Sknow

A mobile app designed for residents who need snow removal services without signing a long-term contract.

Sknow provides snow removal services by accommodating users' preferences which benefit users to find their preferred service providers. In addition, ensuring trustworthiness and efficiency during the searching process is the core of Sknow.

didalog: I couldn't find anyone available by Leona. Same here, it was really hard to get helped by a her friend.

The Challenge

The worst moment is to find out snow blower malfunction under extreme weather. There are lots of snow removal services on Google and Yelp, but Leona had a hard time finding a snow removal service when she needed it the most.

High commitment with vague information through online searching cause fatigue to users like Leona who are just looking for one available service to help clear snow from her driveway.

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GOALS

Design an effortless experience to make the searching process more efficient.
Ensure trustworthiness during the searching process.
Increase members of user and service provider.

ROLE

User Research
User Experience Design
Brand Design

SCOPE

Personal Project
IOS App Design

DURATION

3 months

TOOLS

Figma
After Effect

ROLE

User Research
User Experience Design
Brand Design

SCOPE

Personal Project
IOS App Design

DURATION

3 months

TOOLS

Figma
After Effect

Research

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Discovery from secondary research‍

Users were still being charged for incomplete services.
Some service providers didn’t show up as promised.
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Discovery from qualitative research (5 User interviews)

Required high commitment during searching for an available service.
Felt being ripped off since no choice left to hire.
Difficult to trust with the vague estimate price and arrival time.
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Discovery from competitive Analysis

None of the competitors provides an exact arrival time.
Users can’t leave reviews on the specific service providers.
All of the competitors provide clear detail of price and support additional services.

Users

Define Target Audience

‍Characteristics:
- Live in snowfall areas
- Own snow removal tools
- Looking for one-time services
- Not willing to sign a long-term contract

Build A Persona

‍Frustration
Called several services but only received one call-back.

‍Needs
Leona needed someone to clean the rest of her driveway, sidewalk, then salt the walkway.

‍Goal
Get an available and reliable snow removal service with low commitment.

Intergrate Insights Into The Ideation

Four insights were found through research that help increase the searching experience for a snow removal service.

Price on each service

Reliable services

Hire by preferences

Display all at once

Ideas for users

Thinking through ideas for users

Address does it all! Use address to facilitate the searching process.
Show all available service providers with the information of review, price, and arrival time.
Adds customizable request as an option and shows result pictures.

Ideas for service providers

Thinking through ideas for service providers

Helps service providers to get business with low searching effort.
Builds a community that empowers anyone to become a service provider to increase service choices.
Shows all the requests with the information of earning, distance, and area size.

Sketches

Initial Red Route sketches | User

Initial Red Route sketches | User

Initial Red Route sketches | Service Provider

Initial Red Route sketches | Service Provider

Learnings From The Guerilla Usability Testing

Provided too many options.

Service providers should be the ones to figure out what tools they use, even if the user was asking to clean any specific area. Users just want to know the total price, arrival time, and results in pictures.

Users won’t carry their phone 24/7

The chat system could potentially cause a negative user experience when the response is discontinued.

You tell me what to do next

Users felt like taking an exam while testing, a huge red flag here. Users used this app to ask for help, not to help, they prefer the app to guide them to the next step without making them think.

Wireframe Iteration Key Screens

Iterated Wireframe | User

Initial Red Route sketches | User

Iterated Wireframe | Service Provider

Update and accept request wireframe for service provider

Initial Red Route sketches | User

start working on the service wireframe for service provider

Prototype & Usability testing

Design Decision

The fun part is finally here! To keep consistency, the 8px grid system is a great helper throughout the design. Consistency is the key during the design process, so I created a style guide that includes blue as the primary color to convey reliability and relaxation, orange is the secondary color as empowerment and positivity.

blue is primary color and orange is secondary color

Consider Accessibility Design

‍Problem 1 :
The outline wasn’t visible to show the status of availability.
Improvement:
Add an availability statement underneath the service name.

Problem 2 :
Tried to keep the consistency of minimal style but caused confusion on navigation.
Improvement:
Replace line style with filled style to increase the contrast.

What, Why, Who, Where, When, How.

Now with some understanding of the challenge and the solutions as "What". I would love to introduce the journey of forming Sknow, it was a sweet and sour journey, but “Keep failing, Keep learning” actually helped me improve on designing a better user experience.

This journey was based on a true story, her name is Leona.

The Process

The challenging journey of Sknow

RESEARCH & EMPATHIZE

Secondary Research
Qualitative Research
Competitive Analysis

DEFINE & IDEATION

Identify frustration
Brainstorming solutions
User flow and wireframe

PROTOTYPE & USABILITY TESTING

Design Hi-fi mockups
Usability testing
Design Iteration

Structure and Features

A user story helps to collect data and affinity map extracts insights to form MVP

To solve Leona’s frustration, I finalized the basic features that must happen during the process of getting a snow removal service.

01 - Pick a service
02 - Display arrival time, review, and price
03 - Pay the selected service
04 - See pictures when the job is complete

Understand users’ demands

With the must-have features for users, now I can start planning structures for service providers. Without understanding users’ needs, the design solutions wouldn’t improve the user experience to get more consumers/businesses.

MoSCoW Prioritization

Now Leona can select a service by checking the arrival time, review, and price. Once the decision has been made, Leona can pay the service through Sknow and see the result pictures when the job is complete.

The entire workflow looks pretty flawless, so I wanted to ensure the MVP I have planned matches the MosCow Prioritization, also wanted to explore what other features would be nice to add to the app.

Moscow prioritization for service provider

Site Map and User Flow

Mapping Visualization

I wanted to ensure the workflow covers the features I have identified, so I created a site map and used user flow to check if I have covered all the needs and steps for users like Leona and service providers.

