Millennium Systems International — Meevo

The challenge

Salons, beauty and medical spas, studios, and gyms use Millennium Systems International (MSI) software to manage business records, scheduling, point-of-sale transactions, and business and marketing goals. When we met, MSI was already an industry leader, so the stakes were high when they asked my team to redesign their flagship business management software suite from the ground up.

What they had

The platform's ancient user interface had become so unwieldy and cumbersome to understand, maintain, and run that it was beginning to negatively impact sales effectiveness and support costs.

The CEO wrote the existing product himself in Visual FoxPro, a dead language, and their customers often called it "popup hell." New customer expectations like modern user interface design, touch device compatibility, and cloud-based services meant it was time for a change.

old interface screens before redesign — FIG. 1The old product's client record, service, and appointment book screens.

The big idea

The appointment calendar, one of the most challenging, complex parts of the spa/salon back office, led to one of the platform's most distinctive competitive advantages: fuzzy logic and natural language processing. The client immediately recognized the power of this invention and patented it, securing their competitive advantage. They even trademarked the name we came up with: "ConvoBar."

conversational booking — FIG. 2An interaction spec for ConvoBar, with annotated tokens, autocomplete, and keyboard behavior.

My team went through several rounds of interaction design to enable staff to type, text, or talk in a natural, conversational manner, and the scheduler would "just get it." We recognized that we had invented a new concept: conversational booking.

FIG. 3A wireframe of the appointment calendar with the ConvoBar above it.

Understanding the client's clients

Designing for salons and spas presents unique challenges due to the diverse user base. Our primary user research revealed distinct persona segmentations across generational gaps. For instance, younger users are more comfortable with text entry, especially speech-to-text, while older users prefer to navigate through menus with a mouse. This led us to coin the terms "Texter" and "Clicker" to ensure our system catered to both needs.

Texter vs Clicker — FIG. 4The same booking request done by typing, and by clicking.

Redesigned interactions

Powered by a strong invention, the rest of the process was a matter of applying UX best practices across the entire functional suite: booking, point of sale, client management, employee management, goal tracking, marketing, reporting, inventory management, and more.

Meevo wireframes — FIG. 5Pages from the wireframe specification for the new interface.

Developing a modern look and feel

We went through several rounds of iteration to find the right design language, producing several sets of mood boards and style compositions.

early comps — FIG. 7Early comps of the client screen in light and dark, in purple.

The design we settled on — bold, typography-forward — defined the brand image for the new generation.

FIG. 8The Meevo front desk on a tablet, with the ConvoBar at the top.

The result

The redesigned product was a resounding success, earning over 40 industry awards since launch, including American Spa Magazine's highest honor eight years in a row: the Professional's Choice Award for Best Software. Since launch, MSI has expanded the platform to a new technology stack to deploy to a wider range of devices, while maintaining the same user experience that propelled them to the forefront of the industry.

FIG. 9The manager screen on a desktop monitor.

“Jason was one of the few of my staff that I felt comfortable filling in for me during new client engagements due to his technical knowledge, User Experience and design capabilities and ability to present ideas and opinions in thoughtful and insightful ways. I was continuously impressed with his ability to bring a high level of professional creativity and personal passion to every engagement.”

Jonah SterlingGeneral Manager of Design

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