GOODHANDS
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Relax, you’re in GOODHANDS
GOODHANDS makes completing small tasks around the home easy and lets the user focus on the things that really matter, like arranging their library of books by colour or getting the perfect shade of frame for that new piece of artwork.
Property managers save time too, using the platform to manage tasks across multiple properties and by communicating with tenants and tradespeople simultaneously - making scheduling jobs easy and confirming tasks are completed without fuss.
Project: GOODHANDS app
My Role: UX/UI Designer
Deliverables: Exploratory Research, User Interviews, User Survey, Personas, Service Blueprint, Empathy Maps, Wireframes, Mid-High Fidelity Prototypes, Usability Testing, Visual Style Guide & Design Library
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Figma, Miro, Google Forms, sketching, Post-it notes
All illustrations throughout this case study are the designer’s own
Best of Both Worlds
Using a Design Thinking approach combined with Agile Scrum sprints helped ensure that a human-centred design would emerge and that each phase in the cycle was handled efficiently and iterated thoroughly.
For the purpose of this case study, I have included aspects of early prototypes in the Ideate stage, early rounds of usability testing in Prototype stage and our final high fidelity screens in the Test stage.
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EMPATHIZE
Learning More
To kick off the project and begin the Empathize phase, our first task was to agree on a Research Plan. To learn more about the space our first sprint would focus on exploratory research methods such as Domain Research, Competitive Analysis, SME Interviews, User Interviews and a User Survey.
Domain Research takeaways
Domain Research
Understanding more about the landscape in which the product would be used as well as some of the wider challenges faced by our users would be vital to help frame our questions for our User Interviews and User Survey.
Competitive Analysis
Our Competitive Analysis Matrix examined key players already established in the market, showcasing their strengths and weaknesses. Using these findings, we apply them into a Brand Matrix which helped highlight a key distinction between products currently available:
Those that cater for smaller jobs and people with little trade knowledge.
Those that cater for bigger jobs and require the user to have a higher level of trade knowledge.
Brand Matrix
SME & User Interviews
Discussing our secondary research enabled us to formalise some common assumptions and helped us frame our interview questions to test these theories; all the while being careful not to lead our participants’ answers.
We conducted 9 user interviews and 2 SME interviews.
“I rent here in London. But I’ve been at my flat for a few years now, and have some goodwill with my landlord. I’ve paid to paint walls and had some shelves put up.”
— Anna, user interview
“I think I’d know how to do it, or I’d be able to work it out online. But I don’t have any tools so it probably be cheaper and safer to get someone in to do it for me.”
— Gareth, user interview
“It’s about trust. I’ve let tenants make small improvements in the past, but I need to know about it before it happens, and they need to make sure a professional does the work and at their own expense.”
— Trevor, landlord, SME interview
User Survey
Using Google Forms, our user survey provided a larger body of quantitative data and allowed us to put numbers against user behaviours and motivations.
Our user survey received 33 responses.
Visual inspiration
72% of respondents said that Instagram was a source of inspiration when considering home improvements. Whilst 67% of users cited Pinterest as an influence.
Mobile convenience
Smartphones are the preferred way to search for a tradesperson for 79% of our survey respondents.
Trust in reviews
85% of respondents said that reviews from previous clients was the most important factor to consider when hiring a tradesperson. Only 18% said they left reviews themselves.
DEFINE
Affinity Diagrams
Collating our primary and secondary research together and conducting affinity diagrams allowed the team to begin synthesising our data.
By grouping interview quotes, insights and takeaways we start to form collections of common trends and begin to assign labels and quantify the strength of feeling surrounding each.
Affinity Diagram
Focus on smaller jobs
Millenials have a low level of DIY knowledge and homeownership for this demographic has been in decline for many years.
This increases the likelihood that a millennial user will be renting their property, have little knowledge of DIY and be unlikely to own the tools to complete jobs themselves. Focusing on smaller jobs will provide a solution to many more of our target demographic.
Consider landlords too
Our diagrams showed that landlords were happy for tenants to make small changes to their properties provided they were informed beforehand and used a professional tradesperson to carry out the work.
When maintenance is required, landlords can be frustrated by the time-consuming process of scheduling a tradesperson’s visit to when the tenant is available to receive them.
Reviews & images matter
When hiring a tradesperson online, users found previous reviews from other users to be the most effective way to assess suitability and build trust. However, viewing visuals of their previous work was also important before deciding to hire.
Despite this, users rarely left reviews themselves for work they had had done.
Introducing Rachel and John…
Rachel enjoys living in London and soaking up the opportunities and culture a big city offers. She has aspirations to one day own her own property, but is happy to continue renting and living in the fashionable area she currently calls home. Rent isn’t cheap, so she feels it’s reasonable to request small changes that make the space more personal to her.
John lives in Canterbury and over the past 25 years has built a property portfolio of 5 flats across London. He’s learnt that keeping a good tenant is always worth the extra effort as a single vacant property can quickly drain the profit from the entire portfolio.
Abbreviated tenant and landlord personas, Rachel and John
Problem Statement #1
“Millennial renters need a way to find reliable and cost-effective tradespeople to complete small jobs around their property because they lack basic DIY skills and the tools required to complete a job”
Problem Statement #2
“Landlords need a simple way to manage small tasks across their property portfolios, because keeping track of simultaneous jobs can get complicated and scheduling tradesperson visits can be time-consuming”
Design Principles
Trustworthy.
