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Project Background
School Sprint Project - Through customer surveys, House2Home has found that many of its customers have just moved into a new home or apartment. These users want to buy multiples items to personalize their new place - but, they don't feel confident doing it on their own.
Business Goal - Help people find a great "starter kit" of items to instantly decorate their place.
Duration - November 2020 (5 days)
Role
Sole UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma, Invision
UX Methods
Personas, competitive analysis,
mapping, sketches, storyboard,
wireframe, user testing, hi fidelity screens, prototyping
Problem
Users want help in picking decor items for that space that suits thier style and space but also gives a bang for thier buck
Process
Research provided
Persona
Competitors Analysis
Wayfair is one of the few platforms that offer users to view the product in 3d in their own space. I also liked how users can drag and drop images that they like and find similar looking décor items.
Houzz does a great job of staging with specific items tagged in the room. Its helpful for collecting ideas and being inspired. But this does not help the user know if this looks good together in the given space. Also the amount of option and filters provided by Houzz can be overwhelming for the user.
DAY 1- Map
After reading through interviews, I discovered that the user’s ideal scenario would be to have an interior designer who specializes in small spaces and works within their budget. The designer is someone who would already know the user’s taste and style. The user needs to be confident in the design/decor choices.
The interior decor search process also needs to be an enjoyable experience. Many users do find it fun, but it all changes once it comes down to decisions and costs.
DAY 2 - Sketch
I wanted to focus on a process where users could choose their style then items within that style were presented to them to select from.
The page asks users to select
-the style that they like the most
-the space they want to design
-the budget they are looking at
Then the page at the end shows their items altogether with an option to further customize within various recommendations.
Giving the user a collection of recommended products based on their style and then letting them pick made the process more interactive.
Day 3: Decide on the path to take
Now that solutions have been sketched, it was time to choose which one to move forward with, and create a step-by-step panel storyboard of how the solution would unfold.
Below is a photo of my storyboard that I sketched out to help me visualize the thoughts of the user. I decided to go with the short 4 step process where the users can answer a few simple questions about their taste and requirements before giving them customized recommendations
DAY 3 Storyboard
I fleshed out the rest of the solution by drawing a storyboard of the user's experience from beginning to end. I began with the moving process to give some context, then elaborated on some of the interviewee's experiences and tied in how they might discover House2Home.
Day 4: Build your prototype
The Sprint did a fantastic job in making me think and work on a timer! On day one of the sprint, I would have not imagined that I would think and design a solution in 5 days, let alone test it! I definitely learned a lot from this sprint on focus on the most immediate aspect to solve the given problem.
I look forward to using this approach in the future to save time and be more efficient. I like the “fail fast learn fast” approach and how quickly we can find the problems in the design and change them. I made sure I stuck to the timelines and did not give myself more time than allotted.
During testing, I realized a lot of small details were missed out by the time I was done with the 2nd participant which would make a big impact while testing the users. With more time, I would love to make the changes to the screens in a day and test them again with fresh participants.
DAY 5 - User Testing
I interviewed 5 users who have moved in the past 6 months to test the “build your starter kit” feature. 3 out of the 5 users moved into their new home/apt within the past 2 months.
😫Critical
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Not all users understood what “get your starter kit” meant
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They felt they did not get a chance to explore products
😏Major/Minor
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Users did not see the drag and drop
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Adding and removing products from the final page.
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Indicate you can click multiple images to set the style.
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Have options to edit their style.
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Users were getting distracted by the banner.
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Show indication to the users that product details can be read.
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Have an option to edit the filters by clicking on the progress report and not having to click “back”
😊Positive
-
Picking the space early on was appreciated
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Users really loved the website, few thought this was a real website
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The progress bar was appreciated.
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Having a little summary on the home page, to give an idea of what to expect was liked
Learnings
The Sprint did a fantastic job in making me think and work on a timer! On day one of the sprint, I would have not imagined that I would think and design a solution in 5 days, let alone test it! I definitely learned a lot from this sprint on focus on the most immediate aspect to solve the given problem.
I look forward to using this approach in the future to save time and be more efficient. I like the “fail fast learn fast” approach and how quickly we can find the problems in the design and change them. I made sure I stuck to the timelines and did not give myself more time than allotted.
During testing, I realized a lot of small details were missed out by the time I was done with the 2nd participant which would make a big impact while testing the users. With more time, I would love to make the changes to the screens in a day and test them again with fresh participants.
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