Cleaning Service App — UX Case Study

1 week | Solo Concept Project

Tidy is a mobile application that allows the user to book cleaning services that are customisable to their preferences and requirements.

UX tools used: User interviews | Experience mapping | Problem statement | Outcome statement | Crazy 8’s | Storyboarding | User flows | Paper prototype | Usability testing

Brief

Quiz your partner about their interests and identify a problem. Design a mobile app to solve the problem simply and effectively.

The Problem

My user Marc, who is a property developer struggles to find reliable cleaners to tend to his properties.

The Opportunity

To design a cleaning service app that allows Marc to conveniently book in reliable cleaners to tend to his properties at specific locations and time, with the right equipment needed for the job.

My Process

Crafting the Questions

Interview 1 — Getting to know a bit more about Marc and who he is. I asked him a few questions around these topics (below) and was able to pull out details on problems he was experiencing, to work towards solving.

The key theme for questions I asked Marc on our first interview.

Interview 2 — This interview was based on the two topics that frequently occurred in the previous.

• Snowboarding, his favourite activity and learning more about his feelings on this.
• Cleaning, to understand the scenario and difficulties that occur when he comes across it.

Focusing on his feelings toward the activities, I decided to design an app which aims to increase his positive emotions and eliminate his negative ones.

Interview Insights

Starting off the UX research process with interviewing the user, I was able to identify the key problems experienced in his day-to-day life.

Key findings from User Interviews

“Cleaning is just a pain if there was any way to avoid it that would be nice” — Marc

The Current Experience & Defining the Problem

Experience Map — Marc trying to get his property cleaned

With an experience map, I was able to clearly identify where the key pain points occurred in his journey.

Pain Points

• It is daunting having to shop around to find a service
• He has to call a few services until he can find one that is available at the time he wants them to come in.
• Sometimes cleaners are early, late or do not show up at all. Not ideal.
• Occasionally, they may arrive without the right equipment.
• Payment through the phone is not convenient or time-effective.

4 Key User Needs

Solving the Problem

Problem Statement

Marc needs a way to clean properties conveniently because he has a busy schedule and short turnover time between tenants.

Moving onto Ideation

Having the key pain points mapped out, I wanted to design an app that will help Marc outsource mundane tasks that have secondary importance to him. So that he can focus on the main priorities in his work and enjoy more of his personal time filled with his hobbies and interests. Ideating with the crazy 8’s technique, I was able to quickly draw out some solutions I had for the problem. The storyboard represents Marc’s happy path when he uses the Tidy app as a solution.

Storyboard — Marc’s Happy Path

Key Features include

• A clear service preferences page to easily select details needed for the clean. Including the type of clean, number of rooms, equipment needed, any extras.
• Service partners with star ratings to ensure quality
• Tracker to check arrival time and duration of the job

The Solution

User Flow — Happy Path

After brainstorming the key features that will be most important to Marc, keeping in mind his pain points and motivations. I came up with a quick and easy user flow that will help him accomplish this task.

My aim was to reduce the steps as much as possible and focus on creating a process that will be easy to learn and quick to tap through.

User Flow — See & Do

Paper Prototype

I started with a competitive analysis, researching popular booking apps in the market and apps that Marc suggested he enjoyed using. Then I sketched out a rough layout of the screens and the icons that I’d like to implement to aid the flow.

Paper Prototype, left to right — menu bar, services, requirements, summary, tracking, add to cal pop-up, confirmation, keyboard, location, time

Usability Testing

Marc testing the paper prototype

Test Findings

After user testing with Marc and two other participants, I had a few issues to address and iterate my prototype with. The plan is to conduct more testings and prove that the iterations improve the user experience.

• Home screen’s tap and input order are unclear, a better visual hierarchy to guide the user would need to be explored
• Regarding the services screen “Calling this ‘Equipments Required’ rather than ‘Equipments’ makes more sense to me”
• Marc really appreciated the add to calendar and share features in the tracking screen as he would be able to organise his day and share information with his colleagues

Learnings

• The research process is so vital to addressing the problem! What would be the purpose of solving the wrong problem?!
• I found conducting my interview with Marc a bit difficult at first as it was hard not to ask leading questions. However, I’ve learnt a few techniques along the way to improve, for example, allowing the user to describe the situation.
• Crazy 8’s played a big role to help me think out of the box, adding time constraints pushed my limits and creativity.

I’ve spent an additional week working on the User Interface for this project. If you are interested, the case study link is below:

Cleaning Service App - UI Case Study

Thanks for getting this far! Any questions feel free to get in touch or check out my website. ✨Kiki