Mobile App Design Process

Published in

Semira Kendall Portfolio

4 min readDec 11, 2019

Understanding the Problem

People are busier than ever and tend to opt for services that offer convenience.

Getting cars serviced or repaired is an inconvenience for most people. It often involves taking time off work, arranging for alternate transportation to get to where they need to be or waiting at the lounge while their car is being serviced. Many people delay getting recommended car services and repairs due to being inconvenient. We set out to understand people’s challenges around specifically getting their car oil changed, and to create a service and experience to solve those challenges.

Proposed Solution

Car Swaddle is a start-up company based in Utah that wants to offer a more convenient way to get a car oil change. They want to bring the mechanic to users’ driveway or place of employment instead of users bringing their car to the shop.

Research

To better understand people’s car oil change needs, we came up with a list of interview questions to assist with researching the problem.

What kind of car repairs can be done at home by a technician? Wind-shield replacement for example.
What would people think about getting a car oil change while they’re at work or at home?
Who else is offering this same service? We did a competitive analysis to discover how they’re conducting business.
What are people’s pain points about getting a car oil change? We analyzed customer comments online about their experience getting their oil changed.

Market Data & Survey

The Market research we conducted provided us with the following user insights:

It’s difficult for people who work business hours to find time to get their car repaired.
Stay at home parents of young children find it challenging to wait with their children at the lounge while car is being serviced.
Babies nap schedules often dictate when stay-at-home parents can leave the house.
People are likely to delay getting their oil changed due to not having time.

Competitive Analysis

We found a handful of businesses offering the same mobile oil change service in the area.

Problem

Many people are still unaware that there are businesses in their area offering convenient mobile oil change services.

User interviews

We conducted user interviews to help us understand user behavior regarding car oil changes. We conducted the interviews with 5 participants in person. This is what we gathered from their comments to our questions:

People would love to have a technician come to their work or home and service and change their oil. They agree that’s a very convenient service, but were concerned about a few things:

People would like to read reviews from other happy customers before scheduling an oil change.
They want to know if there’s a convenience fee for the service
They aren’t opposed to paying a convenience fee. They’re used to paying a convenience for other services such as purchasing online movie tickets.
They want to make sure it’s affordable.
People want to make sure company has insurance and it’s a real business

Target Audience

Based on our research, the user more likely to use a mobile oil change service is a person who works a 9-to-5 job or a stay-at-home parents with young children. They’re looking for ways to simplify their lives. They’re educated—most have at least a bachelor’s degree. They feel overwhelmed and stressed by their to-do list.