A decade of design, rooted in a disaster.
Queen Pelican began as a response to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill — a question about what it would take to build a cleaning platform that actually respected the environment it was supposed to protect.
The market existed.
The right option didn't.
65% of survey respondents had already used cleaning services. The demand was there. But no Austin competitor offered transparent ingredients, online booking, or a design built around trust. Queen Pelican was designed to fill that gap.
The data confirmed the demand
Average importance rating given to green cleaning by survey respondents
Listed chemical exposure, allergies, and air quality as primary advantages of green products
Gave favorable ratings when asked about green cleaning products and services
What users needed vs. what existed
What users needed
- Transparent ingredient disclosure
- Online booking and scheduling
- Smartphone-accessible experience
- Customizable service options
- Trusted green certification
What competitors offered
- No ingredient transparency
- No online booking
- Desktop-only or poor mobile experience
- Fixed service packages only
- Vague "eco-friendly" claims
"Many of those surveyed had concerns about their children and pets' exposure to chemicals — yet had no idea what products their cleaning company actually used in their home."
Designing for the user who was actually in the room
Research interviews and survey data were synthesized into two primary personas. Both shaped every navigation, design, and content decision that followed.
Dr. Gina
PhD, Anthropology · Austin, TX
Primary Persona"I need a cleaning company I can actually trust — one that's as serious about what goes into their products as I am."
Background- Millennial · Single · Environmentalist · Super smart nerd
- PhD in Anthropology, studied Forensic Science at Baylor
- Works long hours — no time to clean, very particular about what's used in her home
- Hire a trustworthy green cleaning company
- Get home steam cleaned without harsh chemicals
- Pet-safe products throughout
- Coming home to an unclean and disorganized space
- Difficulty finding genuinely green cleaning companies
- No transparency about what products are used in her home
How she decides: Reads Yelp reviews, shops Amazon, uses Instagram and Twitter. Owns pets — their safety influences every product decision.
Karen
Real Estate Agent · South Austin, TX
Secondary Persona"I wish cleaning companies were more open about what products they actually use in my home."
Background- Baby Boomer · Divorced · 2 kids · Outgoing
- Left nursing for real estate — 15 years with Remax, now independent
- Suffers from allergies — chemical exposure affects her at work and at home
- Cleaner air at work and at home
- Replace all filters with HVAC-certified options
- Hire a female-owned, LEED-certified cleaning company
- Maintenance never replaces air filters on time
- Cleaning companies won't disclose what products they use
- Hard to find LEED-certified services online
How she decides: Trusts friends and colleagues first. Reads product labels. Values Green Business Certified vendors. Uses desktop for research.
- Animals are to be protected — no animal testing on products
- Sustainable ingredients are the way to go
- Concerned about climate change and glaciers disappearing
- Artisan vegan soap is the right choice
- Doesn't want to use soap that harms lakes
- Candles help shield cat odors
- Glaciers disappearing on documentary
- Basket full of unclean clothes
- Missing storage space for gadgets
- Chemical ingredients on product labels
- Dirty microwave
- Honey bees in flower beds
- Mom complains about the house being messy
- Lady at Wholefoods recommends a salt scrub
- Colleagues talking at work
- Phone ringing — under the clutter
- Doorbell — FedEx delivery
- "What's with all the chemicals in products?"
- Looking for a green cleaning company
- Using Trader Joe brand for window cleaning
- Window farming and growing herbs
- Looking on Instagram for de-clutter ideas
- Volunteers at garden group
- Needs to be better organized
- Too much time spent at work
- Doesn't know where to find green cleaning help
- Chemicals in cleaning products harm the environment
- Lack of organization around the house
- Purchased storage cube bins from Amazon
- Mom cleaned house while she was at work
- Found Trader Joe eco-clothing detergent
- Got a lead from co-worker on eco-cleaning companies
- Removed carpet — all wood easier for cleanup
- Frustrated by allergies — wants to incorporate green living
- Hopes to hire a new cleaning company soon
- Green cleaning products are better for allergies
- Wonders if she needs allergy shots
- Needs a HEPA filter for her vacuum
- Wonders if changing diet could improve allergies
- Dirty home from new listing — needs urgent cleaning
- Spaghetti sauce spilled in microwave
- Dirty air filters with lots of dust
- Very red, tired eyes
- Chemical ingredient names on soap labels
- Business cards of cleaners at coffee shop
- "What are you doing about your allergies?"
