How do you digitally revolutionise a long-standing traditional industry?

Due to the impact of COVID-19, a traditional home construction & maintenance company wanted to digitise their business. However, there was a sizeable opportunity to create a digital platform that would revolutionise the industry as a whole. An opportunity that would empower both homeowners and skilled professionals

Platform strategy and prototype design for a home construction and maintenance industry

Role

UI/UX Designer

Responsibilities

User Research, UI Prototyping, Usability Testing, Strategy Design

Deliverables

FIGMA UI Prototype, Technical Developers Documents

Duration

3 Months

Uncover

Before we could jump into designing something, we had to first understand the value proposition of this potential platform will have on both homeowners and skilled professionals. I did that by:

  • Identifying key interviewees – by sourcing and filtering participants

  • Conducting 12 interviews – four skilled professionals and eight homeowners

  • Researching trends and potential competitors

From the research, we uncovered 5 key gaps in the industry:

  1. Lack of quality assurance

  2. Lack of transparency

  3. Inconvenient search

  4. Manpower shortage

  5. Inefficient job sourcing

It became clear that the platform had two major questions to answer:

How can the platform enable homeowners to hire and engage skilled professionals in a seamless & secure manner?

How can the platform efficiently provide skilled professionals with jobs that match their capabilities?

Uncover

Design

Validate

Methodology

Year

2021

Design

We applied a ‘Feature Solution Tree’ method as a visual aid to help enable the feature ideation process. Based on insight from customers we could explore solutions through a non-linear organization of ideation flows, experimentation, and identification of gaps. To test potential platform features, I used different kinds of techniques to prototype. These prototype techniques were used to start testing early and reduce risks later in the process.

  • Storyboard

    I first designed a storyboard to visually and narratively describe the use case scenario to customers, giving them a glimpse of how the platform will function. Doing so allows the interview to be framed in a context in which pain points and opportunities can be based on.

  • Service Flow

    Creating a detailed flowchart helped us determine the information architecture and communicate design decisions with all stakeholders. This along with detailed wireframes brought to life the layout, functionality of different elements, and the overall flow.

  • Wireframe & Prototype

    Initially I sketched out wireframes so that we could gather feedback quickly and make adjustments easily. After which, I used Figma as a prototyping tool to create clickable prototype. We could use the prototype to create, iterate and present at the some time.

Validate

In the second round of interviews we conducted 13 usability testing sessions of the platform prototype – with eight homeowners and five skilled professionals. Through iterative testing, we realised that the choice between mobile app and website depended on the usability, required features and the target audience they serve. As homeowners would only use the platform sporadically, a mobile friendly website format was chosen for them. However as skilled professionals were always on the go a mobile app was more apt as it could send timely notifications, utilise existing features like GPS and cameras for seamlessness and other necessary features.

Learning

Overall, this was a great learning experience as I got the opportunity to design an industry changing product. We had the ability to design something from scratch and focus on addressing gaps that the industry wasn’t able to cover through a digital means. It also meant that if this platform was made it could have become the next Grab for this industry.

The challenge was working with the client and various stakeholders such as investors and developers. Firstly, It was a struggle to keep the client engaged as he was not a tech savvy person. It required patience and clarity to communicate the reason behind certain design/strategic choices. Ultimately, the platform did not go forward as the client dropped the project due to lack of investors. If I could add anything to this project, it would be creating a pitch deck for investors to buy into this platform.

Co-creation sessions with client
Round 1 Customer Interviews
Service Flow
Platform Storyboard
Stakeholder Journey Map
App Wireframe
Customer Website FIGMA
Skilled Professional App FIGMA
Round 2 Interviews with Customer
Round 2 Interviews with Skilled Professional
Information Architecture
Technical Documents for Developer
Platform Strategy