Bare
Creating the next level online experience for the funeral industry in Australia.
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Screenshot of the revamped Bare homepage – January 2025.
Introduction
Bare offers high-quality cremation, funeral, and memorial services to Australians through an online platform and simplifies the process for families via an intuitive website and dashboard.
One of the business goals was to create a simple, intuitive, and modern website to connect potential clients with arrangers by generating more calls. The website also aimed to showcase how the online process of arranging a cremation works and to help clients connect with the team.
The Context
Bare is a modern end-of-life platform that simplifies the funeral planning process by offering direct cremation services and pre-planning options online. The company aims to make funerals more accessible, transparent, and stress-free for families during difficult times.
As the Lead Designer, I was responsible for redesigning Bare’s website to enhance user experience, improve navigation, and create a clean, minimal aesthetic that aligns with the brand’s compassionate and modern approach. The goal was to make information easy to find, streamline the customer journey, and ensure the website effectively communicated Bare’s services with clarity and empathy.
Key Results
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90% User returns to the website.
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Enhanced Trust & Clarity.
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Simplified the website’s structure.
My Role
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UX/UI Designer
Why This Matters
Revamping Bare’s website was essential to keep the brand updated, modern, and aligned with its guidelines. A fresh design not only enhances trust and credibility but also makes it easier for people to navigate and find the information they need during a difficult time.
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Ensures the design follows Bare’s brand guidelines for a consistent and professional look.
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Creates a modern and trustworthy online presence.
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Improves navigation, making it easier for users to find cremation services and information.
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Enhances clarity and usability, helping people make informed decisions during emotional moments.
Here’s the FigmaJam persona map for Bare. Feel free to zoom in and take a closer look
Problem Statement
Clearly Defining the Pain Points
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Inconsistent user experience across different devices, making the website challenging to use on mobile or tablet.
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Complex content structure, overwhelming users with excessive information and unclear hierarchies.
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Slow loading times, leading to poor user engagement and high bounce rates.
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The website was designed based on the old brand guidelines and now needs to align with the new ones for consistency.
The Problem
The bare website presents several challenges that hinder a smooth user experience. Users often struggle with navigating the site, facing frustration when trying to find relevant information or complete tasks. The design lacks intuitiveness, which makes it difficult for visitors to quickly understand how to use certain features or move between pages. Additionally, the user experience is inconsistent across different devices, causing issues on mobile and tablet views.
The content structure is overwhelming, with excessive information and unclear hierarchies, making it hard for users to find what they're looking for. Slow loading times and confusing messaging around products and services further contribute to a poor overall experience, leading to low user engagement and high bounce rates.
The Objective
The objective is to improve the user experience on the bare website by simplifying navigation, making the design more intuitive and consistent across devices, and reorganising content for clarity. We aim to speed up loading times, improve product messaging, and create a more engaging experience to reduce bounce rates and boost conversions.
Screenshot of the homepage before any updates, taken in November 2021.
User Research
Persona Map
Who Are the Users?
I created a persona map for the Bare website to highlight the key characteristics, needs, and goals of seniors planning ahead and families arranging a cremation for a loved one. This helps guide the website design by addressing the challenges users face in navigating end-of-life services and understanding their motivations, ensuring the site meets both emotional and practical needs.
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Australian seniors aged 40 to 60.
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Looking for a cremation service either for themselves or a loved one.
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Interested in prepaying for their own funeral or making arrangements for a family member.
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Prefer to handle the process independently to avoid placing a burden on their family.
Empathy Mapping
I created an empathy map to understand the emotions and needs of seniors planning ahead and families arranging a cremation. This helps me better grasp their concerns, desires, and motivations, allowing the Bare website to address their feelings and provide the right information at each stage of their decision-making process.
Here’s the FigmaJam Empathy Map for Bare. Feel free to zoom in and take a closer look
Competitive Analysis
Existing Solutions
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They lack personality and a unique identity.
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Many have an outdated look and feel, with little to no modern design elements.
Opportunity
The opportunity is to redesign the website with a unique personality that reflects the brand, incorporating its own layout, brand elements, colors, and hierarchy. A modern and clean design will not only enhance the brand’s identity but also improve user experience by making information easier to find. Clear navigation and thoughtful design will ensure a seamless experience, especially on mobile devices, allowing users to access what they need quickly and effortlessly.
Competitive analysis Figma Jam file to capture the differences, key learnings, opportunities, and similarities with direct competitors.
Solution
A Modern, User-Friendly Website
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Custom brand-aligned design to reflect Bare’s unique identity and move away from generic templates.
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User-friendly layout with clear hierarchy, ensuring easy access to important information.
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Modern and minimal aesthetic to create a welcoming, approachable experience.
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Straightforward pricing display for transparency and trust.
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Simple step-by-step process explanation to guide users and reduce confusion.
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Mobile-first design for convenience across all devices.
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Resource hubs and educational content to support informed decision-making.
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Live chat or helpline to offer guidance and emotional support.
Branding & Design Approach
The new website will follow the updated brand guidelines, incorporating a fresh color palette with green forest and mint tones. These colors symbolize growth, peace, and renewal, reflecting the brand's values. The rounded shapes, inspired by the logotype's dot, represent the end of life, offering a subtle yet meaningful design element.
The layout will feature more white space and clean sections, ensuring an intuitive, easy-to-navigate experience. This minimalistic design approach aims to create a calming atmosphere, allowing users to find what they need with ease while also feeling supported during a sensitive time.
4o mini
Brand board with color palette, fonts, logo usage, and photography imagery.
Wireframes & Prototypes
I created the initial wireframes for the Bare website by hand, allowing for a more flexible and creative approach. I also received hand-drawn wireframes from the owner of Bare, which helped guide the design direction. From there, I developed detailed wireframes and high-quality mockups to test the website’s layout and functionality. This process ensured that the design would meet both user needs and business goals before moving on to the final implementation.
Wireframes created by hand, from low to high prototypes. I started with wireframes to work on the layout, followed by a few navigation tests, which were iterated upon to eventually become a high-quality prototype to present to the client.
The Result
The final website redesign is user-friendly, clean, and modern, providing seniors with an intuitive browsing experience. The site is designed to help them easily navigate, find pricing, services, and detailed information without feeling overwhelmed. The clear structure encourages users to return, as seniors often need time to make informed decisions about cremation services.
The site is not only facilitating their decision-making process but also driving calls to arrangers, ultimately helping close the deal by providing the support and information they need at every stage.
Here’s the Figma Jam empathy map. Feel free to zoom in and explore it further.
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
The revamped Bare website has shown outstanding results, with 90% of users returning to the site. This high return rate demonstrates the website’s effectiveness in meeting the needs of seniors who are seeking to make informed decisions. The clean, user-friendly design allows them to easily navigate the site, find essential information like pricing and services, and return when they need more details, ultimately helping drive inquiries and supporting the decision-making process.
Future Possibilities
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Ongoing monitoring of user behavior and analytics to refine the user experience.
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Periodic updates to content and design to keep the site fresh and aligned with user needs.
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Expansion of resources and informative articles to support users in making informed decisions.
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Regular updates to pricing and services to reflect any changes or new offerings.
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Incorporation of user feedback to continuously improve the site’s functionality and design.
The revamped Bare website is more than just a redesign—it’s a transformation that helps guide users through a difficult process with clarity. By making the site easy to navigate and providing clear information, it supports individuals and families in making informed decisions during a challenging time. The website is designed to offer reassurance and guidance, ensuring that users can easily find the answers and support they need.
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