Lucia Lash

Research & concept validation

A competitive audit of salon websites informed an initial sitemap and low-fidelity prototype, built by a two-person design team. Early concept testing with a target user — a woman in her mid-20s who wasn't a frequent salon-goer — surfaced usability issues early and grounded the problem space. Her feedback made the stakes of web design quality clear: in her experience, the effort a studio puts into its website signals the quality of the studio itself.

Brand development

In parallel, my co-designer gathered homepage references from fashion and beauty brands to align with the client's visual direction. A client meeting clarified her preferences: neutral colors, bold typography, and visuals over text. Three brand keywords emerged — fashionable, clear, organic. I translated these into four style tiles, which we each applied to a full-page services page mockup — the site's most content-heavy page and the strongest vehicle for showing a branded system in context.

Design iteration

The client had a clear preference among the mockups, though she also returned to one of the reference homepages, so we explored its design language in an additional concept. She remained loyal to the original direction, and we iterated from there — refining color weight, visual elements, and logo options. My co-designer landed on a line art icon paired with a wordmark, weaving in the client's affinity for hummingbirds. Fourteen more rounds of visual iteration followed before we moved to responsive design.

Responsive design & usability testing

We split the breakpoints: I handled mobile, my co-designer handled desktop. Working simultaneously, we found that some layout designs worked better in other contexts. Repurposing each other's designs throughout the site allowed us to avoid "wasting" each other's work. After three rounds of iteration, we finalized the high-fidelity prototype and ran usability tests with three participants across both breakpoints, leading to three more rounds of refinement.