Showcasing only credible tradespeople and verified user reviews. System status should also be visible to the user to empower decision making and build confidence.
Utility.
The features and design of the product can be used effectively to complete tasks for all intended purposes.
Inspirational.
Visuals, design and content should be inspirational and encourage the user to start new projects with passion and conviction.
Empathy Map (Rachel)
Empathy mapping helps the team align on our early research takeaways and ensures that we put ourselves into the mindset of our user.
IDEATE
Divergent Concepts
Using pen and paper, the team generate divergent ideas through a Crazy 8’s workshop.
The most important are then developed into lo-fidelity user flows drawn on paper. This method allows us to test interactions early and begin to form an understanding of the site architecture required for each.
A selection of divergent concepts explored included:
Gallery view concept - Based on the popularity of Instagram and Pinterest amongst our users, this idea utilises a smartphone’s camera to report problems for people with little DIY knowledge.
Landlord consent concept - A tenant requires consent from their landlord before undertaking a task on the property. This concept takes this into account and sends an approval request to the landlord before a tradesperson can be recruited.
Paper screens of gallery view concept
Priority Matrix
Taking features from our divergent concepts we apply them to a priority matrix to assess their value to the user against the effort required to achieve each.
This way we can decide on the most important features to focus on for further development as well as define the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to solve our users’ problem.
Wireframes
Having prioritised the features from our divergent concepts we begin working on a converged design creating wireframes in Sketch and a clickable prototype with InVision.
Our converged design focused on a simple user-flow for adding new job requests. It takes advantage of the smartphone platform by allowing users to capture media for describing requests and also by connecting with contacts in the user’s device to share job request details easily.
We collaborate on a Usability Test Plan to put our prototype in front of 6 users and get early feedback on our initial design.
Early feedback and iteration considerations included:
Adding a Job (part 1)
On the whole our user flow was successful with 100% of participants able to request a tradesperson using the the prototype.
However, issues were highlighted during this initial usability testing, so the team take notes and collaborate on potential solutions.
Adding a Job (part 2)
Participants in our test agreed that waiting for a landlord’s approval before a job could be booked was a point of friction that they all decided to avoid by not sharing their request.
As the key feature in this concept, we had to rethink its positioning within the user flow and consider other ways to innovate our approach to millennial renters looking for a tradesperson.
PROTOTYPE
Our first round of testing showed that our MVP for booking a tradesperson worked well and needed only a few adjustments to improve user efficiency. Our next prototype would be more ambitious, and incorporate other aspects from our divergent concepts.
Gallery inspiration navigation
An Inspired Community
In developing the Gallery navigation, I focused on leveraging the influence of visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest on a millennial user, whilst creating a community space for users to offer encouragement, advice and the digital equivalent of a personal recommendation.
My Jobs Status
We defined three different states for current jobs in GOODHANDS.
Saved - For jobs that have not yet been requested and are awaiting further details from the user.
Pending - When the user has requested an appointment from a tradesperson but is awaiting confirmation from the trader for precise job duration and total cost.
Confirmed - When the tradesperson has asked or answered any queries about a job request and has confirmed the total cost and job duration with the user.
My Jobs - Job status views
Messages - Confirming a job
Confirming With Confidence
Our user research had shown that millennials scored very low on DIY competence, meaning their ability to accurately determine how long a job should take was also a problem we needed to address.
By confirming a job through the messages navigation we remove this burden from the user by utilising the tradesperson’s experience and knowledge. It also forms a written account of what has been agreed and provides transparency to all parties involved.
TEST
Usability Testing
With the iterations applied to our prototype, we conduct another round of usability testing to gather feedback and refine our product further.
Applying the Nielsen Norman Group principle, we recruit 5 users to highlight 85% of any remaining usability issues.
Our usability test plan outlines specific tasks each participant is asked to complete within the prototype. The moderator records the results and assesses the user’s behaviour throughout.
Test feedback is applied to an Affinity Diagram and broken down into different sections of the product for review
High-fidelity Screens
To assess the value of our visual inspiration concept, we needed to
provide a truly immersive user experience and design in hi-fidelity
New User Sign-Up
Gallery Navigation
Adding a Job
My Jobs and Messages
The GOODHANDS Solution
One simple platform to inspire and empower homeowners and renters, and the same to help landlords and property managers keep track of maintenance tasks and improvement requests across multiple properties.
To illustrate the advantages to our tenant Rachel and landlord John, I created two prototypes illustrating the journey each might take with the product.
Final Reflections
The GOODHANDS project was valuable experience that highlighted the importance of defining a target market whilst also delving deeper into the behaviours and motivations of subset groups.
From our early research, it became necessary to make decisions as to which direction the product would need to go. By specialising in smaller tasks we could serve the growing number of millennial renters and also cater directly to homeowners. Whilst a mass appeal approach can seem to benefit any product, to achieve success, it was equally important to consider what makes these groups different, and try to provide solutions to the problems that the key distinctions created.
By bringing the landlord into our user groups, we were able to empathize and address issues highlighted from our SME and user interviews with landlords and renters alike, and create a product that provides Utility, Transparency and helps build Trust between all stakeholders on any given project.
The product’s Gallery approach to inspiration, empowers users with little DIY knowledge and provides a space to ask questions and find solutions amongst a community of like minded users.
The final result was not a linear process. But by working fast through target driven sprints, the team had time to reflect and return to our research and divergent concepts and build these features into our end solution.