Abode | Design Portfolio

ROLE

UX/UI Designer

TASK

Concept Development

User Research

Competitive Research

Wireframe

Prototype

Interaction Design

Visual Design

DURATION

November 2022 - July 2023

PROBLEM

Interior Design services have historically been reserved for individuals with higher socio-economic status and disposable income making design services unattainable for the majority of working class individuals.

However in our current economic climate, cost of living and post covid the everyday person is in their home a lot more.

The increased time spent at home has made people want their environments to reflect their needs and tastes. Abode bridges the gap between the everyday working individual and their interior aspirations for their home.

CHALLENGE

How can an app enable people to find interior inspiration and recreate such aspirations in their own home without the frustrations of contributing plenty of time and effort into investigations?

SOLUTION

Abode is a responsive web app designed for people who want to improve the functionality and or aesthetics of their home regardless of whether they rent or own their home. The app connects users with local interior designers through video calls and messages who facilitate their interior aspirations into a reality by providing personalised product links to products, style tips and professional advice.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

A one stop shop for renters and homeowners

I conducted analyses on two popular interior design apps currently on the market. The target audience for Houzz were homeowners who are on average 35 years plus. Havenly only operate out of the United States and is not responsive design as the website only operates from a desktop.

I saw an opportunity to create a responsive web app where the target audience would be renters and home owners bringing the target audience age to be between 21 – 40 as well as create a space where app users can connect directly with interior designers via video chat.

USER RESEARCH

Overcoming frustrations and understanding pain points

I made an open call to my network of friends, online followers and acquaintances to conduct a user interview where I paid close attention to their current experience with interior design apps, their aspirations, challenges and reasons to overcome those as well as their familiarity with interior design.

4 interview respondents
renters and homeowners
between 21 - 32 years expressed...

They do interior research through websites for inspiration and products

They will reach out to friends who have similar interior design taste

Their design style has changed twice in one year

There were further insights from the user interviews I conducted, I was able to extract insights and notice themes by affinity mapping the findings from my user interviews. I synthesised my qualitative research into three categories

Inspiration: Potential app users would appreciate a system that allows them to organise their inspiration into folders.
Lifestyle: Users have used multiple apps in the past for one function and would prefer all needs to be met in one app.
Communication: Users would benefit from receiving advice through product links to interior furnishings and accessories not solely video chats.

USER PERSONA

Based on the results of the user interviews I created 2 personas to guide design decisions, priorities and develop empathy with potential users

USER RESEARCH

Building streamlined app navigations

Based on the understanding I had from the users’ journey through usability testing, I developed a navigation system that would take them on various ways to access interior inspiration, talk to designers and give a direct link to product resources.

SKETCHES & WIREFRAMES

Producing a welcoming journey

For the sketches and subsequent wireframes, I envisioned a welcoming journey reminiscent of social media and popular housing and inspiration apps.

Abode’s content is mainly visual with little text for this reason it was imperative that each screen had structure to reduce cognitive overload. A pain point highlighted early on from user interviews was that users felt overwhelmed with the amount of content shown to them at one time. For this reason simplicity and usability are themes Abode abides by.

Expert Dashboard

Sort and Filter bar at the top of the screen
Ability to view experts profile from this page

Expert Profile

View expert profile and read bio
Choose service from drop down list
Book call from button

UI DESIGN & BRANDING

An inspiration and optimistic Abode

The obvious choice was to land on a name that would exemplify both the quest for aspiring interiors and a sense of confidence that comes from living in a place that resembles self.

I was inspired to use keywords that defined the feelings interviewees were looking for such as “optimistic” “warmth” “enthusiasm” serenity; wisdom; stability; inspiration. These words also represented the colours orange and blue which are key tones within the colour palette.

USABILITY TESTING

The most eye opening phase of the design process

Through my own network I was able to conduct usability tests with 6 participants. Participants were ages 25 – 60 years old, showed significant interest in Abode and ask questions back about the ways they can interact with the app.

Participants were asked to complete a few task based scenarios that would test out main features of Abode as well as express any feelings they had towards the app.

Familiar icons compared to other apps

Layout is clear

Making a call to a designer felt easy

Struggling to onboard

Confusing terminology

Some icons needed more clarity

There were four areas of pain points which were the a confusing navigation system, some terminology not understood, inconsistencies with UI, a need for clearer imagery depictions.

The iteration of the Sign up screen had no hierarchy regarding CTA buttons. The main goal of this screen is to get a user to sign up with as much ease as possible so they engage with the rest of the app.

To correct these design errors I used one bold colour for the primary button and the input fields were clearly designed with text in a light shade of grey to resemble placeholders. The secondary buttons have a white background with a grey stroke and dark grey text.

Home

Many of the potential users I interviewed found the home page very difficult to navigate, they were not clear of the use of the Abode and also struggled to understand what information would be on the messages, saved and products page.
To resolve these concerns I simplified the home page by primarily showcasing the two main functions of Abode. The main functions are to find interior inspiration and connect with Interior Designers to bring ideas to life.
Under the hamburg menu users can access their profile where they will find messages, saved inspiration and unique product links sent to them from Interior Designers after consultations.

HIGH FIDELITY SCREENS

After many tests and iterations, the final prototype of Abode aligned with all of the objectives set in place - this included the four core features necessary for users to find interior designers quickly and easily, while appearing visually appealing and simple to use.

Click here to view the final prototype

REFLECTIONS

Challenges

The largest challenge I was faced with was during usability testing where I discovered that the users found the navigation of abode confusing. They were unable to figure out how to make payment and find interior designers. These were the two main aims and features Abode hoped to successfully deliver. This discovery set me back both in time, effort and emotion. With no other choice I went back to the drawing board and looked over my user personas to familiarise myself with the proposed user journeys which developed into a more well thought out sitemap.

As I had already lost time making necessary changes I decided to elevate the colours used throughout the app. I introduced more white space and used orange and blue as secondary colours. This change in presentation made Abode more user friendly, professional all while still being inviting, warm and inspiring.

Key improvements

Onboarding – inform users how many photos they have liked and give them an indication once a photo has been selected
Add upcoming booking reminder on the home screen
Add a light and dark mode for accessibility

What’s next?

While designing Abode I came across many UI practices and styles that when applied would take Abode’s brand identity to a more professional level. I would also work on developing the profile section of the app to showcase how users would receive products and how they could also purchase them. This would give a better vision of the user process and how they go from finding inspiration to remodelling their home. Additionally I would implement a dark and light feature within the app to make features more accessible.

Final thoughts

As someone who previously worked as an Interior Designer I have always been fascinated by the way design can positively impact an individual’s life. So when approaching this project my goal was to keep my designs user centric as this is how I have worked on previous projects. Both Interior Design and UX are concerned with designing aesthetic yet functional environments that offer a positive user experience. Interior Design provided me with a solid foundation and allowed me to make a smooth transition into User Experience Design.