Jølstad
A white-label memorial page service for funeral homes, with posts, funeral information, event registration, and flowers and memorial gifts.
The challenge
Memorial pages are still fairly new, so the design had to feel serious and credible. It meant balancing digital flows, like posting or registering for a service, with analog touchpoints, like a printed obituary or funeral program.
My role
Together with the lead designer, I worked across the full project, from adapting the design system and building new pages to user testing, requirements gathering and representing the design team during testing.
Designing a complex product
Two things at once: a space for people in a vulnerable moment, and a service flexible enough for a long list of variations, before or after the funeral, with comments, posts or purchase flows turned on or off. That shaped every decision, from pages that work with or without certain features to empty states.
Process & research
UX challenge: registration flow
The flow had to handle one or two events, with registration required for one, both or neither, and with little existing user research to lean on.
- AssumptionWe relied on Jølstad's operational insights and customer needs to map the scenarios.
- MappingDuplicate registration was a key pain point, and guests usually attend both ceremonies.
- FindingA free-text field helped admins spot overlaps. Inheriting settings could simplify, but carried risk.
- IterationWe added the free-text field, and linked events inherit the first event's settings, still editable.
- ResultThe most refined solution within the constraints. Next step: validate it in practice.
Designing through validation
Light a candle
We wanted to understand how users would experience lighting a candle, both practically and emotionally.
- AssumptionThe feature matters emotionally, and so does the candle image itself.
- TestRemote interviews with a scenario: light a candle on Harald's memorial page.
- Finding85% of participants wanted more than one candle image, outside the original scope.
- IterationWe introduced several candle images to choose from.
- ResultWhen Jølstad asked about the feature, we had evidence, and it became a prioritized feature.
Results & learnings
My biggest learning was checking every decision against two lenses: does this feel right for someone in a moment of loss, and does it hold up across every state the page can be in. That instinct has stayed with me in every project since.