Charly Transport & Tours
ESTIMATED READING TIME
5 mins
Team
Shaina Desroches
ROLE
UX Designer
UX Researcher
SKILLS
User Research
Visual design
TIMELINE
4 weeks
Charly Transport & Tours
Project Overview
A Small Business Website With Big Expectations
Designed a website for a South Florida luxury shuttle business to drive bookings, build customer trust, and support hotel and cruise line referrals.
The Challenge
Word of Mouth Worked, Until It Needed a Destination.
The business did not have an existing website and relied primarily on business cards for discovery and referrals. This made it difficult for customers and hotel or cruise partners to quickly understand services, locations, and how to take the necessary steps to book.
User Research
Research Methods
Customer Surveys: Surveys were distributed to past customers to understand expectations and pain points when visiting the website.
Questions: (Survey Link)
What led you to look for transportation services in South Florida?
When visiting a transportation website, what do you usually look for first?
How would you describe your understanding of the services shown on the site?
What were you hoping to do during your visit to the website?
What factors would influence your decision to book directly through the website?
Phone Interviews: Phone interviews were conducted with the business owner, employees, local hotels/cruise line customer representatives a to align internal goals with user needs.
Topics covered:
Desired customer actions (calls, visits, bookings)
Frequently asked customer questions
Operational challenges caused by unclear website content
How the website supports in-person and phone interactions
Here's what our stakeholders had to say….
Customer Surveys: Surveys were distributed to past customers to understand expectations and pain points when visiting the website.
Questions: (Survey Link)
What led you to look for transportation services in South Florida?
When visiting a transportation website, what do you usually look for first?
How would you describe your understanding of the services shown on the site?
What were you hoping to do during your visit to the website?
What factors would influence your decision to book directly through the website?
Phone Interviews: Phone interviews were conducted with the business owner, employees, local hotels/cruise line customer representatives a to align internal goals with user needs.
Topics covered:
Desired customer actions (calls, visits, bookings)
Frequently asked customer questions
Operational challenges caused by unclear website content
How the website supports in-person and phone interactions
Here's what our stakeholders had to say….
User Insights
Business Owner
& Employees
Core needs
Increase bookings, calls, and repeat customers
Support consistent referrals from hotels and cruise partners
Clearly communicate services so customers arrive informed
Frustrations
Relying on business cards and word of mouth
Customers arriving confused or unprepared
Core needs
Quickly understand services and shuttles available
Confirm coverage areas and pickup locations
Feel confident booking a reliable service and understands the steps to
Frustrations
Unclear or incomplete service information, only have business cards to go off on
Not sure how to book, and how they can trust the services
Customers
Hotel &
Cruise Partners
Core needs
Confidently recommend transportation services to guests
Share a professional, trustworthy website link
Reduce guest confusion and follow-up questions
Frustrations
Have no website to share with customers, easily runs out of business cards
Repeating service details multiple times per day
Problem Statement
Design Strategy & Key Features
The design prioritizes trust, easy navigation, and clarity.
Every element is intentional, reducing uncertainty for first-time visitors, reinforcing credibility for referral partners, and guiding users toward action as quickly as possible.
Trust at First Glance
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Users quickly judge credibility, so the design highlights reviews, service photos, and experience upfront to establish trust within seconds of landing.
Clarity Before Commitment
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Clear service descriptions and South Florida coverage reduce hesitation and help users understand exactly what’s offered before booking or calling.
3. Action-Oriented Navigation
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Strong visual hierarchy and persistent Call and Book buttons guide users toward the next step without friction or confusion.
4. Built for Mobile Use
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The website is easy to share, mobile-first, and designed to support hotel and cruise partners confidently recommending the service to travelers on the go.
Journey Map - How To Book
User Testing & Iterations
Discovery Channels
Booking Comprehension
Then, we tracked whether there was an increase in calls and online form submissions to determine if bookings increased, which was the primary goal.
Trust + Service Clarity
94% found the website easy to navigate and understood services
62% trusted the website
feedback showed that visible reviews/ testimonials would increase trust
To resolve this issue, we added a review section titled “What Our Customers Say.”
Included a “Leave a Review” button that directs users to Google Reviews
Displayed testimonials from past customers in a carousel-style layout to improve readability and engagement
Featured a video testimonial from a past customer and local influencer to strengthen social proof, enhance brand trust, and make the website feel more dynamic and authentic.
Ideation and Solution
Final Designs
The final website delivers a streamlined, conversion-focused experience that clearly communicates services, builds trust, and supports both direct customers and referral partners.
Reflections
Metrics of Success & Next Steps
Success isn’t measured as a one-time launch moment, but as an ongoing process of refinement.
Continuously tracking Google Analytics to monitor traffic sources, user behavior, bounce rates, and booking conversions is essential for sustained growth and long-term success.
Future plans include implementing additional accessibility improvements, such as:
Adding alt text for all images
Improving color contrast to meet accessibility standards
Testing compatibility with screen readers
What I Learned
Working on a small business website was genuinely rewarding. I could clearly see how small design decisions directly impacted real people and real bookings. With limited resources, every layout shift, design tweak, and wording change mattered. Seeing analytics improve and hearing positive feedback made the work feel real and meaningful. It reminded me that great design doesn’t have to be flashy or complex; it just has to work.