Client: Temple Court Senior Care (TCSC)

Project Type: Website, Brand Identity

Industry: Healthcare

Timeframe: April 2018 – June 2018

Tools Used: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, WordPress

My Role: Project Manager, UI/UX Designer, Researcher, Photographer, Web Developer, Content Editor

The TCSC website was outdated and difficult to navigate. In addition, it did not do a good job of representing the care and compassion the owners and staff have for their residents. The website was receiving traffic from local site visitors based on metrics from Google Analytics, but the bounce rate was over 85%. There is a need to design a website that is more inviting, more engaging, and leads to visitors contacting the facility for more information or to schedule a visit.

I started by researching TCSC’s brand, their current position in the industry, and trying to understand who their target audience is for their services. I also researched the prospective business area – in this case, the Inland Empire area, specifically the cities of Temecula and Murrieta. I researched the TCSC competitors by contacting the businesses with a phone call and asking questions, and going through their websites extensively.

Many of TCSC’s competitors in the area are either larger medical facilities operated by Healthcare Management Companies that seem impersonable or single home businesses operated by a caretaker. This provides a huge opportunity for TCSC because they operate their business out of 4 homes and employ professional healthcare workers, so the residents are receiving quality healthcare, but in a comfortable home atmosphere. TCSC is also known to have a higher number of caregivers to residents than most other senior care facilities (as noted by an independent site that reviews local senior care services).

I met with the business owners to identify the scope of the website project and to understand their need for a new website. The current website was outdated and did not represent the warm and inviting nature of the owners or their staff. The owners were interested in making their website and other marketing materials look more professional.

As we started the meeting, I quickly realized that the scope of the project needed to expand to include a logo brand identity for the business. I explained to the owners the importance of establishing credibility for future prospects and to create a brand to professionally represent the business. The new logo will be used for future marketing collateral to build their brand.

The logo should be clean, modern, and professional. The logo should convey a feeling of peace, a comfortable home for your loved one to be cared for. The logo should also clearly state the primary business service.

My approach to building a brand for a company is to start with a lot of industry and competitor research. Although there is a lot of data involved, the process is not scientific. It is based on personal taste, proven design principles, and blended with the requirements of the client. The owner of TCSC really likes hummingbirds, so that was the initial direction. After several round of logo example designs, the owner saw potential in one of the ideas presented. I took the idea and made a few more revisions until the owner was absolutely overjoyed with the final design!

The new logo is shown as a before/after with the previous “logo” being used by the business. Some initial logo design ideas are shown below:

I met with the business owners and their staff to interview them to learn more about the business, the day to day activities, and their approach to caring for their elderly residents. Their insights were very helpful in crafting a strategy to design a website, and I think we all learned something during the process. Here were some of the key takeaways from the interviews:

• Target Audience – families who are looking for healthcare options for their loved ones. Their loved one might be struggling with a physical issue or dealing with dementia or Alzheimer’s syndrome.
• Length of Stay – most of TCSC’s residents are full-time residents, but TCSC also offers Respite Care services for anyone in need
• Overall Look – their current website does not have the inviting and professional feeling they wanted. They believed the website did not represent the lengths they go to for making the residents feel safe and comfortable in the homes. It needs to be more caring and compassionate.
• The residents all have special needs and requirements including mobility issues, medication reminders, appointment scheduling, memory care, etc. The website should show the broad range of resident care services that are provided by TCSC.

The staff have a great deal of respect for their residents. They want to show prospective residents that they all have fun together and they try to go the extra mile to make the residents feel at home and comfortable. The new website should really showcase some of the fun interactions the staff have with the residents and their families. I had no idea how many state rules and regulations govern the types of systems and paperwork that need to be done at a senior care facility, but the owner and staff expressed how important it is to comply with everything to ensure the safety of their residents.

I was able to interview 7 of the current family members who had loved ones living at TCSC as full-time residents. I spoke to them when they visited the homes to see their loved one. I asked them the following questions:

1. How did you hear about TCSC?
2. What were your initial impressions of TCSC and what are they now?
3. What were some of your biggest concerns when looking for a senior care facility for your loved one?
4. Do you live in the area, or are you out of state?
5. Is it easy to get a hold of your loved one when you need to?
6. How is the communication with the staff at TCSC?
7. Does your loved one seem to be content at TCSC?

