HomeLearning App

Q: How might we inspire independence and self-determination with home improvement projects?

Team: Sarah Evans (UX designer), Sarah McMurchie (UX designer + researcher), Inhae Chung (UX designer)

Giving home improvement consumers autonomy

It was important for us to figure out how to give home improvement customers autonomy in their projects and encourage people to become more self-sufficient. Most of us carry a high speed supercomputer around with us at all times and vastly under utilize it. Instead of using the multiple versions of free apps to learn new languages, we find ourselves at level 2000 of a Tetris spin off game wondering “why am I like this?” However, with the growing popularity of DIY projects, we saw an opportunity to marry DIY and Home Improvement while enabling users to learn a new trade from their phone.

My role + process

“I get satisfaction from doing a project myself”

To devise nuanced concepts, we began by diving into research. During our discovery phase, we performed homeowner interviews, consumer interviews, and secondary research, and then synthesized our data through affinity mapping.

HomeLearning is born

With these insights in mind, we came up with eight concepts and drew a storyboard for each concept. We tested these storyboards with users, and found that overwhelmingly, the favorite was the “Home Depot Home Learning” idea. Below is the winning storyboard.

Meet Erin.

With the home improvement/DIY inspiration, we created three personas based on our research and user tests. One persona, Erin, encompassed everything we needed so we created a scenario for her.

Time for some wireframes

We kept Erin in mind and sketched out lo-fi wireframes. The first key page to design was the homepage. We wanted the saved projects to be obvious on the home page to encourage users to access and actually do the projects they have saved for later. We also wanted a small “discover” section, which would house project ideas based on the users preferences and change regularly.

Calling all browsers

The “inspiration” section was created with indecisive users in mind. They know they want to build something, but they’re not sure where to start. In the inspiration page, users scroll through photos and videos of projects that other HomeLearning users have finished and uploaded. They can “like” an image to save it for later, or view more information by clicking into the image. This is a great place for Erin to start.

Get inspired

A deeper dive of the inspiration page when accessed from the home page.

Let’s put these skills to use

When a user clicks into a project, they will land at the project home page. Here’s what to look out for:

1. Hero style tutorial video for that project

2. Project title, user who uploaded the video + key words used for searching

3. “Steps” checklist with sub steps grouped into sections

4. Toggle to “supplies” to view a comprehensive list of specific tools + materials needed for the project to avoid running back and forth to the hardware store

Home improvement consumers are tired of forgetting materials

This is a direct quote from one of the user interviews we conducted. This particular home improvement customer had been doing his own projects for years and expressed how frustrating it can be to realize you’re missing supplies mid-project.

Your wish is our command

We designed the steps/supplies toggle with the goal of equipping users with a pre-made tools + material list while they are shopping for a project to avoid multiple trips to the home improvement store.

How might we improve the home improvement shopping experience for both in person + online shoppers?

A deeper dive into the product screens

What we included:

1. Where the item is located in the store to help you find your product faster

2. How many are in stock in the store to let you know if you should take the time to go there

3. A pick up in store option if you’re already on your way

4. A delivery option if you’re watching Netflix and don’t plan on stopping any time soon

5. A detailed product overview if you like to compare similar products

Let’s face it, going to a 100,000 square foot retailer can be a little intimidating.

Allowing users to buy products directly from the supply list makes it easier for them to buy the supplies, in turn, increasing the likelihood they will buy the supplies and do the project. From a business perspective, this would also likely be an attractive feature to Home Depot as it would enable them to make more sales.

If you were building a gazebo, what would you do?

Give it a shot! HomeLearning clickable prototype here

Or you can watch me do it

So, how’d we do?

We met our project goals by successfully creating a new app for an existing home improvement store. During our discovery phase, we gained valuable insights from home improvement customers and home owners, and we used these insights to design and build the HomeLearning App.

Our next steps would be to include a filter system that users could use to find projects based on key words to allow for streamlined searching. We’d also like to add an “I need help” section where users can get some extra help from professionals and project experts to avoid users getting stuck on a project and giving up. Lastly, we want to include a project scheduling tool to allow users to plan out projects, because everyone does better with a plan.