<i>Imagine running a busy salon, relying on Fresha for bookings, only to log in one morning and find that the interface has completely changed — without warning. This was a common frustration among business owners I spoke with.</i>

To better understand their experiences and explore design solutions, I conducted a UX audit of Fresha's business-facing platform — <code>Fresha for Business</code>. Capturing real business owner frustrations and translating them into design improvements.

1. Background Study – Understanding the Business

Fresha is a widely used marketplace for beauty and wellness businesses, offering a range of management tools, from appointment scheduling to marketing automation. To gain firsthand insights, I:

Downloaded the Fresha for Business app and registered as a business to explore its features.

<i>The onboarding was a breeze! And, almost everything is self-explanatory.
Kudos to the designer!</i>

Researched Fresha's documentation to understand its full scope.

Interviewed 4 business owners using Fresha, gathering qualitative feedback.

Synthesized insights via affinity mapping to identify key pain points and opportunities.

I reached out to 21 businesses, and 5 agreed to participate in structured user interviews. These included 3 salons, 1 barbershop, and 1 spa, each using Fresha daily.

Sadly, one of them couldn’t make it happen due to personal reasons, and left me with only 4 participants.

Once I finished the user interviews, I got insights on how they use it, what their pain points are, what their enjoyable moments are, what their goals are, etc. I then proceeded towards the next step – Affinity Mapping.

I generated transcripts of those interview recordings, and started with affinity mapping.

The Affinity Mapping led to the discovery of the following Goals and Pain Points:

Efficiently book and manage appointments.

Gain business insights through charts and reports.

Frequent UI updates disrupt workflows without clear communication.“I log in one day, and everything is different. I waste time figuring out where features went – no warning, no guide.”
— A salon owner.



Delayed issue resolution due to limited customer support access.


Lack of awareness of available features, leading to underutilisation.


Difficulty in client data import/export when switching platforms.


Issues with tip and payment processing (e.g., negative balance, handling tips).


After analysing feedback, I designed three key solutions to address the major pain points.

Solution 1: Guided Onboarding for UI Updates

Problem: Frequent UI changes confuse users, hampering productivity.

Solution: A step-by-step interactive tour on first launch after an update, explaining new features and layout changes.

Implementation: See Wireframe in Figure 4 as the solution for this problem.

Step-by-step guide on how to use the newly introduced feature.

Explaining other changed sections in the layout.

Also, I’d recommend sending notifications (or News items within the existing layout) to business users at regular intervals about the new or unused features (See figure 5 below).

Solution 2: Improved Customer Support Accessibility

Problem: Many users struggle to locate the help section when facing issues.

Impact: Reduces frustration and improves response time for issue resolution.

As shown in the figure below, I’d position this proposed <code>Help and Support</code> button second from the last, considering the excessive use of the Settings button.

Figure 6: Proposed solution 2: <code>Help and Support</code> button in the sidebar

Solution 3: Enhanced Feature Search &amp; Awareness

Problem: Users often don’t realise Fresha offers features they need.

Motivation: Apple's in-app Help Search, ensuring easy feature discoverability.

Solution: Expand search functionality with two filters:


Impact: Users can find and utilise relevant features instead of missing out.

These filter categories help decide the search space for the item in the search bar.

Shown in Figure 7 is how the current functionality shall be retained, while Figure 8 shows how the new feature shall be embedded within existing feature without major disruptions.

Figure 7: Proposed Solution 3: Enhanced Search – <code>Customer Records</code> filter activated

The enhancement lies in the other filter – <code>Fresha App Features</code>, as shown in Figure 8. This enables users to easily search and avail the Fresha feature instead of not, merely because of lack of awareness or sufficient time to familiarise with the updates and layouts.

Figure 8: Proposed Solution 3: Enhanced Search – <code>Fresha App Features</code> filter activated

Furthermore, assigning a dedicated keyboard shortcut (such as the <code>/</code> in most popular search engines, or the <code>⌘ K</code> in Slack) can boost the experience even further!

Additionally, specific features that need extra attention or boost the business FOR Fresha, can be highlighted on the header as shown for Paid Promotions in Figure 6.

Note: I couldn’t work on the Pain Point 4 (Tips and Payment Issues) because I am not exposed to that module with my dummy business account.

To refine these solutions further, the following steps would be taken:

Usability Testing on wireframes to validate effectiveness

High-Fidelity Designs incorporating user feedback

Developer Handoff &amp; Observing Adoption Metrics post-implementation

Final Thoughts: Why This Matters for Fresha

By focusing on usability, discoverability, and user frustration points, these changes can make Fresha a more intuitive tool for business owners.

I look forward to the opportunity to contribute and refine these solutions as part of the Fresha design team.

Imagine running a busy salon, relying on Fresha for bookings, only to log in one morning and find that the interface has completely changed — without warning. This was a common frustration among business owners I spoke with.

To better understand their experiences and explore design solutions, I conducted a UX audit of Fresha's business-facing platform — 

. Capturing real business owner frustrations and translating them into design improvements.

The onboarding was a breeze! And, almost everything is self-explanatory.
Kudos to the designer!

As shown in the figure below, I’d position this proposed 

 button second from the last, considering the excessive use of the Settings button.

Solution 3: Enhanced Feature Search & Awareness

Figure 7: Proposed Solution 3: Enhanced Search – 

The enhancement lies in the other filter – 

, as shown in Figure 8. This enables users to easily search and avail the Fresha feature instead of not, merely because of lack of awareness or sufficient time to familiarise with the updates and layouts.

Figure 8: Proposed Solution 3: Enhanced Search – 

Furthermore, assigning a dedicated keyboard shortcut (such as the 

 in Slack) can boost the experience even further!

Fresha Case Study