Evan Burr
Evan Burr
Evan Burr
InnovateMap
Design a Web/Mobile platform to Streamline the Home Contracting Process
Project background
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Due to the pandemic, in-person meetings and business transactions are occurring less and less frequently. This makes perfect sense for a lot of modern businesses, but some are reliant on in-person and physical touchpoints. Home contractors (i.e. Painters, roofers, landscapers, carpenters, drywallers) generally require an initial in-home visit with a prospective customer to gather the information they need to determine the scope of the work and create a project estimate. This in-person meeting helps the contractor determine how much effort and materials the contractor will need, but also performs a crucial role in helping the contractor determine how serious the customer is about the job and if the project will be worth their time.
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Tools Used​
Figma
Miro
IOS Pages
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Team​
Evan Burr
Shelby Benton
Amelia Fleetwood
Laura Makary
Aiden Ringer
My Role​
Scoping Down
User Research
User Testing
Facilitated Meetings
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Timeline​
Aug 2020-Dec 2020
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01
Introduction
What does InnovateMap want us to do?
Currently, the bidding process between home contractors and prospective clients is time consuming, expensive, and leaves room for miscommunication. Our team was tasked to create a solution that facilitates transparent communication between both parties and streamlines the bidding process.
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Process of Creating an Estimate
1.
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work with the homeowner to understand the scope, timeframe, and details of the project
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develop a general estimate including materials, timeline, labor, etc.
3.
present the general estimate and the homeowner decides to work with contractor
02
The Solution
Design a B2C Ecosystem
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My team and I developed a mobile/web platform that contained the most crucial functionality for our users in order to streamline the process of creating an estimate between homeowners and contractors.
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03
The Process
From Concept to an Interactive Product!
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Process
Learn
Secondary Research
User Interviews
User Persona
Synthesis
Site Maps
Experience Maps
Task Flows
Market Space
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Prototyping
Sketches
Wireframes
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Test
Usability Testing
Concept Testing
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Finalize
Mid-Fi Prototypes
Interactivity
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Deliver
Presentation
Documentation
Share Prototyping files
04
User Research
Separating the Homeowners and Contractors Needs
Primary/Secondary research
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In order to understand both parties' needs and wants, I needed to conduct research around our user group. Myself along with the other team members conducted multiple interviews in order to get a first hand understanding of the homeowner and contractor set-up process.
Along with these interviews, our team conducted a literature review, a comparative analysis and created an experience map. We took all these insights with us when designing for both parties.
Homeowner takeaways
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Homeowners and contractors feel like their time is undervalued
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Contractors are doing “virtual estimates” through basic photos and emails
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Clients do not like the tactics some contractors use to acquire the job
Contractor takeaways
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Contractors lack consistent and clear communication
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Contractors like to know they have a serious lead before investing their time
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Contractors have extensive knowledge of what goes into a job, so they can give a ballpark price range (they know what jobs should cost)
Takeaways in Action
Considering insights from our research, the team and I created two broad experience maps, one for the homeowner, and one for the contractor.
Our goal for these general experience maps was to identify areas of opportunity during the bidding process, and build off of these during ideation. On the maps, we included touch points, goals, actions, emotions, and opportunities.
05
Prototyping
Functionality Meets creativity
Task Flow and Sketches
The solution requirements we created based on our experience map helped the team evaluate our individual sketches to see how they aligned with these criteria. We combined ideas to create one solidified task flow of our solution. Below is our task flow with associated sketches
Applying our task flow to low-fidelity prototypes
Our solution had to be split up into two separate sequences of prototypes. One for the homeowner and one for the contractor. We used the task flow and sketches above to help build out these prototypes.
05
User Testing
Let's test our prototype
Usability Testing
The goal of testing was to see if the users could understand the overall navigation as well as the purpose of specific functions.
We conducted this test via Zoom by giving users a basic scenario to play out. Using this scenario, the participant was asked to complete a series of tasks that tested the navigation and usability of the site.
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Below are some of the changes we made based on the testing results.
06
Validation
Benefits of Our Solution
Value Proposition
Our design targets predefined pain points and addresses the project’s problem statement. To recap, the team’s goal was to create a solution that facilitates transparent communication between both parties and streamlines the bidding process. The following information highlights the benefits of our design.
07
Reflection
Reflection
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Because this was an industry that I had no experience in, it took time to understand the domain well enough to inform our design. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this project because of how much we had to scope down from an ambitious intention to find the best area of opportunity. While there is a natural reflex to focus on creating aesthetically pleasing UI, the real value from this project was delivered to our client by identifying how the final solution could be intuitive and functional for homeowners and contractors.