Leetsdale Barbers ● Shipped 2016
Designing an Online Experience for Denver's Oldest Barber Shop
Overview
Leetsdale Barbers is one of Denver’s oldest and most historic, neighborhood barbershops. The business needed a scalable website solution that could be duplicated and customized for multiple franchises and managed with minimal technical support. The redesign aimed to give Leetsdale an iconic web experience that would appeal to a digital audience while giving managers an easy way to communicate updates directly from the site.
Role
Design Lead
Researcher
Project Manager
Timeline
2016 - 2018
Tools
Illustrator
WordPress
Photoshop
I led product design for Leetsdale Barbers, partnering closely with the late owner, David Grady, the staff barbers, and an engineering partner to align on scope and concepts translating a Denver cultural icon into a compelling online experience. This was a personal project that I independently negotiated, managed, and designed in collaboration with a business partner.
Problem & Context
Leetsdale Barbers lacked a centralized, reliable online presence and depended primarily on social media to communicate hours, closures, and pricing, creating unnecessary overhead for shop managers and staff. As the business grew and expanded to new locations, the team needed a website template to communicate services and closures, manage appointments, support flexible customizations for multiple franchise locations.
Due to the scale of the business and the lack of analytics tooling, formal usage metrics were not collected. Impact was evaluated through in-person usability testing, staff feedback, and observed changes in customer behavior.
Due to the scale of the business and the lack of analytics tooling, formal usage metrics were not collected. Impact was evaluated through in-person usability testing, staff feedback, and observed changes in customer behavior.
Leetsdale Barbers needed a scalable, low-maintenance website that clearly communicated essential information to a multi-generational audience
Design Exploration & Iterations
I explored various structural approaches to ensure the site clearly communicated essential business information and supported in-shop communication needs, and platform functionality.
The wireframes established an overall architecture for:
- Primary messaging and shop-wide notifications
- Services and hours, designed for quick scanning
- Barber profiles, highlighting experience and personality
- Shop photography, reinforcing the barbershop’s long-standing community presence
- Location and contact information, optimized for first-time visitors
- A commemorative section honoring the late owner, preserving the shop’s legacy and emotional connection with long-time clients
Using the wireframes as a foundation, I developed three distinct design concepts at increasing levels of fidelity. Each concept explored different approaches to layout, typography, and visual hierarchy while maintaining the same underlying content structure.
These concepts were reviewed and evaluated directly with shop owners, staff and clients visiting the shop during operating hours. Stakeholders gravitated to concept A however, highlighted the desire to combine elements from other concepts, add functionality for directions, and reduce the reliance on black and white photography.
Based on this feedback, a single direction was selected and refined by merging the strongest elements from multiple concepts.
Based on this feedback, a single direction was selected and refined by merging the strongest elements from multiple concepts.
Design Solution
From the selected design direction, I produced a high-fidelity prototype and prepared the site for in-context usability testing.
Usability testing was conducted live during business hours with eight customers in the shop. Eight customers were asked to complete core tasks, including finding store hours, locating the shop, booking a haircut, and reviewing barber profiles. Feedback revealed that the booking action needed greater visual prominence and that mobile interactions within barber profiles should be simplified. These insights directly informed refinements to hierarchy, call-to-action placement, and mobile layout in the final design.
Usability testing was conducted live during business hours with eight customers in the shop. Eight customers were asked to complete core tasks, including finding store hours, locating the shop, booking a haircut, and reviewing barber profiles. Feedback revealed that the booking action needed greater visual prominence and that mobile interactions within barber profiles should be simplified. These insights directly informed refinements to hierarchy, call-to-action placement, and mobile layout in the final design.
1/3 Online Bookings
After launch, online bookings accounted for an estimated 1/3 of total appointments, based on staff estimations and website, and sales data
100% Success Rate
of test participants were able to successfully complete an online booking experience within 5 minutes
3 Scaled Websites
Within 90 days of launch, the design template was duplicated and customized for three additional barbershop locations
Results and Impact
By designing a web experience to consider both the business staff and clientele, the redesign directly addressed the shop’s core challenges: inconsistent communication, hard-to-find information, and unnecessary operational overhead. This approach improved confidence for first-time visitors, reduced friction for returning clients, and gave shop owners a lightweight system they could manage independently.
Learnings
- Leading this project end-to-end strengthened my skills in client partnership, project management, scoping, contracts, and incorporating stakeholder feedback throughout delivery
- I learned the importance of accurately accounting for non-design work, particularly project management and contract scoping, after underestimating the total effort required
- While the project successfully met its goals at launch, it reinforced that long-term product quality and continuity depend on ownership, governance, and sustained investment, factors that can shift as businesses change hands over time