Day 1: Understand/Map

RESEARCH

House2Home had already conducted user interviews, and asked users to “tell us about a time you shopped for items to decorate a new home or apartment”. 

After reviewing the research notes and interviews, I took notes and assembled an affinity map to organize the ideas:

The most important insights I discovered about the users are:

• Users know the “look” they want, but don’t know what to buy to achieve it

• Users want a professionally designed “look” - but on a limited budget

• Users need a quick, easy way to find decor items

Long-Term Goal

The long-term goal of this project is to create an online experience where users can find a “starter kit” of items to decorate their homes. The experience should be quick and easy to use, and give users a variety of style options. The experience should also allow users to shop within a set budget.

How Could We Fail?

In thinking about the flow for this project, it was important to think about what NOT to do. Keeping these questions in the back of the mind during the design process would help to keep focus along the way:

• What could cause a user to abandon the process before choosing products?

• What might cause a user to go through the whole process, but not end up purchasing items?

• What might make a user unlikely to go through the process at all?

Make a Map!

I thought about the end goal - purchasing a “starter kit” of decor items - and listed out some options showing the steps that a user would need to go through in order to reach that end goal. Ultimately, I began my design process based on the third option below:

How Might We Questions

Finally, I listed out HMW questions to help come up with ideas for this project’s solution:

• How might we customize the experience to the user?

• How might we ensure user satisfaction?

• How might we give the user confidence that they’re making a good decision?

• How might we ensure the user sticks to their budget?

• How might we make the process enjoyable for the user?

Day 2: SKETCH DAY

LIGHTNING DEMOS

I started out by doing a solo version of lightning demos. I searched for similar websites or products that I could use as inspiration for the House2Home project. I decided on three: Wayfair.com, Fabletics.com, and the book “Home Body” by Joanna Gaines.

Wayfair.com

Wayfair.com is a website where you can shop for home decor and furniture. Below are some of the features that I found interesting which might relate to House2Home.

• The homepage has suggestions for different ways to shop:

  • Department

  • Sale

  • Explore Collections

  • “Endless Room Ideas” where you can browse products

    • This page lists different styles to shop within, such as Leather, Celeb Roomovers, Nursery, Luxury, Neutral, Modern

    • I like that when you hover the mouse over one of their collection images, it shows little price tags on the items that are available for purchase

    • Then it brings you to a page where you can see the room photo up top, with some of the actual items from the photo listed below that you can actually purchase.

Fabletics.com

Fabletics sells workout and athleisure apparel. Below are some features that I thought were good inspiration for the House2Home project.

• Home page has a “Start Here” prompt. When clicked on, this brings up a pop-up window that floats over the main website content and launches youinto a Style Quiz.

  • Answer questions about where/how you like to work out, your favorite colors, your size preferences

• Once the quiz is complete, the user has a “dashboard” page that shows a collection called “My Outfits”

  • These supposedly are chosen specifically for you based on your preferences from the quiz.

“Home Body” by Joanna Gaines

“Home Body” is a book about home decor written by interior designer Joanna Gaines. Joanna calls the book a “guide”, and rather than telling the reader what they should aspire to, the book’s goal is to equip the reader with the tools to design a home unique to their style and needs.

• The book starts the reader out with a chapter where they can identify their own personal design style

• Different design styles are shown, each with a description, an image with examples, and keywords that describe that style.

• Images from 22 homes are shown throughout the book. Before getting into the photos, Joanna lists each home that is featured in the book with a description, and a “Style Formula” - an indication of what style or combination of styles this home falls under

  • This allows the reader to decide which homes they might want to look at based on what style they want.

SKETCHING

I started out the sketching process by doing a “Crazy 8” exercise to get some ideas down quickly for the most critical screen - the style quiz.

Then, I created a quick 3-panel user flow/storyboard for this critical flow:

Day 3: Storyboarding

MAKING DECISIONS

Storyboard

I started out with looking over all of the sketches and ideas that I had come up with, and deciding which ones to use. In order to help get started, I needed to think about the user flow for this project, and created a storyboard sketch where I attempted to think through the steps the user would take.

Wireframes

I then got a little more specific by drawing up some lightweight wireframes which would help me when I started to build the prototype:

DAY 4: PROTOTYPING

VISUAL DESIGN

I spent day 4 creating a realistic prototype using Figma. I started by making a quick style guide of the fonts and colors that I would be using for easy reference.

I began by building the home page of the website with a new banner that would promote the starter kits:

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS

The User Flow Felt a Bit Off…

While I was working on this, the user flow was feeling a little off. I thought that diving right into the Style Quiz might turn some users away if they thought this process was too time consuming. Most of the interviews indicated that users already know what their style is, and that they want to get their shopping done quickly.

I decided to modify the original plan. 

It would work better if the user first has the option to choose what style their room is from a list of styles, and then be able to take the style quiz as an option if they are unsure sure what style they are going for. I created a new user flow chart based on the new plan:

HI-FIDELITY MOCKUPS

Then, I proceeded to build out all of the screens, and make connections to create a working prototype. Pictured below are some key screen designs:

Day 5: Testing

USABILITY TESTING

I recruited five participants to participate in moderated usability testing for the House2Home website. Four of these tests were done remotely, and one was done in person. The goal was to discover any potential areas that were unclear, or problems with the user flow.

Findings

During and after each user test, I took extensive notes, making sure to note things that the user liked as well as the pain points that were uncovered, and any suggestions the user had. I then went through these notes, pulled out the most important points and compiled them into a spreadsheet. Once all interviews were completed, I rearranged the rows of the spreadsheet to group similar points, and ranked each point by priority. 

The items that multiple participants mentioned were clearly the top priority to address, although some points mentioned by only one participant also seemed critical to address.
You can view the full list of points at this link, but I have highlighted some of the most important points in detail below:

Style Quiz Visibility

ISSUE:

Some participants did not notice the option to take a Style Quiz right away. The link to do this appears below the “Next” button. 

RECOMMENDATION:

Move the link to take the style quiz up to the top, below the description paragraph but above the style option photos.

Next Steps

The usability testing really highlighted some additional areas that need attention, but gave rise to many more questions. These areas would really need some additional brainstorming and testing in order to come to solid conclusions about how to implement changes. A few of these points are discussed below.

HOW-TO SUGGESTIONS

Users Still Might Need Help

A few users suggested that once they see the items in their kits, or even receive the items in their home, they still might not know how to use those items or where to put them in the room to get the best look. They were hoping that there might be a way that they could see some suggestions on how to use the items, or maybe a way to show you a room containing all of the items that you selected.