House2Home
OVERVIEW
This project is a modified GV Design Sprint for House2Home. Springboard and Bitesize UX provided user highlights and background information about this design challenge, so I concentrated on synthesizing that research, ideating, storyboarding, brainstorming solutions, prototyping, and usability testing.
MY ROLE
UX Research | UX Design | Visual Design
PROJECT CONTEXT (March 2022)
GV Design Sprint | Solo Project
TOOLS
Figma | Photoshop
COTEXT & PROBMLE
House2Home is an e-commerce startup company that sells home decor products and accessories such as prints, posters, lighting, small accessories, and others.
Based on user research, House2Home has discovered that most customers are looking for items to make their place their own. Most customers do not feel confident decorating their homes & rooms. They have experienced regret in purchasing items because products do not harmonize with their homes.
"How might we reduce buyer's remorse?"
CONSTRAINT & ASSUMPTION
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Do not support a mobile and tablet app.
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Website.
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Targeted users are tech-savvy.
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Web browser on iOS and Android phones.
THE SOLUTION
Based on the information, constraints, and assumptions, an AR decorator is the best solution for House2Home.
1. Easy to scan a QR code with a smartphone.
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Quick and error-free. (View article)
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Does not require downloading any mobile application to access.
2. Help users feel confident in their purchasing decisions with an AR decorator.
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Give a chance to users to see products in their space.
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Users can save time, effort, and money by virtually evaluating photo-realistic representations and viewing the product from multiple angles. (View article)
DESIGN PROCESS
DAY 1: MAPPING (UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS)
Before starting the synthesizing, I looked at provided user research, interviews, and a persona to understand what problems House2Home has. I created an affinity map to prioritize user needs. Due to time constraints, I focused on the problem with a cohesive look for this design sprint challenge.
THE MAIN PRIORITY OF USER NEEDS:
1. Unsure how to put items together that matched and did not know how to recreate the style they wanted.
2. Concern about the budget.
3. Dislike spending much time searching for decoration items.
DAY 2 & 3: SKETCHING (INSPIRATION AND SOLUTION)
After identifying the problems, I researched the design inspiration from Rove Concepts and conducted Crazy 8's sketching and storyboarding. I was inspired by AR Decorator by Rove Concepts. Rove Concepts helps users place and check the 3D image of the object directly in their room through the user's mobile phone. Therefore, users can easily and accurately check whether the item fits their room style.
Rove Concepts:
Rove Concepts gives a new experience to users with an AR planner service. Users can see how items look in their place through the AR feature. It helps users place the products virtually and experience how things look in their homes.
One of the most complex challenges was providing AR services on a desktop. Most AR decorators can deliver service with a mobile or tablet app, but Rove Concepts does not require downloading mobile apps because Rove Concepts uses the QR codes.
SKETCHING & STORYTELLING
When I first did a crazy sketch, I drew it thinking that I was making a basic framework, and then I sketched with details to gain the depth and quality of my ideas. While drawing the complex functions, each step was created by virtualizing when the user purchases the product. After that, there were no changes in the sketches in storytelling. I wrote notes along with the sketches to add a description of the function.
FIRST IDEA:
1. Create a user's room/space and save it on the House2Home website.
2. Rendering.
3. Scan the QR code to see the result in the user's room.
DAY 4 & 5: PROTOTYPING & TESTING
I conducted usability testing with 3 participants. Users think AR Decorator takes a long time on the website because they want to simplify the steps. Therefore, I simplified the solution for the other rounds of usability testing.
1. First round
I created a High-Fidelity design based on my first idea. All participants felt this rendering process was complicated for viewing a result.
FEEDBACK:
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Hard to create. - User 1
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Spent too much time to see a result. - User 2
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Felt like playing a game. - User 3
2. Second round
After conducting the first round of usability testing, I brainstormed again on how to show the AR image via a smartphone. I decided to skip the rendering step and let users scan a QR code immediately.
FEEDBACK:
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Easy to access. - User 2
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Wanted to see product details. - User 2
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Wondered if it mirrored the phone screen to the PC. - User 3
3. Third round
After conducting the second round of usability testing, I discovered that users wanted to have simple steps. I also found users did not like to take another action to see product details.
FEEDBACK:
“I am always using my phone when I buy something because Amazon has “View in your room”. It is easy to see what it looks like in my room. It is also easy to use with my phone because I don’t need to download any additional apps.”- Suzhen
FINAL DESIGNS
Website
Phone Screen
Interactive Prototype
REFLECTION
If I had more time, I would...
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Explore how to show the exact size of objects in AR
: AR features sometimes bother users. When users manually scale an object in AR, it changes from small to large. Occasionally, the object disappears from the screen. Therefore, I'd like to figure out the issues of object scaling in an AR environment. -
Explore how to mirror the phone screen to the PC
: One of the participants gave me insight into this idea during usability testing. However, due to time constraints, I could not tackle this problem. Thus, I want to give users more options for viewing a result (i.e., changing colors, materials, etc.) on a larger screen.