Company: OurLiving AB
Date: Spring 2023
Project type: Real case, master thesis
Platform: Phone, Tablet
My Role: UX designer - research, prototyping
Project Summary
Assignment
Deliver a Hi-Fi prototype of a property inspection tool.
Purpose
Help OurLiving develop and offer their costumers a digitized and more effective way of conducting property inspections, while I (myself) get to use what I've learned from my education on a real case and gain work-life experience.
Obstacles
- Started from scratch - OurLiving had no prior understanding of the area and had not done any preparation work.
- A lot of research needed to be done in a short amount of time to understand the users' problems and needs before I could start designing a solution.
- Short timeline.
Goal
Create a tool that makes property inspections more efficient, faster, and addresses problems and pain points while offering a broad range of functionality based on customer needs and habits.
Timeline
3.5 weeks
Roles:
Oliver Nyberg. UX Designer - Independent project
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Learnings
- Learned to work independently with a company and effectively communicate with stakeholders.
- To take full responsibility for my work and the entire project, including defining project scope and processes, time management, and task prioritization.
- Enhanced my UX skills, both in research and design.
- Practiced sharing my design concepts to stakeholders and developers, including presenting ongoing work and final deliverables.
Background
OurLiving AB is a company that provides services to businesses in the property and construction industry. Their customers have expressed the need for a more efficient way to conduct property inspections. Until now, inspections have primarily been carried out using pen and paper, and there is a desire to digitize this process.
I approached OurLiving because I wanted to use my master's thesis as a real-life case study for an actual company, aiming to gain practical work experience. Despite not having an in-house designer, OurLiving entrusted me with full responsibility to initiate the development of a digital solution to digitlise property inspections.
Since inspections were an unexplored territory for OurLiving, I had to start from scratch. This involved conducting extensive research to understand the current inspection practices, as well as identifying the needs and challenges of the users. Only after gaining those insights could I begin developing a solution.
This project marked my first experience working independently with a company outside of my educational environment. The pressure was significant, as I really wanted to deliver a good result both to meet OurLivings expectations and to showcase my skills as a UX designer.
The process
Tools & methods used
Research
Qualitative Research
-Competitor Analysis
-Market Research
-Contextual Interviews
-Observations
-Semi-Structured Interviews
-Affinity Diagramming
Ideate
-Sketches
-How Might We
-Flowcharts
Prototyping
-Lo-Fi Prototype (Figma)
-User Testing
-Evaluation
-Hi-Fi Prototype (Figma)
Research results
A comprehensive competitor analysis, as well as market research, was done. To gain a deeper understanding, I attended five property inspections where I could interview and observe the inspector while they were on the job. This provided me with a lot of valuable insights of what can be improved.
How inspection reports often look today:
A document on paper or PDF used for conducting and documenting inspections.
Summary of my findings regarding what the user needs when doing inspections:
- An effective tool for managing inspections
- Ability to make adjustments in forms
- Clear and simple design/flow
- Mobile & iPad interface
- Minimal visual clutter (good overview)
- Based on the same principles as paper protocols
- Easy integration of images
- Ability to quickly write comments
- Various types of inspections
- Manage billing & key receipts
- Documentation
- Eazy reach old inspections
Prototyping
Based on a my research findings, few sketches, a 'How Might We' analysis, and UX/UI design principles, I began developing a Lo-Fi prototype. After several iterations and refinements, I then moved on to creating a Hi-Fi prototype using Figma."
LO-FI Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
Try out the HI-Fi prototype!
IPAD-view
Learnings & Reflections
I gained a lot from my experience with OurLiving. Most importantly, I learned how to take ownership of my work and what it means to work within a company.
Throughout this project experience, I acquired valuable skills and competencies that have significantly contributed to my professional growth. The experince has taught me a lot about handling things on my own and how to connect with different stakeholders. I've become comfortable taking charge of my own work and the entire project.
I got to set the limits and ways to work on the project, while also handling time limits and deciding what stuff should be done. This helped me become more independent, take charge of everything, and make sure the focus really was on making the solution user scentric and eazy to use.
On top of that, I've really sharpened my skills in User Experience (UX), both in research and design.
For example, I feel that I've become better at interview techniques and at building advanced prototypes in Figma, especially with auto layout, which has been a bit of a challenge.
One part has been learning how to talk about my designs with stakeholders and developers. It's about presenting my work effectively, whether it's still in progress or as a final result, to make sure everyone is on the same page throughout the project.
I still wish I'd had more time and didn't need to stress as much as I did. Nevertheless, I'm happy with what I accomplished in just a little over three weeks, as was OurLiving. Given more time, I would've conducted additional research, engaged in more design iterations with the company, and carried out more user tests. Testing the Hi-Fi prototype is something I regret not having had the time for.
But I'm satisfied with my work, and I'm sure that this has made me a better UX designer. Now I feel much more confident owning my work, and knowing that I'm capable of doing it on my own, even if I know that team work makes dream work.