Overview
Fixd is a tutorial-based application to facilitate more accessible and affordable home repairs. The platform gives users easy-to-understand tutorials, home maintenance tips and local repair services.
The Problem
Maintaining a home can be expensive and draining without the technical-know how.
Homeowners lack the resources to tackle DIY projects more often.
My Role
Background
Competitive
analysis
To start off, I looked at some well established companies in the home maintenance industry to analyze their strengths and weaknesses.
Interviews
I conducted some interviews with some students, new homeowners, and more experienced homeowners to fully understand the pain points of maintaining a home.
Do you have to fix things by yourself a lot?
What do you do when something is broken? Take me through a specific scenario?
Is it frustrating to fix things?
What do you consider the most when getting home repairs?
How does time come into play with fixing things?
How often do you look online for help?
Do you typically have the tools to fix things?
Interviews
I conducted some interviews with some students, new homeowners, and more experienced homeowners to fully understand the pain points of maintaining a home.
Do you have to fix things by yourself a lot?
What do you do when something is broken? Take me through a specific scenario?
Is it frustrating to fix things?
What do you consider the most when getting home repairs?
How does time come into play with fixing things?
How often do you look online for help?
Do you typically have the tools to fix things?
Insights
Here are some main takewaways from the interviews.
Insights
Here are some main takewaways from the interviews.
User Personas
After the interviews and analyzing the research insight, I developed these user personas to describe the target audience.
Point of View
I focused on Pete’s persona in the POV and Journey Map.
Pete is a single homeowner who needs easy access to resources to fix things on his own to save time and money.
Journey Map
I developed a journey map to describe a typical scenario of the struggle homeowners face when attempting DIY maintenance.
How Might We ...
facilitate smooth access to home maintenance resources?
make it more accessible to understand resources?
make it easier to find the tools and equipment needed to fix items?
provide seamless access to external/ professional assistance?
Design Concept
We will design a DIY repair store experience that is accessible and easy to understand so that homeowners can maintain and repair their home without wasting time and money.
Ideation
DIY home maintenance tutorial application with these features.
- Search
- Forum
- Repair tools store
- Categorized tutorials (easy, hard…)
- User Badges (expert, beginner)
- Social media feed (see other people’s accomplishments)
Wireframes
Rough diagrams of what the application would look like.
Home
Search
Tutorial
Lo-fi Prototype
I created some low-fidelity prototypes to get a first-start on the digital design for the application
Home
Search
Tutorial
Hi-fi Prototype
Based on feedback, I decided to narrow down the five bottom navigation buttons to just three (Home, Projects, and Account) and label them. Instead of completed projects on the listing for the tutorials, it made more sense to show the ratings from the app users.
App Logo
Loading Page
Home
The Home screen features categories based on different locations in a home, updates on projects in progress and articles to educate homeowners.
Search by Tutorial
Search by Hire
The Tutorial page allows the user to either Watch, Read or Listen to the tutorial. This promotes accessibility and allows users to repair/install in different situations.
Users can also purchase tools needed for the job directly from the tutorial page.
Users can mark their progress so they can always go back and continue from where they left off.
Tutorial
Home Screen on Desktop, Tablet and Phone
Storyboard
“Oh no, my faucet is broken!”
“I should download the Fixd App.”
“I can easily search for the tutorial I am looking for.”
“Awesome! I have all the tools to work with.”
“It is so easy to follow the video.”
“Yay!! I FIXD my faucet all by myself!”
Takeaways
- This was my first UX case study and I am proud of how this turned out! It was amazing to see the final solution evolve from my initial ideas.
- One thing I learned was the importance of documentation during the UX process. I was not able to keep track of all the information I retained throughout the study. I will be more intentional in recording information for my next study.
- I did not incorporate the social media feed and badge system idea but that is something I can still explore. It will add an extra source of motivation for users.