A Gong cha website everyone can use.

Four goals framed the research: understand what users come to do, evaluate the existing experience, align the site with WCAG 2.0, and lift search rankings. Five 1-on-1 interviews (subject-matter experts, visually impaired users, franchisees and milk-tea buyers) and 39 survey responses were synthesized into five personas — and every finding was tested hands-on with the NVDA screen reader and tracked in SEMrush.

Visually impaired users want to browse and order independently with a keyboard and screen reader. Their four blockers shaped the whole redesign:

• The rotating banner moved on before a screen reader could finish it, and the keyboard couldn’t reach the next or last slide.
• The store map’s dropdown filters couldn’t be operated by keyboard at all.
• Ordering silently redirected to a third-party delivery site — no warning, no way back.
• Color contrast was too low for users with color blindness.

Tea enthusiasts want hours, seasonal drinks, rewards and nutrition/allergen facts — but a name and a photo were all a drink got. Potential franchisees want transparent costs and process; hidden fees and thin support are their deepest fears. Event & wedding planners need to compare catering options and couldn’t tell what each package includes. Job seekers look for openings at nearby stores and clear hiring steps.

Synthesis turned interviews directly into structure. For the franchise section alone, nine decision factors surfaced in franchisee and expert interviews (brand awareness, financials, training and more) were affinity-mapped into nine pages, from industry introduction to application form. Sitewide, the same method organized six visitor goals — Brand, Menu, Locations, Franchise, Events and Careers — into a 50+ page sitemap.

Landing — the rotating banner moved on before screen readers could finish reading it and trapped keyboard users, while 85% of visits were mobile. Solution: mobile-first — remove the carousel, move content into the scroll, and enforce color contrast, scalable type, alt text, forms with clear error messages, and captioned media throughout.

Brand — Gong cha still lacked brand resonance with American audiences, and Asian cultural elements in the identity widened the gap. Solution: a comprehensive brand page — story, history, global expansion, identity system, philosophy and commitment, with a contact form.

Menu — text baked into images was invisible to screen readers, and customers new to bubble tea didn’t know how to order. Solution: real web text with descriptive metatext instead of text-on-image; calorie, ingredient and allergen info; and a step-by-step visual “How to Order” guide.

Locations — “Gong cha near me” ranks among the top queries, and one page serves four audiences: tea drinkers checking hours and delivery, franchisees gauging store-to-store distances on the map, planners scoping catering, and job seekers hunting openings. All that density came at a cost — the map’s dropdowns and filters stalled screen readers. Solution: dedicated per-store pages with photos and full details, and streamlined or removed filters.

Franchise — the nine-page structure came straight from the affinity map above; the content depth came from the field: an SME interview with Gong cha’s event manager revealed how weddings, schools and fundraisers actually order catering, so a catering inquiry form gives staff early insight into events and improves conversion.

Of the nine decision factors, financials weighed heaviest — so franchise costs became a transparent, itemized table instead of a brochure PDF.

And because accessible forms are only half the loop, every submission ends in a clear confirmation.

The redesign launched 50+ SEO-optimized, accessible pages. Per Google Analytics and SEMrush: sessions +251.69%, first-time users +280.51%, bounce rate −87.64%, page views +44.69%; CTR rose from 1.28% to 2.80% (+119%); search visibility jumped from 19.62% to 44.40%; mobile responsiveness alone drove a 34% traffic boost.

Accessibility went from claim to number: the SEMrush score climbed from 56% to 88% after fixing over 150 violations — well clear of the 75% line below which sites face legal exposure in markets like Ireland.

And this page practices what it preaches — semantic headings, alt text on every figure, and a keyboard-accessible image viewer.