Prototype Testing

Critical Finding From The First Usability Testing

Users tend to look at a similar category when searching for the specific detail

I wanted to ensure users can customize their requests, so Leona can request a service to clean the sidewalk and the rest of her half driveway. But I didn’t know users would tend to look for the relative category before looking into detail. So placing "Specific Area” as one option would confuse users and led users to think it was for other purpose.

To solve the confusion, I moved “Specific Area” to each option, and replace the option with “Other Area”. Users now can request the specific area in each option.

An Increase Of 23% In The 2nd Usability Testing

Usability testing revealed failure but helped to improve the overall experience

I wanted to ensure the experience of using this app was intuitive and flawlessly for users like Leona, so I have tested the design with 5 participants. From the usability testing, I have learned several issues and categorized them into 3 levels as critical, major, and minor.

After another round of usability testing, I’m happy to see the success rate has increased from 70% to 93% with the same tasks.

From the second testing, I’ve learned that allowing users to leave reviews at any time would increase the positive user experience, so users wouldn’t feel they were being forced to leave reviews on the past services.

usability testing increased from 70% to 93%

What I have learned from the usability testing

01 LEARNING

Keep essential options only

It’s thoughtful to provide lots of customizable options, but keep in mind! More options, more confusion. The cognitive load only stores a few amounts of information in the working memory.

02 LEARNING

Use the app to guide users

Don’t make users feel like taking an exam. A comfortable user experience is you tell me what to do. Don’t make users think.

03 LEARNING

Confusion decreases trustworthiness and reliability

Redundant steps will create confusion and decrease trustworthiness while using Sknow to get a snow removal service. Users would lower their trust and doubt the credibility of the produce when the steps start getting confusing.

The Final Solutions

Efficiency. Customization. Trustworthiness.

Increase Efficiency

Facilitating the searching process to stop users from making several calls.

Once Sknow receives users’ location and demand, Sknow will automatically search and show the available services that match the demands. Users will be able to hire the service providers based on their preferences.

Sknow efficiently facilitates the searching process by showing price, review, and arrival time at once. Users no longer need to make several calls to each service for more information.

Key Screens | Users

NEED A SERVICE

Leona can request a local snow removal service by entering her address and the service area.

Customize Service

Leona can customize the request on her driveway. Now she can request a service of her half driveway with less cost by showing the pictures in a specific area option.

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SELECT & PAY

Leona would like to hire someone to come before 10:30 AM with a high review and reasonable price, she can hire any service provider based on her preference and pay to reserve the service.

SEE RESULT

That’s all for Leona! Once the job is complete, Leona will receive a push notification from Sknow on her phone, she will see the result in pictures. Leona also can track any past reservations in the “Services” screen.

LEAVE REVIEW

Leona can rate the past services with feedback. This will put some pressure on service providers to ensure the jobs to be accomplished thoroughly.

Leona also can reach out to the Sknow support team or message the service provider with pictures if there are any questions after the service.

Key Screens | Service Providers

OFFER A SERVICE

Peter is one of the service providers, he doesn’t know anyone in his neighborhood but happy to earn a few hundred dollars during the snow days. By using Sknow, Peter will just need to log in and update the service summary to start his business.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Peter will be able to offer additional services and turn on the availability to start receiving requests from users.

SELECT & RESPOND

Peter prefers to offer services near his location, he can filter the requests by distance, he will be able to see earning and request summary in detail in the selected request.

ARRIVAL TIME

Peter can respond with a flexible arrival time and an agreement to offer service to the requestor.

Peter will receive a push notification from Sknow once his service has been reserved.

COMPLETE & NEXT

Peter can check in to prove that he has arrived at the destination and take pictures through Sknow when the job is finished.

Peter can either decide to take a break or get ready for the next business.

Customizable Requests

Customize the specific area where you need help. Less service, less cost.

Unexpected causes lots of inconveniences, just like Leona's snow blower broke down in the middle of usage, thus she couldn't continue finishing up clearing her driveway. Providing a customizable option will increase flexibility and trustworthiness to users like Leona to look for their needs.

Dialog: Sweet! That means I could pay less on the service of what I have done.

Ensure Trustworthiness

Price transparency and reciprocated reviews ensure strong trustworthiness between users and service providers.

Getting rid of surprising charges by displaying clear detail of services establishes a trustworthy relationship. Sknow secures reliability between users and service providers by asking service providers to provide results in pictures before accepting the next business.

Reciprocated reviews help both users and service providers avoid unreliable services/consumers, this strategy enforces service providers to keep the promises on their responsibilities.

Sknow Prototype

As a user

See if you can get a service for half of your driveway and sidewalk due to your snow blower malfunction, you also would like to spread rock salt on the walkway and prefer to find someone who has high reviews within budget.

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As a service provider

See if you can get some businesses just by updating your service summary without any searching, and you prefer to find some businesses that are close to you.

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TRY PROTOTYPE

What’s next?

A few things I thought about if I have more time on this project. I would like to...

Would like to run an A/B test to see if the inbox is cognitive enough to realize messages are stored in the “Inbox”.

Would like to include the rest of the seasonal jobs in Sknow for more business revenue, so Sknow is not only limited to the winter season and accommodates to other seasons.

Would like to do a 3rd round of usability testing to explore any other potential areas that need to be improved for a better user experience in Sknow.

With the background of a web developer, I would like to build out what I have designed, it’s an opportunity to learn building an app for my career.

More information?

LinkedIn Me Here!

Would like to know more in detail of how I discovered the insights to build Sknow?

Send a message to me and I would be more than happy to go through a 15 minutes presentation with you.

Detail in:

User Journey
Red Routes
MoSCoW Prioritization
Accessibility Design
Design Decision

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