Product Overview
This mobile app was created to better assist with at home living. Features of the app help people under one roof organize and plan.
Problem
When sharing a living space with others, you run into problems such as who cleans what and people needing to use appliances at the same time. Which can be very frustrating and inconvenient.
Goal
The goal of this product is to make it easier to manage time at home. So at home living can be more smooth and everyone’s needs are met.
User
When conducting user research, I found that many people have struggles when living with others. My target group mainly includes people ages 18-30. In this group of people, many have moved out of their parent’s homes and live with other people around their age. These people may come from different backgrounds which results to different living styles too.
Pain Points
Time Many may be in a rush and can not access certain utilities such as laundry and shower because they may be in use.
Scheduling A Lack of schedules or people on different schedules can create mess and confusion.
Communication Sometimes hard to keep all roommates updated on plans.
User Story
"As a forth year college student and part-time worker, I want to schedule my chores and bathroom time at home so that I am not late to class and spend more time studying."
​
.jpg)
User Story
"As a newly wed and waiter, I want to communicate with my roommates and share my calendar events with them so that I can word on the house and plan out my wedding at the same time."
Problem Statement
Becky is a student who needs to schedule out her chores and bathroom time because she keeps showing up late to class since her roommates are always in the bathroom when she’s getting ready to leave.
Goal Statement
Our application will let users schedule chores, times for shared apartment utilities and keeping track of things such as calendar events and shared groceries. This will affect Becky the college student and part-time worker by letting her set a schedule and communicate with her roommates so she can be on time. We will measure the efficiency by keeping track of how often users use certain amenities in the app and reconvene to see if it has positively affected their daily routines.
Design Process
The design process includes Crazy 8s paper wireframes, digital wireframes to digital prototypes. Starting the process on paper is an inexpensive and fast way to brainstorm ideas for your designs. Through multiple iterations, you find the best design to fit your product. Then create a digital version of it.
.jpg)
Low Fidelity Prototype is made from the digital wireframes:
Above is a sitemap. This is the hierarchical sitemap of how the app pages will be organized.
Usability Testing
A study was conducted with 5 participants who had a list of tasks to complete. This was used to observe how they used the app and what issues or struggles they had with the app. Followed by an end-of-session questionnaire to get an overall feel of what they thought of the app.
Parameters
Linked below is a document that shares the research study parameters such as reseach questions, KPIs, methodology, etc.
Usability Notes
When conducting the interviews with participants, it is important to take notes of everything you view. This is an example of a note sheet for one of the participants.
Survey Results
At the end of the sessions each participant did a survey where they had to rate how agreeable each statement was. Here is an example of one participants results.
Here is a link to all participant notes and survey results:
Affinity Chart
After taking notes from each participant, the notes are broken up into important comments for each participant. Then the sticky notes are put into sections based on common critics. In this case: homepage, chores, bathroom, grocery list, calendar, other.
Here are organized color coded comments that came from each participant:
Here are the sticky note comments organized under the categories they best fit:
.jpg)
Findings
After conducting the usability study and end of sessions survey, the follow was found:
.jpg)
Common observations between the participants:
It was observed that 3 out of 6 subjects had trouble finding the 3-line sub-menu.
This means that for some users the 3-line sub-menu is difficult to find.
It was observed that 5 out of 6 subjects said the app should be color-coded.
This means that for almost all users, the app would be clearer if it was color-coded.
​
It was observed that 3 out of 6 subjects thought the labels could be more clear.
This means that labels can be worked on but not all had problems with finding features.
Refining Design
After usability testing, the app is modified to solve problems that participants would find when using the app. Below are examples of how the app evolved to better help the user.
Changed the menu design and added better labels so users can figure the app out faster.
Added color to design including color coding throughout the app. And made certain features bigger to stand out to the users.
Here are all of the app pages in their final mockup iteration:
Here's a link to the High Fidelity Prototype:
Accessibility Concerns
1. Used large text in labels and buttons for easier navigation
2. Color Contrast to help make things stand out.
Going Forward
Impact
​After creating this app, participants stated that this will be very helpful when planning at home. Different features stood out to different participants. Therefore, the app can be helpful for many uses.
What I learned
​Throughout the creation of this app, I took advice from participants that I found would be useful across many users. Also, creating the design for high fidelity prototypes takes many iterations of changes in order for it to meet my expectations, and even when I think I am done, I still find things that can be worked on.
Next Steps
1. Usability Study: Conducting another usability study with more participants and a more specific target group
2. Review Design Choice: Are the colors, text, and sizes as helpful to users as possible?
3. Test the demand for this product: How many people, or groups of people will this actually help? Can I adjust it to help more people?