Feature Integration: Home Depot
Summary
Our team was given the following prompt: Home Depot wants to add a feature to their app to include a new section for do-it-yourself homeowners (or DIYers). They want to find a way to allow DIYers to track progress of their home projects, and to find information quickly and easily. We were given 2 weeks for this sprint.
Timeline
2 weeks. 1 weeks of research & synthesis, 1 week of designing.
Role on the Team
UX Researcher and UX Designer. Our team split the work of user research and designing key screens.
Technology
- iOS Application - most DIY users we interviewed used iOS, therefore we chose to tackle the iOS application for this project.
- Sketch to create the wireframes, and prototyping in InVision.
Research
To start, we took a look at the current Home Depot app. We analyzed what data already existed in both spaces for the DIY user to see what was already there, and what needed to be built new.
The Home Depot app as it is today has a section for DIY, however it only has two things within it: the Toolbox (which provides tools to users such as a measurement converter) and Workshops (which is an external link to the website that says what workshops you can do in the store). Although both are useful, these are not the kinds of things a DIYer needs to track their projects.
However, when we took a look at the website we realized there are numerous DIY how-to articles and videos, which we realized would be useful information to integrate in some way to the app.
The second thing we did was define our audience - who would use this feature? We determined that anyone who has done at least 1 DIY home project would be our audience, as they likely would do a DIY home project again and would have insight into what they would need.
We sent out a screener survey to determine this audience, and then did user interviews with 5 users who had done at least one DIY home project.
Synthesis & Insights
Through our five user interviews, we determined that there are two main types of people who use DIY:
1. The fixer-upper. This type of person doesn't do DIY projects for fun, but in order to fix something that's broken in their home. It might be that something has suddenly broken such as a fridge, or is in long time of needing a fix like siding. This type of user prefers DIY because they feel they have the knowledge to fix the problem, the supplies, and they can do this to save money.
2. The dreamer. This type of person does DIY to improve their home in order to make it a place that's more comfortable and enjoyable for themselves. They often have big dreams, but aren't sure where to start, or don't have the experience or money to start on big projects. Instead they choose to take up small projects where they feel more confident until they are ready to tackle a big project.
Design Iterations
In order to create the best designs, we followed the following process:
1. Prioritize Features. Our team discussed the things the client wanted, what users stated they wanted, the competitive landscape and points of opportunity we identified through our research.
2. Run a Design Studio. A design studio is a team exercise that allows all members of the team to draw out their idea for a page or a flow, and compare it with the rest of the team, in order to collaborate and decide on how we want screens to look. By doing this activity together over the course of a day, we were able to come up with our first designs.
3. Create the screens and flows in a low fidelity of different tasks within the app. We also create the prototype at this stage so it can be tested.
4. Usability Tests. Usability testing allowed us to put our designs in front of potential users of the platform and help us see whether or not our designs worked, and how they could be improved upon. For this project, we ran three rounds of usability tests on 15 potential users to identify potential problems and fix them.
5. Edit screens to reflect the results of the usability testing, and then usability test again.
6. Create the final prototype backed by our usability tests.
