Case study · 02 · 6 weeks, 12 weeks, then an extension

Spabreaks.com

Three back-to-back UX audits for the UK’s largest spa-booking platform, growing from two key pages into the whole journey from homepage to booking.

Role: Senior Product Designer, via Orium
Timeline: 6 weeks, 12 weeks, then an extension
Team: An Orium VP, with Spabreaks’ designer and head of technology
Disciplines: UX audit · User research · Conversion design · Booking flow

An illustrated spa treatment room with a massage table by a sunlit window

UX audit
User research
Conversion design
Booking flow

Overview

Spabreaks.com is the UK’s largest spa and experience booking platform. Working through Orium, I led a UX audit that grew into three projects, starting with a six-week review of their two most important pages and ending with the whole journey from the homepage through to a confirmed booking. The goal the whole way through was to lift spa booking conversion by making sure the site followed solid UX principles and matched how their customers were actually using it.

Scope

Three projects, each one growing out of the last.

We started with the search results and venue pages, the two places where most booking decisions get made. Once we got into it, it became clear that the gaps ran along the entire booking journey, and that the problem was a lot bigger than six weeks could cover.

We handed off our recommendations for those two pages, the team started shipping changes, and the results were good enough to lead to a second, much bigger statement of work, and then a third.

Search results and venue pagesA six-week review making sure both pages followed UX best practice and lined up with how users were actually moving through the site.
The full-site auditTwelve weeks covering the whole site, from the homepage all the way through checkout and booking.
Booking and search refinementAn extension focused on refining the booking flow first, then search and how it worked, in a lot more detail.

Research

Watching how people actually booked.

We wanted every recommendation to be grounded in how Spabreaks customers really used the site, so the research came from several directions at once and we aggregated it as we went to make sure the designs still matched what users needed.

Partway through the full-site audit I spent a week on site in London, interviewing their stakeholders in person and working alongside the whole office on the design of the site from top to bottom.

01Stakeholder interviewsRemotely and in person in London, with a larger group of stakeholders as the work grew.
02User interviewsTalking to customers directly about how they searched for and booked a spa break.
03FullStory sessionsWatching how people used the live site and where they were getting hung up.
04BaymardChecking recommendations against well-researched UX fundamentals and best practice.

Journey

Homepage through to booking.

The full-site audit followed a customer through every step of booking, and the third project came back to refine the booking flow and search in more depth. A senior VP on the Orium team reviewed and oversaw the design and UX work throughout.

I worked closely with the Spabreaks project team, especially their designer and their head of technology, so the recommendations were shaped by what the team could actually build.

StartHomepage
BrowseSearch results
ChooseVenue pages
BookBooking flow
DoneCheckout

Outcome

A significant lift in conversion.

Across the three projects the work led to a significant increase in conversion rates, and the business did well enough that it was later bought by a major group in the UK.

That relationship carried on past Spabreaks, and it led to two more projects with the group, Your Golf Travel and the Wowcher website.

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