Pusateri Bros. Landscaping

Client

My Role

Researcher & UX/UI Designer

Tools

Excel, Optimal Workshop, and Figma

Background

Pusateri Bros. Landscaping is a landscaping company in the Wexford/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area.

For my ‘Information Architecture and Content Strategy’ course at University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies ‘UX Design’ program, I was asked to do a user experience overhaul for the ‘Pusateri Bros. Landscaping’ website.

Client’s goals

1) Offer information that’s most relevant to the users

2) Help promote the company’s brand and values

3) Gain a competitive edge through better content

4) Be seen as an expert in the field

Problem

In the competitive landscaping market of Wexford-Pittsburgh, homeowners and business owners seek prompt, professional service for weather-related and routine landscape maintenance. The current Pusateri Bros. website, which is disorganized and difficult to navigate, may deter users seeking reliable service, risking potential customer loss before quotes are even given.

Solution

Instil confidence into potential clients by demonstrating precision, speed and professionalism throughout the website experience.

Click here to jump to the final product.

Qualitative Audit

Discovering the Landscape

First, I conducted a qualitative audit that evaluated the key messages, metadata, content quality, voice and tone, effectiveness and calls to action for every page on the Pusateri Bros.’ website. Here are some of the findings:

Repetitive and redundant content that’s difficult to go through.

Grammatical and spelling errors, which translates to poorer SEO ranking and brand quality perception.

Inconsistent use of buttons, formatting and tone of language = cognitive overload.

Content most useful to users is placed too low on the pages — if at all.

Images and videos are missing alt text and/or captions.

The quality of photos, videos and details need improvement (i.e. pixelated photos, portrait oriented videos, etc.)

SWOT Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Next, I conducted a SWOT analysis for a couple Pittsburgh-area landscaping companies with comparable services.

Adler & Sons
Adler & Sons SWOT analysis

Jack’s Tree Service & Landscaping
Jack's Tree Service & Landscaping SWOT analysis

Jack's Tree Service & Landscaping SWOT analysis

Despite the visual appeal and features of competitors' sites, Pusateri Bros.’ strong service record and positive customer feedback highlighted opportunities to leverage these strengths online.

Current Sitemap

I was asked to review the website’s navigation and the content within the pages to evaluate how it can be improved upon for users.

Pusateri Bros. Landscaping current sitemap

Closed Card Sorting

Testing the Building Blocks

To evaluate the logic of the current sitemap and the content within it, I conducted a closed card sorting exercise with Optimal Workshop. The participants were given the main navigation titles as the categories whereas the drop downs and subheadlines were the cards.

A few findings that the card sorting exercise revealed:

Confusion
Sections were not clearly labelled enough to ease navigation throughout the site.
“What is ‘Our Process’?...is it the process of how they work? I’ve never seen ‘Our Process’ on a website….”

Irrelevance
Content was repetitive and cluttered which distracted and delayed participants.
“Seemed like a lot of repetition for the homepage introduction.“

Hierarchy
All the participants said their ranking of cards was based on relevance, which speaks to what users expect from a website that provides a service.“Ranking services based on relevance/most commonly searched.”

Persona

Pinpoint the User

Drawing from research on Pittsburgh, its communities, the residents, and other landscaping-relevant factors, I developed a user persona to steer the website's revamp.

User persona named Michael Davis who is 42 years old, married, has an 8 year old and 5 year old, works at a Fortune 500 industrial company, owns a home and household income of $170,000+.

User persona named Michael Davis who is 42 years old, married, has an 8 year old and 5 year old, works at a Fortune 500 industrial company, owns a home and household income of $170,000+.

How might we...

Make users feel confident in Pusateri Bros. Landscaping services that would be quick, safe and professional.

Solution

Instil confidence into potential clients by demonstrating precision, speed and professionalism throughout the website experience.

Product Requirements

Tools to be Used

The research conducted revealed several pain points that need to be addressed to satisfy user needs.

Clean Cut & Trimmed
Trim overall content to only include relevant information that doesn’t overwhelm users and reduces cognitive load.

Rebrand
Create a brand voice and look by revamping the UI with a clean, modern and professional look that will speak better to the business and what users should expect.

Perennial Service
Highlight a major customer benefit of hiring Pusateri Bros.: Users save time and effort by using one company for high quality year-round service of all landscaping, emergency and yard needs.

Revamped Sitemap

Rebuilding

To ensure a cleaner site, I merged pages and adjusted the hierarchy of information.

Pusateri Bros. Landscaping new sitemap: Home, Services, How We Work and Contact Us.

Sketches

Designing the Blueprints

I sketched multiple iterations and planned interactions that could address the client’s goals while improving the overall user experience.

Pusateri Bros. Landscaping layout sketches.

Wireframes

Finalizing the Explorations

From my selected sketches, I built out wireframes. I kept in mind easing site navigation and making content digestible to meet user and business needs.

Pusateri Bros. Landscaping entire website's wireframes and interactions.

High-Fidelity Prototype

Bringing all the Elements Together

For the homepage, I streamlined the content to feature only essential sections: services offered, unique selling points (USPs), about us, and contact options. I simplified the main navigation for clarity and user-friendliness. Content hierarchy was reordered by relevance.

To reduce visual clutter, the logo was simplified. I produced winterized content to highlight Pusateri Bros.’ services, which will require semiannual maintenance to remain seasonally appropriate.

Pusateri Bros. homepage redesign for winter months

Pusateri Bros. homepage redesign for warm months

Before and After

Key Pages

Here are before and after images of a few key pages throughout the site. These changes were based on the key findings and improving the website’s UX.

Process and video of work pages redesign

Interactive Prototype

The Website

Take a look at the interactive prototype to see the website’s updates on all pages.

Mood Board, Colour Palette & Elements

The Style Guide

I chose a subdued green palette for professionalism and integrated Pittsburgh's local colors, history and shapes, like yellow (bridges sports teams) and geometric elements, for a familiar feel. The font selection prioritizes readability to complement imagery and navigation.

Mood Board with inspirations, mood board, UI and colour palettes.

Future Steps

Continuing the project, my next steps would include:

Condense site copy further for greater clarity
Refine mobile responsiveness
Analyze post-revamp performance metrics
Invest in marketing to attract site visitors

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