algoncalv@gmail.com
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Cloudstudios

Cloudstudios is a SaaS platform that allows entrepreneurs to streamline purchase experience, making selling and client management easy. Create a link for everything you sell, and share it with customers, wherever they are.

www.cloudstudios.com

At Cloudstudios, I served as the Lead Product Designer for a year and a half. My role involved synthesizing user requirements, communicating design recommendations, prioritizing outcomes, leading the end-to-end design process, and managing expectations across development teams.

Completed tasks

Personas
Research
Userflows
Sitemap
Wireframes
Prototyping
User testing
Visual design

Team members

Alex Boyman
Jack Boyman
Melanie Miller
Keshav Vohra
Bryce Wendelaar
Andre Goncalves (me)

Tools

Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Google Docs
Google Sheets
Hotjar

01. Discovering

Challenges

As the sole product designer on the team, I faced a multifaceted challenge:

  • Designing the entire platform within a tight one-month deadline.
  • Adapting to the startup environment for the first time.
  • Reacquainting myself with Figma.
  • Navigating the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personal goals

  • Design a user-friendly and efficient platform for entrepreneurs and their customers.
  • Develop a strategic roadmap for the platform, incorporating features and tools tailored to various types of entrepreneurs.
  • Stay current with essential entrepreneurial trends, feedback, and challenges.
  • Collaborate with entrepreneurs and Cloudstudios to achieve their business objectives.

Understanding the landscape

When I joined Cloudstudios, the company was in its infancy. Designing for this project necessitated extensive research to grasp the context, user requirements, and product landscape. To achieve this, I conducted contextual inquiries, competitive analyses, and in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs.

By engaging with entrepreneurs in the fitness industry, I gained valuable insights into their specific needs for running their online businesses through Cloudstudios.

Some competitive analysis

Linktree

Linktree is a freemium link-in-bio social media landing page that allows users to customize their pages and share their links.

Awesome features

  • Mobile preview: users can preview their content and customization before they apply.
  • Easy to use: simple to navigate without any clutter.
  • Page customization: users can change colours & fonts and pre-built themes.
  • Schedule link: users can schedule when links go live.
  • Lock links: users can add security measures to their links.
  • Analytics: view link activity, sales income, user location, and devices.
  • Get setup: great feature helps new users quickly set up their page and first link.

Luma

Luma helps foster meaningful relationships within your community through events, newsletters, and insights.

Awesome features

  • Ease of use: intuitive Dashboard with easy access to tools and features.
  • Audience: manage customers and subscribers.
  • Broad profile page customization.
  • Events: wide range of features and options for seamless event scheduling.
  • Insights (analytics): visitor map, profile clicks and profile page views.
  • Newsletters: send newsletters without any third-party app to audiences.

Squarespace

Squarespace website building and hosting company. It provides software as a service for website building and hosting, and allows users to use pre-built website templates and drag-and-drop elements to create and modify webpages.

Awesome features

  • Tools and features that accommodates every type of user.
    • E-commerce.
    • Marketing.
    • Scheduling.
  • Great website customization.
  • Custom domains.

Target audience

Given the team’s collective experience in the fitness industry, our primary audience consists of yoga and fitness instructors, as well as personal trainers.

User interviews

I actively participated in meetings and interviews with entrepreneurs to understand their desires, needs, and recommendations. These interactions provided valuable insights, helping me develop a comprehensive understanding of their requirements and aspirations.

User feedback

Website customization

Entrepreneurs value the ease of customizing their Cloudstudios websites, often applying their branding colors.

Events

Some entrepreneurs find the events feature challenging to use, and the majority desire more options.

Appointments

A prominent request was for an appointment feature, allowing entrepreneurs to schedule their services according to their availability.

Navigation issues

Many users expressed dissatisfaction with the platform’s current design, citing a lack of common design patterns that made navigation unintuitive.

02. Defining

User personas​

Below are user personas derived from our interviews and meetings, aimed at capturing the common goals, needs, and pain points shared by entrepreneurs using the platform.

“I’ve been practicing yoga for the past 6 years. I would like to sell my services online for extra income, but I don’t have the time to manage a complex website.”

Name

Karen M.

