WEB DESIGN | RESEARCH TEAM
Research for a Boutique Consultancy Website Refresh
Professionals seeking tailored coaching or business advice were unsure if Tabiya was the right fit due to unclear service offerings, outdated design, and a disconnect between the brand and the founder’s expertise. This limited user trust and impacted the business’s ability to attract new clients.
Client
Tabiya Services is a boutique consultancy founded by Dr Nigel Nutt in 2022. It supports individuals and organisations through coaching, business advisory, and professional development.
Role
This case study highlights my contributions as part of the UX research team. I led the exploration phase through user interviews and validated early design decisions with usability testing.
My responsibilities included:
Recruiting interview participants
Designing the interview script
Scheduling the interviews
Conducting the interview and usability testing sessions
Synthesising insights
Analysing and presenting research findings
Providing actionable guidance for the redesign
The Challenge
As the business evolved from running workshops to focusing on strategic coaching and advisory services, its website no longer reflected this shift. Users unfamiliar with the brand struggled to understand the offering and build trust through the existing digital touchpoint.
Opportunities
Communicate Tabiya’s unique offering clearly and effectively.
Build trust and credibility through thoughtful design and authentic content.
Improve navigation so users could easily explore services.
Create a professional, modern visual identity aligned with Tabiya’s brand values.
Research & Synthesis
We began by gathering insights through a combination of internal stakeholder interviews, external user interviews, heuristic evaluation, and competitor analysis.
Our interview participants represented key customers of Tabiya’s services, ranging from professionals at different career stages to business clients and partners.
Customer 01
Business Leaders
People that book business consulting services.
customer 02
Professionals
Early to late career professionals seeking 1:1 coaching.
Customer 03
Partners
People that provide the training alongside Tabiya.
Exploratory interview script extract.
"I'm looking for a clearer definition of what Tabiya aims to achieve and how that’s communicated on the website. That would help partners like me understand when to approach Nigel and what to engage him for."
User Feedback
Key Themes
The key themes that emerged from our interviews were:
Disconnect Between Brand and Founder
Users consistently confused or conflated Tabiya with Nigel. The website did not clarify whether Tabiya was a broader team or a personal consultancy.Lack of Clear, Differentiated Value
Tabiya’s value proposition was not easily understood. Visitors wanted to know what made Tabiya different, and what exact outcomes they could expect.Visual Design Undermines Professionalism
The use of stock images, poor layout, and lack of visual hierarchy made the website feel untrustworthy and inconsistent with the high-quality service described by word of mouth.Ambiguity in Language and Navigation
Vague service titles, generic language, and poor readability (like white text on black background) made it hard to quickly understand and navigate the site.Trust is Earned Through Specificity and Personalisation
Users trusted specific, real testimonials, meaningful project examples, and signs of human connection far more than polished marketing speak.
User journey mapping revealed peak frustration when customers encountered unclear information on Tabiya’s website.
Prioritisation and Objectives
Each theme held potential to improve the digital experience and business outcomes. However, given the time constraints of our design sprint, we prioritised two:
Navigation
Alignment of industry experience and professionalism of platform.
End user oriented content to reflect quality of service.
Search bar implementation for ease of navigation.
Consistency of design - fonts, colours, and images.
Simplify layout and improve accessibility through contrast.
Value Proposition.
Clear testimonials provide valuable insight into key service takeaways.
Less likely to engage with Jack-of -all-trades service offerings.
Clarity on service model.
Preference for bespoke services tailored to individual needs.
These areas were the most frequently mentioned pain points and had the greatest potential to improve both user understanding and brand perception.
How Might We simplify the way Tabiya’s services are presented to highlight credibility and outcomes?
How Might We
rebrand Tabiya to attract clients seeking bespoke coaching and advisory services?
How Might We
make the website feel welcoming and easy to explore for first-time users?
Research Handover
Once research insights were synthesised, priorities were aligned and stakeholder approval was secured, the research was handed over to the design team to begin developing user interface prototypes.
Usability Testing
Following the completion of early concepts by the design team, I led a round of usability testing using clickable mid-fidelity prototypes. Participants included those from our earlier interview set. The goal was to validate whether the redesigned structure and content communicated value more effectively.
Measurement of Success
Completion of each task
Participant acknowledges task completion (understands that they did complete the task)
Task completion time under 30 seconds (taking into account the dialogue that might increase the task duration)
Scoring Criteria
Success = 1 point
Partial Success = 0.5 points
Failure = 0 points
Task Execution
Facilitator will present each task to the participant followed by the SEQ* and follow up question.
The note-taker will observe the participant completing each task and record whether they completed the task, acknowledged completion, the time taken, and SEQ score.
Each task is scored based on the scoring criteria.
The results and insights were handed over to the design team to guide further iterations.
*A Single Ease Question (SEQ) is a one-question survey that asks users to rate how easy or difficult a task was.
Usability test score sheet extract showing how user feedback was measured.
Usability testing was conducted remotely using Google Meet, Loom (screen recording), and Otter (AI transcribing)
The research directly informed several key improvements to the website, including a restructured information architecture for clearer navigation, refined messaging on the homepage and services pages, and the integration of credible testimonials to build trust. The visual tone was also made more authentic by reducing reliance on stock imagery in favour of more human-centred content.
BEFORE: Tabiya's existing website was outdated, lacked structure and professionalism.
AFTER: A streamlined user experience with better navigation, a clearer value proposition, and easier contact options to drive lead generation.
Mobile wireframes
Testimonial
Tabiya Services has been pleased to partner with Academy XI on our “Front end refresh” project.
We gave the Academy XI Project Team a brief to redesign the web front end of Tabiya Services to present a better face to a broader client base, rework our logo and structure, and provide recommendations on how best to apply the new work in future marketing campaigns.
From the start, this has been a terrific experience. The team developed and presented to me a clear and well articulated four week design methodology, based on weekly objectives. The methodology incorporated regular touch points with me as client, and involved clever user research with Tabiya clients. They interpreted our brief beautifully and accurately, asked targeted questions, and incorporated my feedback into their design at fast pace. Online meetings were clear, concise, well chaired, and always ran on time. The Academy XI team had clear roles, and each team member contributed wonderfully with genuine commitment.
Because the methodology was so well applied, the results were excellent. User research was insightful, and clearly fed the design process. Creative work was imaginative, while remaining true to the brief. I valued being offered choice in the design options that arose. The work was accompanied by really helpful recommendations and advice, presented in a future state, phased roadmap. Overall, the deliverables were professional grade, and this was reinforced by my independent developer who was equally impressed.
Thanks again to the entire team: a genuinely positive and productive experience.
Dr Nigel Nutt | Founder and Director | Tabiya Services Pty Ltd