Overview
Genee is a science-based coaching platform dedicated to empowering women in their quarter- to mid-life stages as they navigate life's pivotal decisions. Using a coaching framework rooted in psychology and behavioral science, combined with new AI technology, Genee provides holistic guidance that fosters growth and resilience.
Research shows that women in their mid-career life, often from the ages of 30 to 55, face a unique set of challenges, including balancing personal and professional aspirations and finding fulfillment in their lives. Genee bridges this gap between struggle and success. By focusing on four key areas—career and money, relationships, health, and enjoyment—Genee equips women with the confidence and tools to achieve their goals through actionable mindset shifts and targeted progress strategies.
Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Slack, Monday, Google Suite, Loom
Process
Discovery, Define, Design Sprint A, Design Sprint B, Delivery, Reflection
The Problem
The Solution
01
Discovery
Client Kickoff
Before we dive in...
We began the project with a client kickoff meeting to establish clear communication among the design team, senior designer, project manager, and client. During this meeting, we conducted a thorough review of the rebranding process from Elevate to Genee to fully understand the company's mission and the CEO's vision. The client provided a detailed questionnaire and company brief, which outlined their values, target users, and product descriptions. The client also shared a video recording discussing the motivations behind the rebranding and their desired design direction. Additionally, the team received branding materials, including mood boards, style guides, colors, fonts, and Genee's new logo in PDF and vector formats to help shape our design process.
Competitive Analysis
Research: Annotated Inspirations
Organizing the Data
Research: User Affinity Mapping
The Genee team conducted an extensive research study by surveying over 130 women aged 30 to 55 and older. The goal of the survey was to uncover the unique challenges women face in their careers and how these difficulties influence their daily lives. Questions like "What is your biggest career challenge?" and "What does success after coaching look like for you?" along with open-ended responses provided a wealth of qualitative data to refine Genee's coaching framework. The survey results were shared with the design team and proved extremely insightful in helping me understand the struggles and goals of mid-career women, and how to best design a platform that truly supports them. However, the data was presented in a lengthy Excel file, making it challenging to interpret.
Addressing feelings of uncertainty
The survey revealed that most women felt stuck in their current career paths, unsure whether to continue in their fields or make a switch. I noticed a strong connection between the two issues—uncertainty often led women to consider a career change, believing it might help them overcome their stagnation. This insight highlighted a critical need to address not just career transitions but also the underlying feelings of being stuck.
Diversity in life circumstances
The women surveyed came from varied backgrounds—some were newly married, others single-income earners, mothers, or recent graduates. This diversity underscored the importance of designing Genee's platform to be inclusive and adaptable, catering to women with different experiences and needs.
Time is not the barrier
I expected that lack of time would emerge as a primary concern, with women struggling to find the time for self-improvement. However, most women expressed a willingness to set aside time for personal growth. The challenge lay in knowing where to start. This finding suggested that Genee's website could incorporate detailed and engaging elements, rather than overly simplifying content to save time.
02
Define
User Persona
Using the insights gathered from the user affinity map, I created a detailed user persona to guide our design process for Genee. This persona was essential for us because it encompassed all of the data from Genee's research into a single representative user, allowing us a central reference point to refer back to when making our design decisions. I considered the user's age, occupation, emotions, decision-making patterns, interests, and goals to ensure the persona accurately reflected Genee's target audience.
Sprint Context
Our team of six, comprising four UX/UI designers (including myself), a senior design lead, and a project manager, worked in an Agile environment divided into two sprints. The first sprint focused on designing Genee's desktop homepage. After presenting the designs and incorporating client feedback, we finalized the iterations and progressed into the second sprint. This phase leveraged Figma's design system tokens and variables to develop a fully responsive website for tablet and mobile devices.
Design Sprint A
This sprint focused on fostering creativity and setting the tone for Genee's design. Given the research insights about users feeling stuck and unsure, I prioritized creating a homepage that made users feel seen and understood. To bring this vision to life, I developed sketches, low fidelity wireframes, and high fidelity screens that showcased Genee's new brand identity in an engaging and user-friendly way. Collaborating closely with our senior design lead and the client, I designed key sections of the homepage, including the hero section, the Genee process, membership benefits, meet the coaches, and membership plans.
Design Sprint B
In this sprint, I concentrated on organizing and refining Genee's design system to enhance efficiency and consistency. While working on Sprint A, I maintained a typography and color system in Figma to simplify collaboration and ensure cohesive designs across the project. Using Figma's typography and color variables, I developed a responsive homepage that seamlessly adapts to tablet and mobile screens. I paid close attention to how elements would adjust for smaller screen sizes and accounted for the absence of mouse hover interactions, ensuring an optimal user experience on all devices.
03
Design Sprint A
Genee's New Homepage Design
Sketches
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Building on my sketches, I created low fidelity wireframes to present to the client, focusing on establishing the website's layout and structure. These wireframes were intentionally minimal, with no text, copy, or images, allowing me flexibility to explore multiple iterations for each section and refine the design direction.