Location

London, England

Age

28

Occupation

Manager, Yoga Instructor, and mother

Preferred apps

iMessage, Instagram, Zoom, Fitness apps, and iCal

Devices

iPhone (60%), iMac (25%), and Apple Watch (15%)

Bio

At the age of 20, Karen became a devoted mother, dedicating her life to her family. She discovered yoga two years after her first child’s birth, using it as a form of exercise. Her aspiration is to open a yoga gym, but pandemic-related challenges and limited resources have led her to start with a simpler venture.

Needs & Goals

  • Establish a website for selling yoga classes, both online and in-person.
  • Enhance her online presence and reputation through her website and Instagram.
  • Generate additional income to support her family.
  • Implement a payment system for each attending student.
  • Maintain attendance records for her classes.
  • Ensure that students have paid or will pay for their classes.
  • Efficiently manage her teaching schedule.
  • Keep track of the number of classes remaining on students’ passes.

Concerns

  • Concerned about the platform being overly complex and challenging to use.
  • Worried about time constraints, particularly in managing her website, schedules, students, and payments.

Wishlist

  • User-friendly navigation.
  • Accessibility from both her PC and mobile phone.
  • Ability to create and manage classes.
  • Upload and sell her yoga video libraries.
  • Efficient management of students and income.

“In the midst of the pandemic, I’m unable to offer my personal training services. I need to find other means to offer my services online to my customers.”

Name

Fabio B.

Location

Toronto, Canada

Age

34

Occupation

Fitness instructor, and nutritionist

Preferred apps

WhatsApp, Instagram, Google Meet and Calendar

Devices

Android (50%), Tablet (40%), and Android Watch (10%)

Bio

Fabio, an advocate for an active and healthy lifestyle since his teenage years, now dedicates himself to helping others. Due to social distancing measures, he faces challenges in sustaining his personal training services. Fabio is in search of a user-friendly platform that simplifies scheduling and online payment for his services.

Needs & Goals

  • Requires a platform that is easy and quick for his students to schedule private one-on-one online classes and pre-pay for them.
  • Desires a platform that allows him to link content to his personal website.
  • Seeks to minimize high fees associated with the platform.
  • Aims for prompt availability of earnings upon receiving payments.

Concerns

  • Concerned about avoiding high fees.
  • Prefers quick availability of earnings upon receiving payment.

Wishlist

  • Clear and legible interface due to vision problems.
  • Accessibility from tablet and mobile phone.
  • Ability to create and manage schedules and private classes.
  • Upload and sell nutrition and diet videos.
  • Efficient customer and income management.

How it works

Entrepreneurs

Creating your space

Entrepreneurs can sign up and create their own Cloudstudios website.

Cloudstudios
Dashboard

Dashboard design & management

Through the dashboard, entrepreneurs effortlessly add, manage their products & services, and personalize their site.

Entrepreneur’s
Cloudstudios
website

Visibility & engagement

The products, services, and site design are visible on their Cloudstudios website and ready to be viewed by their customers.

Customers

Customer interaction & transactions

Customers can visit the entrepreneur’s Cloudstudios site to make purchases as guests, while registered users have the added benefit of viewing and managing their transactions.

Sitemap

03. DeSIGNING

Wireframes

04. DeLivering

Entrepreneur's dashboard

The dashboard serves as the central hub for entrepreneurs to create and manage services, handle customer interactions, access schedules, and review sales data.

Website Services: Entrepreneurs can easily choose and manage the services they want to offer on their website.
Website Services: Entrepreneurs can easily choose and manage the services they want to offer on their website.
Website Appearance: Entrepreneurs can personalize their website's look and feel, incorporating branding elements, and configuring banners and social media links if desired.
Website Appearance: Entrepreneurs can personalize their website's look and feel, incorporating branding elements, and configuring banners and social media links if desired.
My profile settings
My profile settings
Events
Events
Event details
Event details
Add new event
Add new event
Customer list
Customer list
Resources
Resources

Entrepreneur's website

As entrepreneurs configure their website through the dashboard, any changes are instantly reflected on their website.

Default home page
Default home page
Example of populated events
Example of populated events
Guest checkout
Guest checkout

Customer account settings

Customers who sign up for the entrepreneur’s website can access their account settings page to view purchases and manage their profiles and billing.

