Final Project

Introducing Bliss – an all-in-one wedding website which will help you plan your wedding all the way from engagement to name changes. Currently, Bliss is just an idea so there are still a few kinks to work out before the real website goes live. In order to work out those kinks I have created storyboards, surveyed past brides and done a competitor assessment to get a better feel for the future users of Bliss and the type of content and tools they will need when planning their future wedding.

Storyboards

In order to better understand the potential users of Bliss, I chose to storyboard two perspective users, Mary and Jessica. As you can see from their stories, each bride and each wedding is completely different so Bliss will need to be prepared for those unique needs.

Mary and Jeff’s Storyboard:

Jessica and Jim’s Storyboard:

Survey

What’s a good idea without first making sure that the idea is something that is viable and necessary to the market? I’ve watched Shark Tank enough to know that not every idea comes with viability in the market. That’s where user data comes into play. Early on in my Capstone Project I wanted to determine if Bliss was even something that was necessary to the wedding planning process. After distributing the survey to recent brides I got a very quick turn-around on responses and gathered invaluable data to use throughout the rest of my Emerging Media Masters Program Capstone Project.

View my survey below:

Below you can find screenshots of the data from some of the more important questions from the survey. As you can see from the data there is a large difference in demographics, desires and wedding planning styles from the survey respondents.

View a spreadsheet with all data here.

Competitor Assessment

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but if you’re product doesn’t solve a problem or solve it better than someone else then what’s the point of investing so much time and energy? Bliss needs to stand out from the pack but you can’t do so without knowing what else the leaders in the industry are doing. Below you will find competitor assessment profiles from Wedding Wire, the Knot and mywedding.com who are the leaders in the wedding website industry.

  

Started in 2005, Wedding Wire began when CEO Timothy Chi realized the wedding industry needed a single site with all the necessary information and tools to plan such an important event. As a frustrated groom himself, Chi decided to create a website which was just that. Wedding Wire began as an award winning to-do list and is now the leading site for vendor information. Some even call it the Yelp of the Wedding Industry.

Highlights:

  • Wedding wire has apps available of Facebook, Android and IOS
  • You can find local vendors and see how the vendors in your area worked out for others.
  • Wedding Wire allows you to listen directly to hundreds of different songs for your wedding. It is linked directly to Amazon. You can search for the songs by category of which time during the wedding that they would be appropriate.
  • Wedding Wire’s free website offers 120 different themes.
  • You can shop different vendors from one site. There is no additional log-ins necessary for contacting each vendor.

Wedding Wire Best Features:

Checklist
Brides prefer the checklist on Wedding Wire versus what is offered on the Knot due to User Experience and convenience.

Seating Chart
Brides also prefer the seating chart features on Wedding Wire over the Knot which does not offer this technology.

Wedding Date
New for 2017, Wedding Wire has worked with vendors to keep their availability up-to-date on the site so you don’t have to contact a vendor unless they are available on your selected date. This cuts down on time spent for both the bride and the vendor. No other wedding website currently offers this service.

Not So Great Features:

Featured Listings
The first few pages of listings for vendors are filled with ‘featured’ listings with paid content. This means that users will have to dig through listings to find what truly matches their needs, not vendors that are paying to have a higher listing on the site.

Contacting Vendors
Wedding Wire has a list of questions to choose from while finding vendors but when it comes time to contact them they have a very simplistic contact form which does not pull any of that information when you reach out to the vendor. This means you have to enter the information multiple times. 

 

The Knot is easily the most well known website on the market today. But their publicity and recognition does not mean they are the most favored by Brides or Vendors. Started by Mike Steib in 1997, the Knot offers an all-in-one wedding planning website as well as The Knot Shop which sells a large variety of customizable and affordable items for brides.

