Balancing Vision, Style, and Budget Within Spaces
House2Home is an online platform specializing in selling home decor and accessories. Their research reveals an intriguing trend among their clientele – many have recently moved to new houses or apartments and are looking to buy various items to make the place 'home.' Yet, navigating this decoration process independently often leaves people feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. Recognizing this, House2Home has identified a chance to provide decor "starter kits," affording their clients a straightforward and assured approach to embellishing their new living space.
Jump to PrototypeUI/UX Designer
Modified GV Solo Design Sprint
5 Days - July 2023
Figma, Adobe Photoshop
House2Home is on a mission to revolutionize the daunting task of personalizing new homes, turning it into an empowering and delightful experience. The thrill of a fresh living space is often overshadowed by the complexities of selecting and arranging home decor items. Budget constraints, uncertainty in blending products harmoniously, and the struggle to transform inspiration into reality further complicate matters.
In this adapted Google Ventures (GV) Design Sprint, spanning five days, the aim was to devise a solution that effectively presents House2Home's 'starter kits' of decor products. The goal was to offer customers a seamless, innovative, and cost-friendly approach to embellishing their new apartments confidently.
I reviewed House2Home's project brief, encompassing user interview notes, recorded sessions, company research insights, and a persona. As the sole UX Designer, I adeptly employed a adapted version of the Google Ventures Design Sprint framework across 5 days. This process involved mapping, ideation, decision-making, prototyping, and usability testing. My responsibility spanned secondary research, data analysis and synthesis, user flow creation, MVP rapid prototype design, and facilitating usability testing.
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I dived into the provided design brief and journeyed through House2Home's story. This offered me valuable insight into what customers want, the hurdles they face, and the boundaries of the app's design. Armed with these insights, I began to outline the user journey.
I summarized the research highlights as insights and sorted them into an affinity map to better understand the issue and the user's concerns and objectives. I grouped the information based on what customers shared about their requirements and primary motivations while looking for decor items for their apartments.
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After synthesizing the provided primary research findings, I rapidly diagrammed potential end-to-end experiences for Ally to effectively accomplish her goal of buying a home decor starter kit that fits her needs and preferences.
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On Day 2 of the design sprint, I concentrated on sketching and proposing solutions.
I studied competitor solutions to analogous problems, extracting inspiration. I recorded strengths, potential improvements, and recurring trends for each site. This analysis paved the way for impactful ideation and design refinement.
Once I wrapped up my Lightning Demos, I sketched conceivable solutions for the critical stage of displaying the decor kit items in Ally's space, employing the Crazy 8s technique.
Informed by user research, it's evident that House2Home customers seek assistance sourcing multiple decor items that seamlessly blend within their space, ensuring cohesion while adhering to their budget. The paramount task within the solution is displaying how kit items will look in the user's room. Gaining insight into their budget and style is attainable through well-considered questions. However, the critical point is making the item selection process smoother, ensuring they harmonize with the space and each other. This challenge is at the heart of our work, so it took center stage in the Crazy 8s exercise.
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I evaluated my quick sketches based on a user’s ability to visualize a kit to make an informed selection easily. Therefore, I chose the 5th as the best critical screen concept to move forward with.
I crafted a three-screen storyboard, selecting the 5th (highlighted in blue) design as the critical screen sketch. This solution sketch encompasses the crucial screen and the user flow screens directly preceding and following it.
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This illustration reveals how individuals interact with the interface, the outcomes of their actions and the user's subsequent steps.
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The primary pain point users face is discovering budget-friendly room decor that fits their style and complements their space. With this in mind, I began storyboarding the design solution to address this concern.
Design Note: Moving from the initial three-panel solution sketch to the complete experience storyboard, I realized that after concluding the design consultation, it's essential to give users a summarized view of House2Home's recommended kits based on their consultation inputs. Following this, users can delve into each kit, exploring the items within and visualizing how it fits in their space.
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Day 4 of the design sprint presented the challenge of quickly creating a realistic, interactive prototype. A GV Design Sprint prototype focuses on constructing essential elements to assess design functionality. Prioritizing speed and efficiency, I made a nine-screen prototype for user testing on Figma due to its animation capabilities and cross-platform accessibility.
After thorough self-testing at each step, I am confident that the prototype effectively fulfills the essential user tasks: participating in the design consultation, exploring the kits, and placing orders. The critical screen features a virtually-staged user room with decor kit items.
To validate the solution I had developed over the past five days, I interviewed five participants who had recently moved into new living spaces and were enthusiastic about decorating them. This group encompassed a range of ages, from 19 to 32, and included both men and women from various cities.
I chose to conduct these interviews virtually using Zoom. Before we began, I provided participants with a brief overview of the website and the interview process. Throughout the usability tests, I focused on observing how users interacted with the prototype. I aimed to understand how intuitive the platform was and whether it effectively met their needs. I was particularly interested in gaining insights into the effectiveness of the "design consultation" feature and the user experience with the curated kit visualization. These aspects were central to the overall assessment of the solution.
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The insights I garnered from the usability testing hold immense value in guiding design iteration and enhancing the user experience, particularly for users like Ally, who seek affordable decor item kits to elevate their living spaces. Due to the design sprint's time limitations, I could not fully incorporate the design suggestions into the prototype. Nevertheless, I did prioritize addressing two key insights: Insight three involved reordering the design consultation, to begin with, the user specifying the room type they are decorating, and Insight 4 entailed enabling manual repositioning of items within the virtual space image.
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Taking part in a tailored GV design sprint proved immensely rewarding, unveiling prominent pain points, fast-tracking potential solutions, and swiftly validating initial concepts within a tight timeframe. Although executing a solo, adapted design sprint brings its rewards and enjoyment, it falls short in critical aspects, lacking the exchange of early ideas and collaborative molding of design choices. The prospect of a team-based Design Sprint resonates deeply, and I eagerly await the opportunity to engage in one.
I am happy with the solution I devised for House2Home's challenge. The approach revolves around guiding users through design consultation and providing a platform to visualize suggested starter kit items within their space. The concept garnered further validation through user testing on Day 5, solidifying its efficacy.
Of course, the entire process unfolded within a notably short timeframe. Amidst the testing phases, I gained valuable insights that I'm eager to incorporate into future iterations of my current design.
While working on the sprint, I sat in an empty room since I had just moved to a new apartment. As a member of House2Home's target demographic, this personal connection enabled me to empathize and truly immerse myself in Ally's shoes. This connection made me even more inspired to create the design for this project.
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