North County Handyman
Role: Lead Designer, User Research, & Point of Contact
Project Background
Our client the Handyman wanted a website that would streamline the admin work creating a hassle-free booking and quote experience as well as answer some of his most frequently asked questions.
Online booking
Services offered
Prioritize communication through email
Features
Empathize & Define
The Problem
When you run a business you are constantly juggling a million different things at once. Trying to work on a job or talk to clients in person while fielding phone calls from perspective jobs and answering the same questions is time consuming and stressful.
The Goal
Create a reputable brand building off of his current loyal customer base and streamlined information system to make quotes and booking more straight forward.
Primary clients are older and prefer calling
No current branding
Information crowding
Pain Points
First Steps
Addressing the businesses pain points, we wanted to create an appointment system that would work through an email embedded in the website. Our client’s average customer demographic are retired home owners. During user testing, users expressed that they didn’t want to deal with a complicated website or something that took too many steps.
Branding
Design
Services Page
Due to the fairly extensive list of services offered users felt like the list was too long and felt repetitive.
To reduce the repetitiveness I removed the ‘Schedule now’ button.
The service page allows the user to see the jobs the handyman will take on and can be expanded to see more details about each category.
About us and images of work done directly below allows customers to see the high quality of work done.
First Iteration
Second Iteration
Final Design
I felt like it was still repetitive and still wanted a schedule now button when a perspective client was looking into a service. Adding the drop down button reduced the clutter but still prompts contact.
Home Page / Appointment Page
First Iteration
Focusing on the website architecture, as a local small business that he runs himself the client wanted to make it professional and clean but still personal. With introducing him immediately it helps clients feel more confident about who they are letting into their home.
Second Iteration
During the second iteration I added photos, information, and slightly changed the hierarchy of the appointment page to make it heavier on the bottom and show the range of dates.
Final Mobile
During user testing many people expressed that when they make it to the point of hiring a handyman they already know what they need done and are just on the website to get in contact. I added a call to action immediately to appease that. I used the icon logo rather than the full logo because the text was too small on the mobile site and felt cramped.
Final Desktop
On desktop site we used the full logo but everything else remained the same as the mobile site. The image and text on the top rotate through ‘reliable’, ‘experienced’, and ‘honest’ the three things the client really wanted to portray. Future plans are to replace the images with actual work done by the Handyman but we did not have any to use at this time.
Addressing client’s commonly asked questions
Services
Photos
Reviews / Service area
Availability
The calendar and time selection will black out dates and times that the handyman is busy. Hours and contact information are always the footer.
Customer reviews attest to the reliability and quality of the work and the service map lets client know if their home is in the work range.
What I learned
The iterative design process and usability testing are vital to creating a truly effective design. Throughout the iteration and constant user testing we were able to design a UX that supports the long term business goals by making a very clear and simple scheduling process as well as answering the most frequently asked questions without having to add a FAQ page. The collaborative communication with the client was a great experience and extremely helpful in empathizing with the projects stakeholders.