Easy Remodel
IOS Mobile App
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Jian Zhuang (Easy Remodel) is a mobile app designed for white-collars in China, who value living environment, would like to decorate or remodel home, but occupied by busy work , have no time and efforts to meet interior designers back-and-forth in person for making the remodel plan, and track construction progress everyday.
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I cooperated with a Chinese product team for this project. There's 1 Product Manager, 2 Designers, 2 Front-end Engineers in the team. As the product designer, I did most part of research and ideation work, define user flow, user journey and wireframe; All of paper wireframe usability test and iteration; And helped create illustration and visual design for the hi-fi screen.
DURATION / 2018.3 -- 2018.8
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ROLE / Product Designer
UX METHODS /
User research
User flow, Wireframe
Usability test
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Tools /
Sketch, Invision
Adobe Illustrator
UNDERSTAND
Problem & Opportunity: Remodel industry way off with Internet
E-commerce platforms have been mature developed nowadays in China, almost all kinds of goods and a lot of services can be purchased online. Due to the complex of design work, difficulty estimation of construction and big pieces of furniture. Interior design and remodel industry are still in the traditional mode. Consumers still prefer to meet designers and construction workers offline to make the plan and monitor progress, rather than communication online. While, white-collars in China are busy working everyday, they have no time and effort to deal with the cumbersome communications and managements for the house remodel.
Target users: Middle class white-collars in China
Our target users are white-collars in China, who have had several years working experience
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have had some savings, willing to spent money for better life quality,
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and value living environment, would like to decorate or remodel home,
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but busy working, have no time and effort working on make plan and remodeling.
RESEARCH
User interview: how white-collars deal with remodel currently?
We conducted online questionnaire survey on 30 young working people, ask about how they carry on house remodel, how do they make remodel plan and decide decoration style, what's their concerns, etc.
Key insights
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Design remodel plan and monitor construction are two main difficulties during remodeling.
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Users concern most about construction and material quality.
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Users have multiple ways to define design plan, most of them would contact remodeling firms, find designer, refer to example cases.
DEFINE
Pain points
From user research and interview, we learned that main pain points for white-collars during house remodeling is to decide a design plan, and tedious work on monitoring construction.
Solution
An integrated platform for users easily and efficiently communicating with design teams, making design plan, and tracking remodel progress. Connect consumers and remodel firms, interior designers, provide plenty choice for users to compare and select, so users don't need to meet each company and designer in person. We designed two main functionalities: design remodel online, and video construction progress track to solve the pain points and meet user needs.
Design plan online
Connect consumers and remodel firms, interior designers, provide plenty choice for users to compare and select.
Video progress track
​Daily video and progress for users tracking whenever and wherever, make the tedious and time cost monitor work efficient and flexible.
IDEATION
Clean and straightforward user flow
WIREFRAME
Based on the user flow and main features, we decided 4 sections as tab navigation: Design, Message, Tracking, and Profile. The Design, Message, Tracking tab align with the user flow, keep the UX straightforward and efficiently. Profile is for account and settings.
USABILITY TEST
& ITERATION
Evaluate the user flow and wireframe
We recruited 5 white-collars from industry of sales, operation, engineering, and use paper wireframe conducted the usability test. We asked them to go through the task of find a design plan, make the order and tracking the remodeling status. We observed the process and got feedback.
Feedback 1: "one-click service" is more attractive
4 of 5 testers choose "one-click service" first in 4 options of making design. We interviewed testers afterwords, they said that other 3 categories seems similar and common, but "one-click service" is different and arouse their curiosity. They are more interested in the "one-click service".
Solution: Button weights adjustment
Feedback 2: Would like wandering before making design decision
3 of 5 testers provided feedback that rather than making decisions directly, they prefer wandering a little bit. Home remodel is not a small project, they would like to research more, see more and compare more. They mentioned that, they like browsing in Xiaohongshu and Weibo to see others' post, and get insights from browsing beautiful interior design pictures and stories.
Solution: Add "Discover" in tab navigation, merge "Tracking" into "Message"
Feedback 3: Can we buy furnitures in the app?
3 of 5 testers asked, “can I buy furnitures from the app?" Users will get inspired by case stories and beautiful pictures, they would like to buy the same or similar furnitures. Since we provide the connection with designers and workers, help make remodel decision and track status, purchase furniture is another necessary part of home remodel.
Solution: Discussing with PM and decided to develop later
The team believe the e-commerce feature is necessary and would be important for App growth. But after discuss with Product Manager, we decided to develop the purchase function in later versions. E-commerce development is complex, and we are going with a tight schedule. So we decided to promote the unique design and tracking features first, and add more functions later.
MOODBOARD
Our target audience are young working people, so the UI should be vibrant also clean. We decided to use flat design style and gradient color methods to create the trending vibe. Also, since the app is for Chinese marketing, we referred to some successful Chinese Apps like Taobao, Lianjia to make sure UI design fits Chinese local users‘ tastes and habits.
FINAL DESIGN
VISUAL DESIGN
REFLECTIONS
Users need straightforward, also wandering, for purchasing products.
We designed concise and clean user flow, and believed that the straightforward flow meets user needs of high efficiency and time saving. While, usability testing taught us, the shortcut towards destination is important, but scenery around the trail is also necessary. Users tend to browse, compare, consider before making decision. For products which final action is purchasing, especial purchasing for expensive items or service, the space for users' wandering is as same important as the straightforward track. And it is also a good way for growth and retain.
Design should meet local users' habits and preference.
When doing visual design, I once proposed more clean and simple visual design solution, which is more flat, with more illustration image rather than actual photos, and less gradient color and shadow. While, the product manager and team members convinced me that, Chinese users are costumed with louder visual elements. Take successful Apps in China like Taobao, Dianping, Meituan as examples, Chinese users have been used to flashy icons and promo banners. If we apply entire flat design, Chinese users may feel boring and less attractive.
This is what I did not realize before. We focus on latest design trending frequently, but users in different place and culture have different use habit and aesthetic preference. We should also pay attention to the local users' likes and dislikes.