MyFigaro
Style Your Schedule, Cut the Line
A few weeks ago we were tasked with developing an app based on the concept of User Persona, meaning coming up with a solution based on the needs of an actual person or user.
I won’t lie to you, none of us was initially familiar with this modus operandi, so in the very beginning of our challenge we had no clue about how to address this topic. First, we put ourselves in other people’s shoes, trying to imagine what kind of problems they could have, without any real feedback… but we realized immediately that we could not have chosen a more wrong first step than this. The first User Personas we created really looked like a chimera with plenty of different traits and therefore not well-developed, with problems so varied and undefined that it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a reasonable solution.
Given our poor results, the most sensible thing to do seemed to tackle the challenge from a completely different angle. We decided that the first thing to do was actually to go out and ask real people about their real problems, or at least about something that was perceived as solvable through the use of an app.
So, in the second week of the challenge, the goal was to talk with as many as people possible and since the most interesting suggestions came from shopkeepers we decided to focus our attention on their needs.
Of all of them, one was particularly interesting.
When one of the team members needed to get a haircut on a Saturday morning, he found himself stuck in a two hour, never-ending line. To help time pass by quicker, he started to ask his barber about his work and soon the conversation shifted to the causes of that long line and on the barber’s scheduling methods. The cause of the long delay was that that morning one of his employee was absent and all of his appointments overlapped with those of the barber. On top of that, for every new customer who came into the store and wanted to make a new appointment, he had to stop working and manually fill his agenda.
So, finally, the result from our research in the field provided sufficient information to build our definitive User Persona…and so we created Fabio, a 37 year old barber who lives in Naples and loves drinks, music, and football, but the thing he loves most is to leave his clientele satisfied by dedicating the time they deserve, and doing it as efficiently as possible.
The big idea became clear to the team: to design and develop an app that helps barbers manage their schedule, in order to increase productivity and offer a better experience to their clients.
With that in mind, we started our final phase, for which we split into two subgroups.
Regarding the design, we opted for a minimal structure that was as close as possible to the native style, without sacrificing customization that would make the app look unique to the user. Therefore, a simple design that is beneficial and accessible to the barber.
On the code side, to achieve the desired level of communication between barber and customer, the team decided to use Firebase as a backend in order to store information about each shop and each client. We focused on adding different resources to make the whole process as responsive and automated as possible (like a schedule that would automatically update based on the selected day).
The team also decided to improve the experience for the barber by dedicating half of the app to the clients, because we believe that in order to achieve maximum flexibility the clients should also have the option to book their own appointments.
Therefore, based on our big idea, we came up with MyFigaro.
MyFigaro is a platform through which the owners of a barber shop can easily organize their agenda, manage appointments, services and even employees, that uses a customizable calendar that can be modeled on its working hours. Equipped with a notification system, it can also be used as a quick communication tool to keep customers informed about all the shop’s news.
Regarding the side dedicated to the client, through MyFigaro it’s possible to book an appointment with your trusted barber, choose preferred employees, treatments and, of course, always be updated on discounts, promotions and timetables. Also, the appointment maker chooses the services, which filters through the employees that perform them, and shows the available time slots on selected days based on the selected services and barber in the shop.
Please test the app using our TestFlight link. All feedback is greatly appreciated!
Written by Santo Gaglione & Albert Kwaśkiewicz
The rest of the team: Mario De Luca, Eliana Ecuba, Luca Palmese, and Fernando Rosa
