay elements, inconsistent use of illustrations vs. photos, and — most importantly — a lack of contact forms for visitors with inquiries.
It was also clear from our conversation that we needed to upgrade the website towards making it easier to understand the benefits of the client's service, as well as build a sense of trustworthiness to counteract distorted depictions from Hollywood and Halloween.
And thus our guiding How Might We mantra was born: How might we convey trustworthiness and authenticity for the business and hypnotherapy overall?
Getting a lay of the land: competitive analysis
My client works as a clinical hypnotherapist, which is an up-and-coming complementary therapy industry especially in western Europe. For instance, when you Google search "hypnotherapy" in my client's city of Basel, Switzerland, you get dozens of practitioners in the same 5-mile radius.
As a result, I conducted a competitive analysis of 5 different hypnotherapy businesses in the area and examined the composition of their websites. I paid special attention to the areas described as pain points by my client, observed how these other businesses decided to navigate them (or not), then quantified my findings in a table.
When it came time to recommend a priority list of design features for the new site, I offered these quantified findings as guidance. For example, one feature my client wasn't sure about keeping from the old site was a blog section, which I concluded was set up for SEO purposes but never fully fleshed out. With this sample of 5, I was able to make the case that the blog section was no longer necessary or worthwhile to build, since none of these businesses set one up and yet had reasonably well-done SEO.
Quantifying my findings across competitors' sites and practicing my German comprehension.
Defining the user journey
Now, the eternal question of UX: how can I understand and address the needs of a user experiencing this website that I'm building?
I synthesized my observations of competitors' sites, my client's past business practices and customers into several user artifacts, including three personas: English Expat Erica, Smoke-Free Simon, and Burnt Out Bruno.
These personas also led to the formulation of key user journey maps, which illustrate the curiosities of potential customers as they explore the site and learn more about how hypnotherapy could apply to their wellness needs.
We then compared our list of priority design features to our newly diagnosed user expectations, and adjusted it to its current state for prototyping.
Prototyping
FINALLY, TIME TO BUILD!
With these user journeys and and a list of client-approved features in mind, I started building out the new website.
Take a look for yourself!
