Client

San Francisco Cooking School

Duration

4 months

Role

UX Designer

Overview

San Francisco Cooking School is San Francisco’s premier institution for culinary and baking & pastry arts education. The heart of the school is its professional training programs for students seeking careers in the broad world of food and cooking, following a curriculum created by industry leaders. In order to grow its influence outside of the Bay Area, SFCS needed a new set of technological tools to attract and convert top talent.

Let Mobile Lead the Way

We began by designing the mobile version of the website. This focused our efforts on building features that were essential to accomplishing the project objectives, limiting the lure of feature creep. Design mockups were shared through InVision, and I solicited feedback on the designs from relevant stakeholders. I then relayed comments to our graphic design partner and ensured stakeholder concerns were addressed in subsequent design iterations. 

Once we finalized mockups for the mobile site, we followed a similar process for the desktop version. 

Redesigning Admin Management with New Smart Tools

With front-end designs sent to production, attention was turned to building custom back-end tools for SFCS's admin team. Manual processes previously executed by SFCS staff were reimagined as automated workflows. New additions included a master roster for automatically updating class attendee lists with new registrations, and customer-facing tools that enabled clients to initiate class transfers and cancellations, eliminating the need to call the school’s main office.

Test & Refine

In the weeks leading up to launch, the new website was subject to exhaustive testing by the project team. Every front-end link, button and user flow was put to trial, followed by back-end tools. Features were added, refined, or removed in order to maximize usability.

Result

The result reflects the design direction of the founders and owners of the business. By leveraging UX design best practices, the website prioritizes access to information, which has already helped the client enjoy an increased conversion rate. The thoughtful placement of compelling imagery and videos allows prospective students to visualize themselves in the kitchens of SFCS and understand what the in-class experience is like. 

Internally, the addition of robust admin tools has reduced the number of hours dedicated to record keeping, allowing the team to instead focus on higher-impact projects. 

Reflections

This project was a big leap forward for the client, and I am pleased that they are already reaping the rewards from their investment. It also reinforced a few key tenants of my design philosophy:

• Always build your designs on a solid foundation of trust and communication

• Embrace your constraints; view them as an opportunity to exercise creativity and unlock innovative solutions.