Gramercy Cleaners
TOOLS: Figma | Photoshop | Notion | Otter.ai | Zoom | Keynote
METHODS: Generative research | Heuristic Analysis | Remote Moderated Usability Testing | Affinity Diagraming
DELIVERABLE: Findings and Recommendations Report delivered to the client
Role: Researcher | Moderator | Writer | Designer | Team Member
Opportunity Space
Gramercy Cleaners has been a trusted provider of cleaning and tailoring services in New York City for 30 years. However, its website—intended to provide essential information on hours, location, pricing, and cleaning methods—is not effectively serving its customers. Users struggle to find key details, leading to frustration and potential loss of business.
A UX-focused redesign will improve usability, navigation, and accessibility, ensuring that customers can easily find the information they need. By streamlining content, enhancing visual hierarchy, and optimizing for mobile users, the new design will create a seamless experience that reflects the company’s professionalism and reliability.
Solution overview
To enhance usability and customer engagement, the following recommendations were made:
Improve Homepage Readability & Messaging
Increase contrast and legibility for better accessibility.
Clearly communicate Gramercy Cleaners’ values and key services.
Enhance the About Page
Highlight business values and practices to build trust and transparency.
Redesign the Contact Form
Allow users to ask questions in addition to requesting a callback or email.
Encourage user interaction to increase the likelihood of return visits.
Use customer inquiries to identify key topics for an updated FAQ section.
Clarify Service Details & Turnaround Times
Display essential information near the contact form and in the FAQ.
Explain service differences (e.g., laundering by item vs. washing by weight).
Specify which services qualify for same-day delivery.
Research
Heuristic Analysis
Through four Heuristic Analyses, I gained valuable insights into the usability of Gramercy Cleaner’s website. A targeted test plan was developed, focusing on issues with the greatest impact, frequency, persistence, and market influence. Notably, my findings aligned closely with the challenges participants faced during usability testing, highlighting the urgency of these improvements.
Research
Usability Testing
During usability testing, I conducted remote, moderated interviews to assess the website’s functionality and user experience. Participants were guided through scenarios designed to mirror real-world situations that a typical Gramercy customer might encounter when navigating the site. These scenarios helped identify pain points, usability challenges, and areas for improvement.
Testing scenarios
During usability testing, participants were asked to complete tasks and answer key questions to evaluate how easily they could find essential information on the Gramercy Cleaner website. The questions focused on common customer needs, including:
What services are available?
Can users quickly understand the full range of services offered, such as wash-and-fold, dry cleaning, alterations, or specialty cleaning?
When are services available?
Can customers easily determine when they can drop off or pick up their laundry?
Where are they located?
Do users struggle to locate delivery zones, store locations, or contact details?
How much does 50 lbs of laundry cost?
Do they understand how pricing is structured (e.g., per pound, per item, or flat rate)?
How much would it cost to dry clean a week’s worth of clothes?
Do users understand how pricing varies based on garment type?
What are the values of the company?
Can users find information about the company’s mission, sustainability efforts, or customer service philosophy?
How easy is it to contact the company?
Can users fill out a contact form or find a phone number without frustration?
Sample Scenario
“You are in town for a wedding this weekend and you want to make sure you look your best. Your clothes are a bit dirty from your last event and they don’t fit the same as you remember.”
“How might you use the services provided to approach the situation?”
Synthesis
Note taking
The team created a group note taking strategy in which each member played the role of host/technical lead, moderator, visual note taker (recorded notes on what the user was doing, clicking on etc.) and verbal note taker (notes about what the user was saying).
We took notes right in the script in order to keep track of themes that developed during the interviews.
Affinity Mapping
Each participant was assigned a different colored “sticky note” in Figma. Observations and quotes were categorized by theme. Any overlapping observations were then grouped again so that we could record the frequency and persistence of each issue.
Findings and Recommendations
Clearly define items that can be laundered individually as well as what a typical wash by weight order looks like.
Whatever service is used most often should be visually more apparent on the page.
Additionally, the FAQ is a good place to clarify what “wash by weight” means in terms of how that is measured and to explain the difference between organic cleaning methods and regular cleaning methods
Tell users what to expect when they drop their items off right away. Explaining how same day service works and for which services it applies is good information to put in the FAQ
Allow the user to enter their question in the form. This will help them to complete their goal in an expected way.
This may also cut down on the number of telephone inquiries and will provide Gramercy with insight into what information needs to go in the FAQ.
Construct the Homepage so that the most important content has the highest visibility possible.
Highlight the information in multiple-areas but explain the process and why it is important in places like the About page and the FAQ.
“FAQ doesn’t have any information which is where I’d like to see [order status]”
“If I had a question about my stuff, I thought it might be [in the FAQ]”
“I’m a little concerned that I didn’t get to put a message in. It’s saying contact us but I don’t know what they’re going to respond with.”
Recommendations Summary
According to the client goals, their website is a place for customers to find information about the company’s services, to learn about the company values and is a way for the customer to communicate with the business.
Based on our research, the user most wants to know information about when they will get their items back, how the services are priced and to learn why organic and eco-friendly cleaning methods should be important to them.
We recommend creating a more legible homepage with higher contrast and deeper meaning in terms of their values and key selling points. The About page is a good place to highlight key values and information about business practices.
The contact form should allow the user to ask a question in addition to requesting a call or email back from Gramercy. This will allow the user to complete a goal before leaving the site, making it more likely they will return. Allowing the customer to ask questions will also be a good opportunity to learn what information should go in the FAQ.
Some information about how and when customers will get their laundry back should be included in places where users are most likely to see it. There is space next to the form that could be used for this information and it should go in the FAQ as well.
Explain in more detail the services that are offered. Our participants wanted to know what the difference between laundering by item and washing by weight. They also had questions about which services they could use to get same day delivery and this is good information to include in the FAQ.