Timeline
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May - October 2024 (20 weeks)
My Role
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Solo project for Springboard UI/UX Bootcamp
Problem
Acquiring a new home can be stressful from an organizational standpoint as it introduces new documents and bills that need to be managed efficiently.
The Solution
A centralized hub for organizing documents is key.
Secondary Research
Why is documentation management important for homeowners?
Document management systems (DMS) are crucial in the context for homeowners as they streamline the organization and retrieval of important documents like contracts, warranties, and financial records. They reduce costs by eliminating the need for physical storage, improve workflow efficiency through automation, enhance collaboration and security, and provide quick access to critical documents.
Competitive Analysis
Current documentation management systems lack recurrent reminders.
As a result of my secondary research, I realized that current popular documentation management applications lack recurrent reminders. This realization led me to design a new solution that helps bridge the gap when it comes to homeownership management.
User Interviews
Users agreed that documentation management was stressful during the home buying process
I interviewed 5 participants to better understand firsthand what were the major pain points during the home buying process and features they would like to see implemented in a solution.
Research questions included:
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How was your home-buying experience, any major roadblocks or things that helped make the process smooth?
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Did you find document management challenging during your home purchase?
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If yes, why?
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If not, what solutions did you use?
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How would you design a better solution for home document management?
The Main Insight
Users wanted to see centralization, reminders, and calendar integrations in a solution.
Although current documentation management systems exist, users still felt stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed with document management throughout the home buying process. The ideal solution they wanted would be tailored for homeowners specifically.
The Persona
User Flows
Document scanning and calendar integration were the main focus for a solution prototype.
In conjunction with a flow for logging in and signing up- I wanted to focus on the unique features that my solution would include which were scanning a document, organizing it, and calendar integration.
User Flows
Improvements in my design
Based on feedback from my mentor and 5 user tests, I made the following improvements in my prototype.
The Final Screens
Final Product.
Inspiration
Conclusions + Takeaways
What I'd do differently next time.
This was my first ever UI/UX project! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out- but the fact that this project took about 5 months to complete means that I've had a lot of time to reflect on things I wish I had done differently and lessons learned.
1. I would have asked my users more detailed questions on what else stressed them with the home buying process. I chose to focus my project on documentation management because that was one of the only few pieces of research I could find that dealt with the home buying process. Now I feel more confident in handling more complex ideas in future projects.
2. I would have iterated more on my wireframes. I chose to upgrade my designs on my hi-fidelity prototype rather than the traditional method of iterating on wireframes first. Now I know going forward that that will save me a lot of headache in the future.
3. I would have asked for people outside of my circle to test my prototype. This was hard to do since this was my first project, but I sometimes think that I would have gotten more honest feedback from strangers on my design than people in my circle. This could have led to better design choices and a more refined prototype.
4. Give myself more grace. I tend to be a perfectionist, and I was very hard on myself throughout this project- but I had to remember that I was a one person team working on this and had to wear many hats for the first time. I've learned so much throughout these last 5 months that I wouldn't trade it for anything, and hope that I can take these lessons forward with me to new projects going forward.