Example of a populated purchases page
Example of a populated purchases page
Profile settings
Profile settings
Populated billing
Populated billing

05. Reflection

Reevaluating
the platform

Reflecting on our journey with Cloudstudios, we envisioned it as a versatile “Swiss Army knife” for entrepreneurs, offering a comprehensive suite of tools and features. However, feedback revealed a pivotal insight:

  • Despite the platform’s rich functionalities, entrepreneurs were hesitant to fully transition from their existing digital presences.
  • Many continued to link to their Cloudstudios pages from their personal and Linktree websites, indicating a preference for maintaining their established online identities (see example below).

This highlighted the critical need for more advanced customization options on Cloudstudios, prompting us to reconsider our approach to better align with the nuanced needs of our users.

Entrepreneurs private website
Entrepreneurs Cloudstudios website
Entrepreneurs Linktree website

Solutions

Following a strategic review, we concluded that competing with established platforms and users’ bespoke websites was not viable. Our approach pivoted to:

Layout transformation

Transforming the dashboard’s layout to a more website-like design for easier navigation.

Jump to solution

Improved shareability

Improving the shareability of products and services to better serve entrepreneurs.

Jump to solution

Page management

Refining how entrepreneurs manage their “About Me,” “Links,” and “Home Page” sections for a more intuitive user experience.

Enhancement focus

Shifting our focus towards enhancing and introducing new features and tools, rather than prioritizing website customization. 

Layout transformation

In response to valuable user feedback, we embarked on a transformative journey to evolve our platform’s interface from a conventional dashboard to a more website-centric design. This shift aimed to streamline navigation, making it more intuitive and user-friendly. By closely listening to our users, we identified the need for a layout that not only enhances the overall user experience but also aligns more closely with their expectations from modern digital platforms.

Old Cloudstudios
New Cloudstudios

Improved shareability

Entrepreneurs can easily copy individual or overall product and service links (highlighted in red are some examples below) for use on their personal or bio-link websites, enhancing the sharing and visibility of their offerings.

Sell (home) page
List of active events
Schedules

06. Conclusion

Testimonials

"Being able to finally have a place where my customers can register, pay and receive the details right away."
Daisy C.
feelfreeyoga.cloudstudios.com
"I’ve been using Cloudstudios for 2+ years and I’m obsessed. They’ve made it possible for me to make passive income so that I can focus on other things."
Noah S.
nfitnessfitin30.cloudstudios.com
"I have paid a lot of money to build a website I could not get to grips with or edit. I don’t have the time to learn. But with Cloudstudios you don’t need any down time to learn anything. You can pick it up as you go along."
Lisa A.
lmahealthandfitness.cloudstudios.com
"I love that I can operate my online studio all from one platform. It has allowed me to be more efficient in the organization of my business but also the financial scaling of my offerings too!"
Lela J.
shalaonline.cloudstudios.com
"Cloudstudios makes payments SO easy, and having my video gallery set up and managed is a huge benefit."
Emily H.
emilyhughesyoga.cloudstudios.com
"Cloudstudios helps me stay connected to my community, run my classes from literally anywhere, while building up always-accessible online resources and digital content."
Chiara F.
chiarafavaretti.cloudstudios.com

Insights

Reflections on personal growth

This project was a significant chapter in my professional journey, sharpening my design thinking and deepening my empathy for users. 

Key learnings

One of the most valuable lessons from Cloudstudios was the importance of iterative design and user feedback in creating meaningful digital experiences. This project underscored the need for flexibility in design to meet evolving user needs.

Professional development

Through this experience, I’ve become more adept at navigating the complexities of product design within a startup environment. It’s prepared me to tackle future projects with a more strategic and user-centered approach.

Adaptability and innovation

Adapting to rapid changes and pivoting strategies based on user feedback has been pivotal. This has taught me the importance of being agile and innovative in design thinking.

Gratitude

I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity to work alongside a talented team who have contributed significantly to my growth. Their insights and encouragement have been invaluable.

Looking forward

Armed with these experiences and learnings, I’m eager to apply them to new challenges. I look forward to bringing my blend of creativity and strategic thinking to future projects, continuing to make impactful design contributions.