User research, user design, and user interface design.

The Project

Clean Wash is a mobile application for on-demand laundry service. Clean Wash is a laundry franchise with outlets all around the city of Lagos. It requires the creation of a mobile app to connect to more customers around the city. The mobile application is expected to show the user the outlets within a 20km radius from their current location and ensure that the user is able to book laundry service from the comfort of their home.

For an application like this, there are two major audiences, the user and the laundry service, but since this project focused on the user, a visually pleasing application that lets users set up a profile with personal information such as an address for pickup and delivery purposes, phone number for the laundry service to reach the user, a payment detail for saved cards, and cash on delivery options. Users are also able to keep track of their previous washes and the status of their current laundry order. Users are able to select whatever outlet within a 20 km radius that works for them.

For most young adults living in the city of Lagos, the concept of household chores is a turmoil for them. Most of them go out of their way to ensure they are not saddled with that responsibility during their free time. With the hustle and bustle of Lagos, coupled with the traffic congestion people face during their commute to and fro work, most people will gladly outsource their chores. One of such chores is laundry. Even with the advent of washing machines, people still find laundry tedious and time-consuming. The time spent doing laundry can be better spent with friends, watching TV shows, or even just getting much-needed rest. A laundry app takes this stress away, as users can sit in the comfort of their home or office, get their laundry picked up, and delivered to wherever they might it all for an affordable fee.

For the project, I interviewed eight potential users who are young professionals that reside in Lagos. The main purpose of the interview was to understand the users' attitude towards laundry and to identify their pain points when doing laundry. I ensured the interviewees were diverse by interviewing users who do their laundry themselves by hand washing, those who do their laundry at the laundromat, and those who outsource their laundry (laundry service and washerman). I started off the session by asking general questions to break the ice before delving into questions about laundry. I ensured the questions were open-ended questions so as not to lead the interviewees. From the sessions, the insights gained show that users want ease when using an app, due to the level of trust in the market, they will prefer an option that lets them pay when their clothes are delivered, and they expect excellent customer service.

A survey was carried out to understand user behaviour when it comes to the concept of laundry and household chores in general. The survey was created on Typeform and was sent out via social media to respondents located in Lagos. It had ten questions to mitigate against the short attention span of the average respondent. The survey looked to answer questions around users’ attitude to household chores in general and in particular, laundry. With a total of forty respondents, it was discovered from the responses that the majority of the users thought of laundry as stressful, time-wasting, and will gladly outsource it. In outsourcing their laundry, most users expect their items to be washed, starched, and ironed. Users’ are also price-sensitive when looking at options to outsource their laundry to, as such, any laundry service will have to offer competitive prices.

From the insights gained from the interview and the survey, I developed two personas with different needs and goals to drive my design decisions throughout the project. As stated earlier, the scope of this project is focused on users who will make use of the app to have their laundry needs sorted.

After I was done with the research aspect, I moved on to designing the solution. The first step in this process was creating a sketch of the app. Sketching was a key part of my design process as it allowed me to quickly create multiple layout ideas with different iterations and turning my ideas into blocks of line.

Upon completion of the sketch, I moved to develop low-fidelity wireframes to validate my ideas. Several iterations were done before I was able to conclude on a final version. One of such iteration included changing the layout for the user picking the clothing to be washed. The earlier iteration was too busy and it had several elements fighting for the user's attention. The elements were reworked to ensure only important elements were being displayed.

An onboarding was important in order to introduce the users to what they can accomplish by making use of the app. I ensured it covered the features of the app that will lead users into understanding what they can do using the app.

Users can either sign up as a new user or log in as a returning user on the first interaction with the app.

During the course of my research, users indicated that for most of them, having their laundry done meant getting it washed and ironed. Also, based on my competitive analysis of other laundry apps, they were no explicit as to what service the user will be getting and they also did not give users to decide what clothing to be sent for a wash. In order to combat this, I categorized clothing into tops (which includes shirts, t-shirts, and blouses), trousers, beddings, and suits. Users have the option of deciding if the clothing will be hung or folded.

With the high fidelity design done and prototyped, I engaged three of the potential users interviewed during my research and two new users making it a total of five to test the final product. To test the product, users were asked to perform the task of setting a pickup for their laundry.

After the testing was done, the process of selecting the clothing to be washed was changed. The first iteration had different types of clothing on one page and it made it difficult for users to navigate effectively. In order to fix this, the items of clothing were put in a tab and when each clothing type is tapped, the finishing options available for the clothing are displayed. Users had stated the major need is for their clothing to be properly drycleaned and as such selecting what should be ironed or not was not something they will waste time on. They already assume the clothing will be ironed when sent for dry cleaning. The option to be burdened with is if the clothing should be hung or folded.

This project further helped me understand the need for user research in building products. When the user is the main goal, products are better utilized by users. Also, a setback at the end of your design process should not be seen as a failure, it simply means you have an opportunity to develop an even better product. Designing this app was fulfilling as I was able to improve my user research and usability testing skills which are keys factors in solving problems and building products with very good experience.