Reconstructing the Home Depot DIY App
UX DESIGN
Project Details
Team size | 3 members
Project type | Redesign
My Role | Lead Designer
Our Team
Jeffrey Bean | Lead Designer
Caroline Light | Project Manager
Yasmin Sikavi | Lead Researcher
Home Depot has made major updates to their app but the DIY section is still lacking – and hard to locate. We set out to examine what users would most need in a DIY project helper app. Our tight team of 3 did a 2-week sprint for our UX intensive at GA.
OBJECTIVE
Examine what users most need in a DIY home-project-helper app, and determine the best areas to implement new solutions
OUR APPROACH: We found a wide variety of DIY project do’ers, we interviewed them about their practices and preferences, then found common threads among them.
Interview Insights
Finding Out About Our Users
I loved hearing about the different ways people attack their projects and the unique ways they get them done.
Some common needs
- To know where the closest store is
- A step by step guide on completing their task
- Knowing how long a task will take before they start
Finding Cracks in the Foundation
The user flow below reflects actual experiences with the current HD app
Inspiration from others
For the comparative analysis, we pulled ideas from some top apps in their industry. Conclusion: breaking work up into chunks helps users get more done and incentive or gamifying a task or hobby always gets points.
“I” Statements
These statements helped me become even more clear on our direction as I began sketching out solutions.
I like learning from tools that make a project easy and convenient.
I need help to stay on top of my project
I get my materials from places I am familiar with
I use what I have on hand to communicate about a project
How Can Do’ers Get More Done?
DIY’ers need a way to track their projects without feeling like another project. How can we lighten their load?
User Persona
Narrow Scope, Widen Possibilities
As our target user becomes clearer, i am getting excited about design our solutions
DIY’ers Need tools to support their progress that don’t add more work
Problem Statement
New User Flow
Proposed user flow for the task of finding and adding a porject to the Project Tracker
Sketching Towards a Solution
We went through several sketching sessions before building out the first prototype. I wanted to make sure we balanced the current site design and new proposed features.
Putting our user flow to the test
To try out our proposed solutions we built a mid-resolution wireframe which we could try out with User Testing. Results showed users were able to navigate easily to the DIY section, find a specific project helper and add a project to the Tracker. Users were pleasantly surprised by the badge displayed at the end. Several said they would use this app were it to be developed.
Bring On The Orange
As a UX researcher and also a visual designer the wheels start turning in my head as soon as we start gathering data. The idea for a project tracker was becoming clearer in my sketches, but I wanted to test the idea with users before solidifying the features. On the left is a user adding a bathroom project to the Tracker.
Initial features of the mid fi mockup
Updates made to the high fi mockup
What we Learned
- Have the DIY icon right on the bottom nav
- Add a full pop up menu to access full site easily
- Keep the bright colors and vivid photos
- Large spacious buttons for easy pressing while mid project
Next Steps
- Build out the community section for more social media style engagement
- Allow users to share and comment on progress of specific projects
- Show videos based on users interests