Case Study 1: Home Depot
Business Objective
Home Depot has been the go-to for every homeowner’s needs and wants. Home Depot is also a place for Artists, Gardeners and also DIY Enthusiasts to have hands-on experience in the means of production. The Home Depot App has many robust features that include integrated planning tools, such as Project Calculator, to keep track of your projects. Although the Home Depot mobile App is very seamless in its user interface and features, Home Depot needed improvement more specifically in the nebulous category of DIY Project Planner.
The Design Process
Discovery
Method: Task analysis
Our team decided to plan out our task analysis to discover our users pain points immediately. Our users task was to locate the DIY feature on the Home Depot Mobile App and utilize the extended features within a DIY section to start a project. After our initial usability test, we noticed some minor entailments. Our first user was very familiar with making DIY projects, and seemed to navigate the app smoothly. She loved that the app saves her DIY projects. However, other users were confused when it came to finding inspiration for their DIY project. Users suggested implementing “How To” videos for users to gain inspirations and navigate their projects with ease. Also users would like a budget system to be integrated to know how much monetary investment is needed to effectively execute their projects.
Method: User interviews
We conducted interviews with four key users to narrow down the scope of what mobile features they will need to incorporate in the app to make sure that the user experience is effective and coherent. In our interview, we kept in mind our key objectives when establishing the users’ needs. The two key objectives that stood out to me was “ How do people use their mobile devices when navigating DIY projects?” and “ How can our features be integrated with the in-store experience?” With the objectives in mind, we were able to have pleasant interviews with users and came up with key findings that we included in our affinity map.
Method: Affinity Mapping
Define
Method: Persona Development
Our team came up with two personas to cater to all users for the Home Depot app. One of our personas’ names was Milena. For Milena’s problem, she needed a way to plan and track her DIY projects because she wants to manage her budget and complete her projects on time. Milena represents users that have experience with their DIY Projects.
We also discovered Milena’s pain points and they are listed as follows:
1. Home Depot App does not have a tracking feature to keep up with any existing projects Milena may have.
2. It can be difficult to navigate the DIY section on the app, especially to tailor to Milena’s needs of starting her DIY Project.
3. There are limited features in the DIY section that will cater to Milena’s DIY experience.
For our second persona Roger, he needed a way to get inspired, plan, and complete his DIY Project, because he wants to feel the satisfaction that comes with creating a project yourself. Roger represents users that are quite unfamiliar with the DIY project creating. Users would like inspiration on their projects and instructional visual cues to make sure their project will come out smoothly. We eventually discovered Rogers pain points and it is listed as follows:
- The Home Depot App does not offer an “inspiration” section for Roger to help him with his DIY projects.
- In order to find inspiration, Roger has to leave the app and open another browser to find inspiration, the app should have inspirations integrated.
Design
Method: User Flows
Once our users personas were solidified, we were able to sort out or two user flows for each of our personas:
[ Milena’s User Flow ]
Milena’s user flow was focused primarily on planning and tracking. As you can see above, Milena has an option to add new projects or go to her existing projects within the app.
[ Rodger’s User Flow ]
Rogers user flow was focused on the inspiration feature in the app. Roger will click “get inspired” and choose what specific material he wants to create with.
Method: Ideation
- After our research was synthesized and defined, we developed our low-fidelity wireframes to perform A/B testing and finalize the content of what our revised app will consist of.
- My team wanted to make the DIY feature more prominent in terms of navigation in the footer menu. DIY should have its own section in its footer menu for users to know directly where to go.
Deliver
Method: Interactive Prototype
Our team concluded on key design elements to input in our prototype with numerous re-work and iterations. We developed a design that kept our users in mind.
Our team believed that elevating Home Depot’s mobile app to include a project tracking and inspiration feature will expand Milena and Roger’s opportunity to create and stay on task while tackling thier DIY projects with confidence and support. After our prototype was finished, we found 3 key points that our team will reconfigure in the next stage process.
- Add more tools in the toolbox feature.
- Add connections to users’ social media accounts from within the app.
- Clarify budget symbols.
Once we finalized our revisions we will add our results in our next mockup.
Conclusion
After my team sprint, I took some time to reflect on the growths but also challenges I faced as a User Experience Designer on this project. I did face some challenges with working on this project. Within my team, the leadership/ project management structure was too laxed. As a designer, I would like a more strict project management leader to help us stay on course with our project goals. Also, with any team project, the distribution of group work was uneven. I would like to set clear boundaries on the workload of each team member so we can build a very cohesive project. I am always open for growth, as I wanted to establish a strong foundation as a Designer and I know with more experience, I will continue to rise to the occasion. I learned so much from this project as a designer, and a team-player.
Now it’s time to do some DIY, shall we? :)