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How I helped first-time homeowners and buyers in their home improvement journey.

Motivated home owners to act on home improvement projects and increase repeat engagement on the website.

Role

User experience design and Visual design

Team

UX researchers, product managers

Tools

Figma, FigJam, User Interviews, Microsoft Teams

Duration

3 months

Problem

Assuming users are willing to engage with an online solution for managing home improvement projects, what design criteria delivers enough value to overcome the friction of a digital solution, and ensures repeat engagement?

Approach

Working backwards

Who?

Who are the customers?

Why?

What are their needs
& painpoints and why are they unmet?

What?

What data would help
us understand their unmet
needs?

How?

How do we measure
success?

Primary research

Reddit to the rescue!

  • Data collection from r/homeimprovements and r/homeowners

  • Key words used: First time, insurance, inspection report

Reddit research

Secondary research

Card sorting

Aim: To further drill down into what users consider important before making a decision on which home improvement project to take on next

95%

Considered budget, safety & cost to be in Must Have category

75%

Participants want to know whether projects can be DIY or need experts and categorized into Must Have

90%

Participants put Tools needed to complete the project in Must Have and Nice to have category

Problem redefining

How might we build a personalized platform that promotes confidence, provides support, builds trust, and aligns with user’s mental models of organizing and completing tasks within their home.

Insights

Personalization, Guidance and Safety are the three major themes that emerged

Personalization

Provide a personalized solution based on their budget, time, and priority while undertaking home improvement tasks using inspection reports.

Guidance

Not only providing them with insights on which projects to complete but also giving them a guide on how to complete them.

Safety

Prioritize safety of their home by engaging them in completing projects that affect their home safety thus decreasing cost to business

Persona

Based on research, Ashley, the user persona - a first time homeowner was identified

User persona

Approach

Working backwards - SOLVED!

Who?

First time homebuyers, and homeowners

Why?

  • Customers lack guidance and education
    to do home improvement tasks

  • Lack the skill on how to prioritize projects, allocate resources, and find labor

What?

What data would help
us understand their unmet
needs?

How?

How do we measure
success?

Solution

Focussed on designing a personalized onboardig experience for the user

Wireframe: Onboarding - Home improvement goals
Wireframe: Onboarding Step 2 - Finance
Wireframe: Onboarding - Expertise
Wireframe: Onboarding - Inspection report

Dashboard & projects

I utilized the information collected during the onboarding stage to create a personalized platform that guides users through their home improvement journey.

Wireframe - Home improvement dashboard
Wireframe - Project planning
Wireframe - Project details

Usability testing and results

Usability testing was done on the LoFi wireframes recruited and tested on UserInterview platform
No. of participants = 10

Usability testing: Wireframing - Home improvement goals

Onboarding

Users like the onboarding flow that are in steps of priority, information about home, and their skill level with such projects.

Usability testing: Wireframing - Onboarding Finances

Uncomfortable with sharing personal details
The goal of address was to recommend the users the best home improvement services near their area as well as connect with nearby homeowners to form a community.

However, during the onboarding stage users felt uncomfortable sharing their complete address of home because they were not informed of its value.

Usability testing: Wireframing - Home improvement dashboard
Usability testing: Wireframing - Project plan
Usability testing: Wireframing - Project details

Project details

  • Checklists were loved by users as they get a sense of satisfaction when they mark things as completed in the checklist.

  • Users appreciate tips from a virtual expert to guide them in completing their projects.

  • Users wanted the context of difficulty whether the hard level of difficulty meant that they could not do a project on their own.

  • Users wanted to know where they could find the right tools in case they didn't have them.

Redesigned visuals - Onboarding

After conducting usability testing, I worked on redesigning the userflow by using the user feedback (negative and positive) that aligns more with users’ mental model

  • A way to arrange the user goals for more personalization of the platform

  • The second step now takes only the zip code which instantly shows the value of people in the area improving their homes.

  • The budget is now monthly or yearly.

  • The user is asked about their skill level with home improvement projects to determine the project's difficulty.

  • Takes the inspection report from users for personalized projects given to them by virtual experts

UI_v2: Onboarding - Home improvment goals
UI_v2: Onboarding - Address
UI_v2: Onboarding - Finance
UI_v2: Onboarding - Inspection report
UI_v2: Onboarding - Home improvment expertise
UI_v2: Onboarding - Onboarded sucessfully

Redesigned visuals - Personalized dashboard

Ashley has a personalized dashboard based on the inspection report to guide her

  • Project difficult was removed and substituted with 3 categories based on the onboarding questions related to skill level asked: DIY, Professional/DIY, Professional.

  • Difficulty and criticality associated with each project.

  • Dashboard made easy to digest.

  • Included common maintenance tasks (Recurring projects).

  • Changed the content from ‘Safety score’ to ‘Home Health score’.

UI_v2: Onboarding - Dashboard

Redesigned visuals - Project plan

Ashley has all the available information needed to complete a home improvement task

  • Users can add their projects now.

  • In-Progress tab projects now have a view of how many tasks are remaining to complete the project.

  • Criticality and Difficulty are assigned with each project.

  • Filters are modified with respect to the new user flow.

UI_v2: Onboarding - Project planning dashboard

Redesigned visuals - Project details

Project action plan motivates Ashley to re-engage with HomeHelp

  • Users can mark task as complete.

  • Users can bookmark notes from virtual experts.

  • Users now know how a particular project affects their home health score.

  • Users can buy tools that they do not have from business partners.

UI_v2: Onboarding - Project details

Usability testing - Round 2

Usability testing was done on the HiFi Prototypes recruited and tested on UserInterview platform.

No. of participants = 10

Insights

  • Smooth onboarding process!

  • Would be comfortable to share all the data asked in onboarding because they hope it might be useful later

  • Dashboard is very useful for a quick overview

  • Love Home Health Score and feel like it creates a sense of urgency to improve their home.

  • Would use the platform for making home improvement.

  • Likes projects being classified into DIY or Professional categories based on their skill level.

  • Would use the platform to prioritize which projects can be done and not done based on the resources available.

  • Would trust the platform to provide them with Vetted Professionals to do a project

  • Feels like the platform guides them to complete their home improvement journey

Measuring success

Identified the key metrics and how measuring them would lead to success

Increase in the home health score

A gradual increase in home health score of every user would correspond to the user using the platform to complete projects that are high priority

Increase in engagement and conversion

Increase in website visits and conversion rate for the potential users would help in determining whether the platform is proving useful to the users.

Increase in usage of ‘Hire a Pro’ and ‘Tools Needed’

From a business perspective if the users are hiring vetted professionals from the platform and buying tools via HomeSpring’s partners would benefit the users and the business.

Learning and results

Being my first end-to-end design concept where I led the initial innovation was fun and filled with learnings

Work with ambiguity and let data guide the design

Coming into a project with no knowledge about home improvement was challenging yet a great learning opportunity. Innovation is always ambiguous and I learnt how to leverage research to guide my design solution.

Teamwork is the key

Constant communication with my research and business team members helped me solve problem and create a solution that strengthens the purpose of the product.

Do not let personal bias affect design decisions

When conducting usability testing, it was hard for me to hear a few negative feedback for the designs I created. However, I realized that it was necessary to come up with a better solution which made me open to feedback and helped me create a better experience.

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