Project Snapshot
The Problem
The opportunity House2Home has identified in this market is to provide a “starter kit” of items for customers. The company would like to jumpstart their identified opportunity by running a design sprint focused around these starter kits. At this time, H2H is focusing on their website with the possibility of an application to follow down the road.
The Solution
Use a user-centered design approach to create a product that provides a simple way for users to view design trends, create a budget, and test drive their items before committing to making a purchase.
My Role
As the sole UX designer on this project, I was tasked with the entire design sprint process from competitive research to high fidelity prototype. This process took place in the course of one week.
Users & Audience
Target demographic are individuals that are moving into a new home or apartment who have a desire to add decorative items to their space. Age range of 18-29 years old.
Research
Competitive Analysis
Interviews
House2Home provided quotes from ten different user as well as a full audio recording of a user interview between the lead researcher and a current customer.
Common themes emerged from reviewing customer interviews. These themes include sticking to a minimal budget, having help finding decorations, feeling overwhelmed with the decoration process, and finding decorations that will look good together and in users personal space.
Target User
House2Home provided a persona, and this target user was confirmed through analyzing customer interviews and reviewing the business goal. Target demographic are individuals aged 18-29 years old that are moving into a new home or apartment and have a desire to decorative their space.
User Persona
Ideation
Experience Map
Creating a possible end-to-end experience ends up creating a lightweight prototype of the solution. The left side of the map shows the user and the right side of the map shows the goal you with for them to achieve.
Setting a budget is the first step the user needs to take since this was a common theme that emerged from the interviews. The users also should have an option to speak with a design consultant if they are not comfortable choosing items by themselves. Finally, the users have an option to view the desired items in their space before making a purchase.
Sketches
Sketching is used to generate ideas around the most critical screen. Most of the users H2H interviewed were focused on staying in their budget and making sure items they see online will work together and in their home.
The iterative process uncovered key components that were selected to move forward with. This Includes giving the user feedback on number of items placed digitally in their space, the ability to choose color options for each item, the ability to enter “build mode”, and the option to save their room design.
Solution Sketch
A solution sketch shows the strongest concept that emerged from the iterations. This acts as a tiny storyboard and shows how a user interacts with the interface, the results from their interactions, and what the user will do next.
This process expands beyond the key screen to show what comes before and after it. The user should have the option to choose from a gallery of images if they do not have access to a photo of their own space. This exercise also uncovered the information needed for checking out.
Workflow
Storyboarding
A full storyboard is sketched out to show the interactions a user would need to complete to accomplish the task of making a purchase.
Steps to making a purchase are boiled down to five steps for the user, so they do not get overwhelmed with the process and can see their progress.
1. Set budget
2. Choose theme
3. Select kit
4. See how it looks
5. Claim your kit!
Wireframe
Sketches are transitioned into a digital wireframe to create a layout of the content.
Smaller decisions are made during this process including how the budget selector will look, making sure the user has control and freedom by analyzing each screen for missing flows, and determining information needed for checkout.
High Fidelity
Once the layout is in place, wireframes are transitioned into high fidelity screens to get ready for usability testing.
Testing
Usability Test
Five participants took part in remote testing using Zoom or Google Hangouts. Participants ranged from 25-30 years old, all of which have experience purchasing home goods online. Each participant is given the same tasks to perform and then asked several follow-up questions after all tasks were completed. Each session lasted about 20 minutes.
Some of the top issues that were discovered during testing include not being clear when users have to add an image of their space, ability to look at color choices before selecting a kit, and switching between item color with ease on product placement screen.
High Fidelity Mockups
Working Prototype
A working prototype of House2home can be found by Clicking here
Home screen
Item layout flow
Preview mode
Completed purchase
House2Home prototype found Here
Reflection
House2Home provided information on their target user. Instead of just taking their word for it, I learned it is important to do your own research to confirm or deny information given to you by the client. Users can change over time and it is important to understand who your target user is before strategizing a solution to your problem. I found the storyboarding step is a quick way to flesh out an entire flow without having to spend the extra time fiddling with digital iterations. Finally, when it came time to prototype a solution in this sprint I found that you only need to create a facade of the product you are building. A prototype with one small flow will still provide valuable feedback during user testing.
Next Steps
If this project were to continue, I would refine the prototype based on findings from the usability test report and run another set of 5 usability tests. If this was a live product, House2Home would want to get a solution out to their customers as soon as possible. I would suggest running an A/B test for this solution based around “starter kits” against their current website to see how it affects purchase conversions.