HomeHaven
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DIY dreams, Real results.
HomeHaven
Role
Team
Duration
Tools
UX Researcher, Visual Designer
Mauricio Gamez, Charles Ming, Amanda Hunter, Morris
1 month
Figma
Overview
HomeHaven is a product designed to help homeowners complete DIY projects in a timely and cost-effective manner. It aims to address the frustration homeowners experience with the cost and inconsistency of contractors, providing them with an alternative solution for completing their own home improvement projects.
UX Research
Cost-conscious users are turning to do-it-yourself (DIY) projects to avoid expensive contractors. They find inspiration and instructions online, empowering them to tackle smaller home improvement tasks, while leaving major systems to the professionals.
Research Objective
Affinity Diagram
Emerging Themes: Users chose DIY in order to save money and avoid hiring contractors. Additionally, they used online resources for inspiration and instructions. Users are not afraid of smaller DIY projects, but avoid working on major home systems.
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User Persona
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Ben Johnson
Age: 36y old
Occupation: Property Manager
Location: Riverside, CA
Biography
Ben, a property manager and new homeowner, wants to improve his house and increase its value. He struggles with new responsibilities but is willing to tackle projects himself with proper planning and research. He uses Youtube for inspiration and is hesitant to hire contractors due to cost and time, but will hire for larger projects.
Paint Points
Time management, most things taking longer than expected
Upset with unreliable and expensive contractors.
Insufficient project information.
Goals
Find low-cost home-improvement projects to improve quality of life, and raise home value
Stay informed to avoid DIY hazards.
Liked Brands
Definition
User Insight
In Ben’s newly acquired home, he needs a platform that provides information and precautions on home-improvement projects in order to improve his quality of life, and raise the value of his house because it is costly to hire contractors, and online resources are not always consistent with the correct guidelines to safely forgo these DIY projects around the house.
Problem Statement
Home Haven was designed to help homeowners complete DIY projects on time and cost-effectively. We have observed that homeowners are frustrated by the cost and inconsistency of contractors and prefer to do the work themselves if they can.
How might Home Haven provide homeowners DIY project tutorials and instructions to ensure users do their project right, and right the first time?
Value Proposition
HomeHaven is your one-stop shop for planning, executing, and enjoying successful DIY projects around the house.
Ideation
Benny, a new homeowner and a property manager who just moved to his neighborhood and has scheduled to meet with his boss, the property owner, but finds out that the toilet in the guest bathroom is clogged so he decides that the toilet for the guest restroom himself to save on costs and ensure a reliable outcome. With a third child on the way, he aims to invest in his children's education instead of unreliable service workers. seeking a quick and effective DIY solution, Benny is determined to transform his home before the weekend dinner event.
User Scenario
Brainstorming
Home Haven could tailor projects based on the user’s project history and preferences
Step-by-step DIY video guides
Customize DIY project plans based on priority and preference
Digital tool that helps plan and organize DIY projects
Connection to suppliers for materials
Virtual consultations to DIY experts
Customizing apps according to user project history and preferences.
Seasonal project suggestions that are location-based
Feature Matrix
Storyboard
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Benny, a property manager, hosts his boss for dinner tonight.
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He browses the DIY library and locates the plumbing section.
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Benny guides his boss to the bathroom.
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Benny's wife says the guest bathroom toilet is clogged, and he's worried about the impression it will make.
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He discovers a simple How-To video for unclogging.
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His boss is relieved, and so is Benny.
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He finds the video easy to understand and rates it five stars.
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HomeHaven DIY App to the rescue!
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It’s time, his boss comes over.
Prototyping
User Flow
Landing Page
What's your name?
Where do you reside?
What do you want to DIY?
Create Account
Google, Facebook, Aple ID
Sign in/Sign Up
Redirect to third party
enter email & oassword
Home Page
Search
"clogged toilet"
DIY results list
select project
save project
project page
title description tool list
Begin project
Each team member went our way to develop paper prototypes based on our individual research and ideation stages before we came back together to compromise on a final design for the prototype.
Paper Prototypes
1
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2
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3
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4
After our team did their own thing in designing their paper prototypes, we got together again, and we picked our favorite designs from each member of our team.
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The Prototype
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Onboarding
First Iterations
Project Search
Testing & Outcomes
Test Tasks
Participants will log in via Face ID
From Home, they will access Projects and start Bathroom Renovation.
The tester will add replacing the vanity to the Bathroom project.
They will seek a bathroom mirror frame.
Outcomes
4 participants found it difficult to navigate to projects due to the confusing projects tab icon. The icon was reworked to a hammer and all tab icons now have titles to avoid errors.
When users already have an idea of which room to start planning their DIY project, they prefer to search by room, so for the future, we can iterate upon "Search by Room".
Conclusion
Reiterating the tab bar so that it's easier to find what the user is looking for makes the DIY experience more intuitive, the team did a great job at covering the bases for the vision of Home Haven. Besides the confusion of the tab bar with the projects, things like adding tasks and navigating the home screen were straightforward. Originally, we started the prototype with five tab buttons before reducing it to three. Doing this made the vision for the app for the user very focused on the tasks.
Future Iterations
We have an S.O.S. button that will help users contact a handyman or contractor if a project spirals out of control.
We aim to build an in-house Contractor Squad to create step-by-step videos for guidance.
Voice AI provides screen-free instructions.
More Projects
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