Developing a platform to help homeowners find trusted home repair contractors
Flatiron School Project
June-July 2020
4 sprints
Competitive Analysis, Survey, User Interviews, Wireframes, Prototype
Develop a two-sided platform (for consumers and service providers) that connects homeowners and/or renters to high quality, trustworthy home service providers.
We were encouraged to investigate which device(s) would be the optimal platform for this type of service and we were also asked to consider how we could encourage users to leave more ratings and reviews.
Mapping out the competition
To get a better picture of the on-demand home services market and the services offered, we looked at 7 competitors. I specifically researched 3 of them: Thumbtack, Handy, and HomeAdvisor. After researching these, we plotted them on a matrix, looking specifically at the type of services they offer versus how transparent each platform was.
We decided to evaluate competitors on whether they offered more general services or specialized ones.
General Services
Wants to support small breweries and find an easy way to get their products delivered quickly.
Wants to skip the trip to the liquor store.
Specialized Services
If I see a chatbot within a website, I will usually don’t need help so I will always skip over it.
Only finding the same big name brands in the store nearby.
As one of the project goals was to create a fully transparent platform, we also focused on how transparent competitors are.
We found that there was a potential gap for a very specialized and transparent on-demand home services platform.
Competitive Analysis Matrix
Understanding our users
We conducted a survey of 42 potential users and interviewed with 8 users remotely over Zoom. I spoke with 3 users and assisted as a notetaker on 3 other interviews. We concentrated on a few specific research objectives to guide us:
Through this survey and interviews, we learned the following about our users:
They typically recommendations from family & friends
"I usually want a friend's recommendations before I get us a service like that" - Carolyn
They engage in some form of DIY
"I would look up YouTube videos to see if I can fix it" - Brandon
They use their computer when looking for home service providers
"Probably a laptop, I feel like I need screen space for all of that" - Allison
Who are we designing for?
From our research findings, we developed a persona that reflected these:
The Fixer-Upper Home Owner
“You don’t realize how much you need to do for a home until you live in one.”
Goals
Wants to support small breweries and find an easy way to get their products delivered quickly.
Wants to skip the trip to the liquor store.
Frustrations
If I see a chatbot within a website, I will usually don’t need help so I will always skip over it.
Only finding the same big name brands in the store nearby.
What problem are we solving?
DIY homeowners between the ages of 20-40 struggle to solve complex home repairs and renovations themselves. They need a responsive web-based platform that connects them to trustworthy home service providers vetted by a community of verified users.
What design principles should guide our designs?
Our design should be clear and easy to use; communicating to users in a straightforward way.
Our solutions will look and feel secure and transparent, helping users feel confident about their purchases.
Our users are loyal to their favorite producer, our designs should promote connection between them.
Creating concepts for Mike
We used Storyboarding to explore Mike's needs and translate these into concept prototypes.
Storyboard
We decided to focus on three specific categories of concepts. I created the concepts for the 'Searching by Keywords' category:
Users can manage the details of their home services projects, see quotes and suggested contractors, and adjust the project budget.
Users can search for service providers by using keywords, find comprehensive information about the provider, and schedule a call with them.
By connecting their social media accounts to the platform, users can see which friends have already reviewed a provider. They can also send referrals to their friends.
Narrowing down features
We concept tested our design with 6 users and took the most-liked features and placed them on a priority matrix comparing user value with feasibility.
Priority Matrix
Creating Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Using the features in the high user value and high feasibility part of the priority matrix above, we created mid-fidelity wireframes to illustrate these concepts.
Project Questionnaire
Project Management
What did our users think?
We tested our prototype with 6 users, measuring each user's success and self-reported difficulty with 3 different task scenarios. Here's what they said:
In a future recommendations report and our annotated wireframes, we outlined several next steps that can be taken by the client to build upon Maison's design and usability. These included:
Improving copywriting in questionnaire
• Based on feedback we received from users we would like to work with subject matter experts and a technical copywriter to improve the copy in the questionnaire
Giving detailed instructions for questionnaire
•Users were confused when completing the questionnaire because they were unaware that they could save their questionnaire and come back to it later. We would like to include a pop-up that explains this to users on their first time answering it.