Design goal

Home Depot wants to give its customers a tool to help them brainstorm, plan, track, & even document their DIY projects.


PROBLEM TO SOLVE:
To be more resourceful with relevant and contextual information for its customers during their DIY projects, and also build on the recent success of its smartphone apps.

OUTCOMES

  • During user research, came upon a big deep insight that was shared by Home Depot Sales Leads in the stores. "The biggest 2 questions people ask us are - 'How do we do this (project)?' and 'What do we need for it?' " they said. We used this key finding in informing the design of the app framework.

  • Designed a supporting and empowering app for DIYers, that provides them all the resources and guidance to research, plan, prepare and execute their projects confidently through to completion.

  • This version zones in on the MVP features to get the phase one of this out the door.

  • Design Guidelines applied - A simple and guided experience keeping the user focused on task.

 

Video of the clickable prototype

 

UX PROCESS & artifacts

DISCOVERY & RESEARCH

(User Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Competitive Analysis, Surveys)

  • Users wanted help to figure out how to do any project on their own

  • They wanted to find clear and easy-to-follow instructions with videos, as they found it to be a big challenge to find the right video among the 1000s on the web

  • They wanted to be inspired and learn from a larger DIY community

 

 

 

Problem Statement

As a person who wants to take on a DIY project, (USER ROLE)

I want clear and simple guidance and planning instructions on the process, tools & materials for it, (TASK)

So that I can feel empowered and can confidently see it through to completion ! (goal)

 

 

STORYBOARD

Illustration Credit - Team Member: Brian Rivera

 

sketches & wireframing

(Task Analysis, Paper Prototype, MVP, Wireframes, Usability Testing)

 

 

KEY LEARNINGS

THE GOOD

  • Users thought the framework of research, plan, prepare and execute were clear up on top

  • They liked having videos and photos during the research and inspiration phase and also during actually executing the project

  • The inbuilt tool to measure the floor was received well.

THINGS TO IMPROVE

  • Further investigate, design & test project-specific calculators

  • Explore integrating ‘Buy’ functionality

  • Addition of ‘live chat’ with customer-service associates who can aid during the ‘Execute’ phase for those needing more support

 

 

TECHNOLOGIES TO LEVERAGE

  • Explore augmented reality technology for future rollouts (It can help replace printed instructions by overlaying contextual information directly over parts that are ready to be assembled.)

 

Role

UX Lead Designer/Researcher, working in a team with 2 other UX Designers.

TIMEFRAME

2 Week Design Sprint at General Assembly

UX Methodologies

Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Contextual Inquiry, Usability Heuristics, Affinity Mapping, Information Architecture, Task Analysis, Brand Goal Evaluation, Persona Development, Storyboard, Sketching, Card Sorting, Design Direction Ideation, Paper Prototyping, Usability Testing, Design Iterating, Wireframing, Prototyping.