- Friend recommending review sites
- Air conditioner running — needs new filter
- Loud traffic on the way to work
- Chester (her dog) barking and spilling food
- Places Visine in itchy eyes
- Reads Martha Stewart Magazine
- Pays extra for eco products
- Placed artisan soap in car because it smells great
- Visited a "Good" website after seeing it in a magazine
- Hopes traffic isn't bad — open house day
- Can't find a cleaning company she trusts
- Unclear air at the workplace — not good for allergies
- Allergy season is debilitating
- Chemical smells make her sneeze — like bleach
- Hand soaps with chemical smell
- Found a company that ships eco products monthly
- Found a green cleaning company that makes its own cleaner
- Can use app to schedule cleaning services
- Dish washing detergent without bleach
- HEPA filters made a big difference with allergies
Three journeys mapped across the platform — purchasing soap, getting an estimate, and logging in. Each reflects a distinct user intent identified in the card sort research.
"I want to find and purchase a vegan handmade soap — so I know exactly what I'm putting in my home."
Task Flow
"I want to get a quote for green cleaning services so I can prepare a listing for open house without worrying about chemical exposure."
Task Flow
"I want to log in or create an account so I can access a more personalized experience on Queen Pelican."
Task Flow
"4 out of 10 participants listed allergies, chemical exposure, and air quality as primary reasons for choosing green products. Gina and Karen weren't edge cases — they were the market."
Letting users define the navigation — not the other way around
A card sort is a research method where participants group content into categories that make sense to them — revealing their mental models rather than assumptions. Before designing a single screen, 30+ cards representing all site content were sorted by real users. Four distinct clusters emerged and restructured the entire IA.
Four clear clusters emerged
Participants naturally separated soap products from cleaning products, booking from account management, and purchasing from quoting — distinctions that had not been in the original navigation structure.
Paper prototype usability session — participant navigating the checkout flow.
Participants consistently grouped soap products separately from cleaning products — a distinction the original navigation had ignored entirely.
Key similarity groupings — four natural clusters with participant agreement scores.
Similarity matrix — agreement scores across all 30+ content items.
"Users separated 'Purchase Cleaning Products' from 'Get a Quote' — two actions that look similar on the surface but represent completely different user intents. This single finding directly shaped the dual-path homepage design."
The original sitemap was built on assumptions
The card sort produced a complete reorganization — built directly from user mental models rather than designer assumptions.
Three competitors. Four principles. Two evaluations.
I conducted a heuristic evaluation of Austin's green cleaning market using four of Nielsen's 10 General Principles for Interaction Design: aesthetic and minimalist design, match between system and the real world, recognition rather than recall, and consistency in standards.
Three green cleaning companies were selected based on one criterion: their business model had to focus on green cleaning. Two of the three were re-evaluated a year later. One competitor — The Hive Green Cleaning — was no longer online at the time of the second evaluation. The longevity and web presence of competitors itself became a data point.
Cleaning Authority
A major regional player with a visible fleet presence in Austin. Evaluated across three iterations spanning nearly a decade — each version a visual refresh, none of them fixing the underlying UX problems. Different flavor, same friction.
Improved — but still content-heavy
The older landing page was cluttered with pop-up ads and animations that blocked content. The redesigned version eliminated the pop-ups and improved visual hierarchy significantly. The 2018 version shows clearer focus — the previous site was more content-driven than user-friendly.
Unexplained acronyms, no exit path
"MyTCA" appears in the top navigation with no explanation or definition. The login page offers no way back to the main site. "Why Hire Us" was also removed between evaluations without replacement.
Account benefits never explained
Visitors must arrive with prior knowledge of what "MyTCA" means or assume an account is required. No explanation of account benefits is provided. A growing multi-location company was using a Gmail address for a local office — a credibility gap for a professional service.
Contact page missing key information
The contact page offers only a phone number — no form, no physical address, no email. The most prominent element is a map, but it lacks a service area overlay — the most useful information for a potential customer.
Garcia Green Cleaners
An Austin-based eco-conscious cleaning company with a good Home Advisor rating and a genuine green commitment. Garcia replaced Hive Green Cleaning in this analysis — Hive's site was taken offline and their web presence did not meet the quality threshold for meaningful comparison.
Clean landing, overcrowded below the fold
The landing page is neat and organized with a clear value proposition: "We only use cleaning products that are safe for people, pets and the planet." However, the 8-page navigation is more than standard. Hero images are generic — a mountain backdrop is a mismatch for a local Austin business.
Terminology and icon placement create friction
The Facebook icon is positioned above the logo — easy to overlook. The scheduling page asks visitors to "tell us when you would like to have your real estate cleaned" — industry language, not user language.