Highlights:

  • The free customizable website offers 40 different themes
  • The Knot is just a one of a series of three websites. Each of them are designed to help you with which family milestone you are at so once you tie the knot you can move on to The Nest or The Bump.
  • The Knot Shop offers customizable and affordable items for brides

The Knot Best Features:

Contact Form
The newly upgraded contact form asks a series of information you may want to pass along to a vendor before contacting them for a quote or availability.

The Knot Shop
Unique to the Knot is the Knot Shop which features customizable gifts and decorations for brides in one convenient location.


Not So Great Features:

Featured Listings
The first few pages of listings for vendors are filled with ‘featured’ listings with paid content. This means that users will have to dig through listings to find what truly matches their needs, not vendors that are paying to have a higher listing on the site.

Guest List Manager
Brides prefer the Guest List Manager on Wedding Wire over the Knot due to the simplicity of use.

Wedding Website
Similar to the Guest List Manager, brides prefer the Wedding Website maker on Wedding Wire over the Knot. The Knot boasts a flashy design with high definition photography but is too complicated for the average bride to use and understand.

 

 

Mywedding.com launched in 2003 as a stress free user friendly site for wedding planning for the everyday bride. Unlike the Knot and Wedding Wire, mywedding.com focuses on the average bride, not a luxury bride with a high end wedding cost. Mywedding.com is a very structured site. It doesn’t just walk the bride through the planning process from start to finish; It holds her hand and keeps her from getting distracted. It has a matter of fact feel to it.

Highlights:

  • Mywedding.com allows you to browse, clip and save ideas all from the same sight. It has a setup similar to Pintrest. You can share your ideas with friends.
  • Mywedding.com asks you intitial questions about your wedding to personalize your tasks list and experiance.
  • You can shop different vendors from one site. There is not any additional log in for each store you browse through. They link you directly to the top sites.
  • Mywedding.com has over 600 different templates that you can choose from to build your personalized wedding website.

mywedding.com Best Features:

Simplicity
The unique aspect of mywedding.com versus Wedding Wire or the Knot is that it is simplistic in design, easy to understand and offers what the Bride needs, not what the wedding industry thinks they need.

Not So Great Features:

Design
From the photography, graphic quality all the way to typography mywedding.com does not seem to have a consistent brand throughout their website. They have too many moving parts, unreadable text and mismatched call to action buttons which could cause confusion for the users.

Contact Form
Similar to Wedding Wire, the contact form on mywedding.com is too simplistic leading to a longer wait time to receive and send important wedding details from bride to potential vendors.

Impressive Features from All Three Wedding Websites
Wedding Wire, the Knot and mywedding.com all contain the following helpful features:

  • They contain detailed wedding checklists – You don’t have to worry about compiling your own to-do list or missing an important aspect. These lists are compiled to make sure you do not miss a thing. You put your date in you magically are on a schedule with date reminders.
  • They help you find local vendors – People who have used these vendors rate them accordingly allowing you to see where they stand. This can save you from getting a less than exceptional vendor.
  • They offer free personalized wedding websites – You can invite friends and family to view your website. Personal URL’s are available for a small additional fees.
  • These sites are a great place to find inspiration – If you are lost about where to start you can look at different ideas and pictures and save them.
  • These sites are mobile friendly – All three sites after their own variation of mobile friendly apps. These apps are a great way to share your wedding site as well as plan on the go.
  • All the information you need is right at your fingertips – You can retire your notebook and give your search engine a break. All the information you need can be found on one site.

In Conclusion

Bliss has hurdles to face, stiff competition in the industry and needs a clearer vision and a strategic plan. Overall though, I believe Bliss will be competitive in the industry and offer future Brides the all-in-one wedding website they are striving for. Currently they have a mix-and-match approach to wedding planning, picking tools from Wedding Wire, other tools from the Knot and some from searching online for sites that offer free templates or DIY products.

I found this process of doing a competitor assessment, storyboarding and getting real feedback from Brides to be very helpful and insightful in my path towards victory and viability for my product and I can’t wait to continue development throughout my Emerging Media Masters Program.