House2Home

House2Home Design Challenge is a modified version of the Google Venture (GV) Design Sprint Framework focusing on solving the problem of instantly decorating a new home and apartment.

Role: UX Designer

Designed a desktop application using the Google Venture( GV) Design sprint framework, including ideation, designing, and testing.

Project Interests

This design sprint was a unique learning experience as it required me to work quickly and efficiently. It helped me sharpen my decision-making abilities, as there was limited time to ponder over options. Additionally, I was able to improve my prototyping skills as I had only one day to complete the prototype of the project. I also had the opportunity to learn about smart prototyping techniques.

Overview

House2Home is a startup that wants to help people to decorate their new homes and apartments on a budget. It is an e-commerce website that sells home decor items like prints, posters, photos, lighting, small accent pieces, and other accessories.

Through customer surveys, House2Home found that many customers have just moved into new homes or apartments. Those users want to buy multiple items to personalize their new place but don't feel confident doing it independently.

Constraints

Timeline: 5 days

The solution needs to be designed as a website
The focus was to help the users that wanted a "starter kit" of multiple products to decorate their new space.
House2Home focuses on decorative products and accessories; they don't sell furniture, appliances, or other large pieces.

The Design Sprint Process

The Google Venture design sprint takes five days, each focusing on solving the design challenge.

Image Source: https://www.mural.co/blog/design-sprint-webinar?e245906e_page=2

Day 1: Understanding and Mapping

On the first day of the design sprint, I familiarized myself with the problem and got to know the users through their user research.

House2Home focuses on users who moved into a new home or apartment and need help decorating their space with multiple items. Through their research and user interviews, I jotted down the users' needs and pain points on which my focus would be.

I used affinity mapping to group the data into two categories: budget and visualization. All the users had difficulty finding their decorative items within their budget or had an issue putting their items together to achieve the look they wanted.

User Persona

The next step I followed was to understand the user group better. From the research, the users were grouped into one category. The curated user persona highlights the behavior, frustrations, and goals that the end-user had while decorating their new home or apartment.

Mapping

Having looked over the research and user interview, I began mapping the user flows. I also listed a few problem statements, tried to map them, and found the red routes of the website.

How might we provide multiple decorative items within a budget?
How might we customize the items based on the user's interest?
How might we help the user to identify how to decorate their space?

Day 2: Sketching

Day 2 of the design sprint began with the solo lightning demo. I found similar competitors who are trying to solve the same problem. I scanned through websites like Homary, Spacejoy, and Ikea to understand how they organized and grouped the items, how visually engaging the website is, and what styles they incorporated.

The insights I gathered from this lightning demo were:

Ikea is known for its DIY and budget-friendliness, but its products lack quality.
Homary is a luxury website, all its items are out of budget, and the website is not organized well.
Spacejoy provides interior design services and helps you achieve your desired look.

After gathering the insights from the lightning demo, I ideated and designed a few possible solutions using the Crazy 8 sketching.

Ideation

After gathering insights and inspiration from other websites, I started brainstorming how to fulfill the user's needs and pain points. Finally, as a solution, I came up with ideas to resolve the user's problem.

To help the users find multiple items within their budget, I created a feature called "Starter Kit," where they will have multiple items to decorate their homes instantly.
The users can customize their starter kit according to their room type, size, and budget, or they can shop the existing ones.
To help users with no experience decorating their homes, I curated a blog where they can find articles by interior designers on how to make the best use of their space.

Sketch

With the solution lined up, I started to finalize the overall view of the screens to the red routes where the users complete the task of shopping for items to decorate their new home or apartment.

Day 3: Decide and Storyboard

I started day three by creating a storyboard and decided on the path a user would take to reach the red routes. In this solution, a user's red route would be customizing the starter kit, buying an existing starter kit or individual products, and reading a blog article.

Day 4: Prototyping

With this short duration, I didn't have time to convert the paper sketch to digital mockups; instead, I used the storyboard as the low-fidelity prototype and started the high-fidelity prototyping.

Some of the key features added to solve the user's problem are:

Link to Interactive Prototype

Day 5: Testing

I spent the last day of the design sprint testing the solution I designed with users recruited on day one of the design sprint. I recruited five of my friends who are living on their own in a small apartment. The task given to the users was "to purchase multiple decorative items if they move into a new home or apartment."

Some of the insights gathered from the usability testing were:

The user was confused about the starter kit picture; the tag icon on the image was not visible, so the user didn't know there were multiple products in the picture.
The users liked the idea of customizing the starter kit; they felt that with this feature, they could get the right product within the budget and what fits within their room size.
One of the users felt the blog was very useful. She would use this more than making a purchase. However, talking to an interior designer would be even more useful as they can give professional advice.

Conclusion

The design sprint was a valuable learning experience over the course of five days. Initially, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done in a short period, but as I began working, I found the process to be creatively stimulating. I was impressed by the effectiveness of this technique in developing solutions without the opportunity to overthink.