Unexpected pages break the user's mental model
- Facebook icon buried — easily missed
- Separate "Tip Your Maid" and "Online Store" pages are unexpected navigation items
- The Online Store page is the owner's unrelated Arbonne makeup business — completely off-brand
- No integrated scheduling with check-out — booking is disconnected from purchase
Layout, navigation, and button styles all vary
- Commercial Services and Home Cleaning pages use different layouts
- Side navigation is bulky and redundant — key pages appear multiple times
- Completely different button styles appear on different pages — no design system applied
Purple Fig Eco-Cleaning
The most significant transformation of the three competitors. The 2017 evaluation identified real problems — buried navigation, confusing hierarchy, unexplained brand language. By 2026, Purple Fig had rebuilt from the ground up. Clear value proposition, instant quote above the fold, simplified nav, and a credibility strip of industry awards. They fixed exactly what the research flagged.
Beautiful design, poor organization
The landing page has beautiful colors and contrast — layers that work together elegantly. However, the navigation is placed in a non-conventional location. The $500 gift card occupies the most prominent position on the page — raising the question of whether that's truly the company's primary product or simply poor hierarchy.
#Figlife in navigation — with no explanation
"#Figlife" appears as a navigation item with no explanation. It reads like an insurance company name — users wouldn't know it's a hashtag. Searching "#Figlife" returns two other companies before this one — a discoverability and branding problem.
Gift card hidden, wording non-standard
There is no gift card link on the landing page — it can only be found buried within Services, #Figlife, and Our Team pages, and not in the same location on each. The purchase page asks users to enter a "Purchase Credit worth ($)" — the expected label is "Amount" or "Gift card value."
Sidebar placement shifts across pages
The sidebar is on the right on Services and #Figlife pages, but switches to the left on Our Team and Gift Card pages. Users must reorient their mental model on every page — a fundamental layout consistency failure.
Nielsen's Principles Applied
Aesthetic & Minimalist Design
Dialogues should not contain irrelevant information. Every extra unit competes with relevant units and diminishes their visibility.
Match Between System & Real World
The system should speak the user's language — familiar words and concepts, not system-oriented terms. Information should appear in natural, logical order.
Recognition Rather Than Recall
Minimize memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. Users should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another.
Consistency in Standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.
These mobile sketches explored three ideas simultaneously. First, an alternative to the hamburger menu — a slide-out side navigation that gave users a different way to move through the app. Second, a soap list page with recommendations at the bottom — three curated suggestions that led to a detail page with more information. Third, that recommendation page doubled as a soft conversion point: a newsletter signup embedded naturally for users who wanted to learn more, without occupying prime screen real estate on the main product page. All three ideas came from one principle — mobile-first means designing for the user's context, not fitting a desktop experience onto a smaller screen.
From Pencil to Pixels
Before any digital tool was opened, the Queen Pelican experience was sketched by hand — every screen, every flow, every interaction. The paper prototype was used in live usability sessions. What participants responded to directly shaped the first hi-fi desktop design.
Landing page sketch
Soap selection process sketch
Check out sketch
Designing for Choice, Not Convention
These mobile sketches explored three ideas simultaneously...
Queen Pelican Mobile App Design
These mobile sketches explored three ideas simultaneously. First, an alternative to the hamburger menu — a slide-out side navigation that gave users a different way to move through the app. Second, a soap list page with recommendations at the bottom — three curated suggestions that led to a detail page with more information. Third, that recommendation page doubled as a soft conversion point: a newsletter signup embedded naturally for users who wanted to learn more, without occupying prime screen real estate on the main product page. All three ideas came from one principle — mobile-first means designing for the user’s context, not fitting a desktop experience onto a smaller screen.
The Mobile Pivot
Survey data showed 46% of users completed research on smartphones. The redesign shifted to mobile-first architecture. The yellow iteration restructured the dual-path homepage — separating "Book a Service" from "Purchase Products" as two equal, distinct entry points. The card sort data from 2018 finally showed up in the UI.
Welcome — onboarding screen 1
Quality Eco-Cleaning — onboarding screen 2
Schedule Today — onboarding screen 3
Main home page — post onboarding
The System Finally Disappears
Onboarding removed entirely. Four clear primary paths from screen one. A decade of research, iteration, and user feedback distilled into a platform that gets out of the user's way. The design doesn't announce itself — it just works.
Landing screen
Soap list page
Herbal soap product page
Soap description
Side menu
Scheduling page