I understood this was a personal decision for most people, so I took care in speaking with the family members. However, it was important to understand their initial concerns and what ultimately led them to decide to put their loved ones in the care of TCSC. The overall impression from the resident’s family members is that they were sold on TCSC after they met the owners and the staff. Those interactions led the family members to feel confident in their services and comfortable in the home environment.

Reasons for choosing TCSC (from family members):

1. The care and warmth they felt after meeting the owners and staff
2. The level of services offered
3. The location of the facilities in proximity to medical services and hospitals
4. Competitive pricing
5. Option for a private room

After researching their competitors, interviewing the owners and staff, interviewing current family members, and creating a new logo for TCSC, I was ready to start sketching out some ideas for the new website.

Using Figma, I created several wireframe examples of the home page, with many iterations of each. The home page must reflect the initial goals of the TCSC owners:

• Design a website that is modern, inviting, and easy to navigate
• Design a website that showcases the unique environment of having your loved one cared for by professional healthcare workers, but in a comfortable residential home
• Lower the bounce rate of visitors to the website
• Increase the number of inquiries via phone call or the contact form on the website

After the initial wireframes, I setup two different days to take photographs of the 4 homes, the business owners, and the staff. I was also able to setup a couple of times to take photos of the residents during some of their daily activities.

The results were beautiful! The TCSC website has been completely redesigned, with a new brand identity and a clean, modern, and inviting website. The site is much easier to navigate and includes more relevant information for the industry. The new company colors are vibrant and the abundance of photos shows the compassion and care exhibited by the caregivers.

The previous 3 months of website traffic (Jan 2018 to March 2018) showed unimpressive numbers, averaging only 42 visitors per month. After the launch of the new website, the following 3 months showed an average of 163 visitors per month – an increase of 388%!

The Bounce Rate was significantly reduced from 85+% to 32%. Although further testing and analysis is always ongoing, the new site design, along with more engaging content has encouraged visitors to learn more about TCSC and stay longer on the website. It has also led to an increase in inquiries and scheduled tours of the homes. A great result for a fantastic group of people!

After reviewing the old website in-depth, it appeared the previous website developer did not properly use many of the best practices for SEO. Because I was able to build the website from scratch, many of the SEO issues were resolved as the new site was being built – paying special attention to filenames, alt descriptions, and proper use of HTML tags to define the structure of the site.

I also helped the owner put together a new website launch email that she was able to send to her past and present contacts. The additional word of mouth and advertising helped TCSC schedule over 20 new tours of their senior homes in the following 2 months.

Due to the success of the new website and industry conditions, TCSC made the purchase of their 5^th home in 2019 to allow for the expansion of more rooms for their business. This new home has allowed TCSC to increase their revenue and provide additional room setups they can offer to their prospective residents.

“I would like to thank Jeff Kafoury very much for creating a wonderful website for my business. I receive a lot of compliments on the website and I am looking forward to further working with him to integrate social media marketing, as well as other ideas for promoting my business. I highly recommend Jeff’s services to those who need to market their business and keep up with new ways of reaching out to more people.”

Esta Hobbs – Owner

“It was great to see Jeff when he stopped by the facilities. He took the time to understand our business and speak with all of our caregivers. We had a lot of fun on the photo shoot days!”

Lorianne – Admin Assistant

“The company was in need of a new, updated website. The new design is so pretty and I have heard several people on the tours talk about seeing all of the happy photos and wanting to come meet us.”

Lindsay – Caregiver

Temple Court Senior Care has a great reputation in the industry and has some incredible testimonials from families across the Internet. Over their many years of caring for seniors, the owners and staff have truly been a blessing to so many seniors and their loved ones. Below are a couple of links to learn more about the wonderful caregiver services at Temple Court Senior Care.

After the success of the website, the owners asked me to design a brochure that would compliment the style and emotion of the website. The brochure was an opportunity to consolidate the website into the most important features of TCSC. Now, the staff will have a brochure to provide the family members after they leave their tour of the homes and as they decide which facility will ultimately care for their loved one. This is an important decision, with many factors to be weighed by the family members.

This brochure will help the family members to remember all of the wonderful services and activities that TCSC has to offer. It has been a couple of months since the brochures have been given to visitors and the feedback has been very positive. The owners have also used the brochure to send to prospective families who can’t make a tour of the homes right away.

The owners and staff are very proud of the new brochure and love how it compliments the TCSC website. This entire project has been an incredible opportunity to learn about the senior care industry and to provide much needed help to a company that is providing compassion and respect for our seniors.

Click the link below to view the LIVE website: