Sparkle

An e-commerce platform to improve customers' experiences when purchasing a cleaning service on the Merry Maids website.

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Define

My Roles

- UX Design: Prototype design ("Your Space" section, "Payment" section), User testing moderator 

- UX Research: Competitive Analysis 

Tools Used

- Figma

- Dovetail

- Qualtrics 

Project Context

- Summer 2023 Internship

- Team: Madeliene Paulsen (Lead), Tymirra Smith (Lead), Seka Dembure (Intern)

Target Users & Stakeholders

- “Time-Starved”: young professionals who don’t have enough time​

- “I’ve Earned It": individuals who have worked hard and feel deserving of help for their busy life​

- Franchisees​

Problem Statment

How might we establish a new channel of booking a cleaning service with Merry Maids through an e-commerce platform to reduce booking time, and increase revenue?

Research

30 + Literature Reviews

Consulted to understand market trends and digital consumer habits

17 franchisee interviews

Learn about specifics within sales process & identify trends across network

8 service sites analyzed in-depth

Compared booking experiences across competitors within cleaning lifestyle industries

30+ web features analyzed

Highlighted design decisions and features made by other experts when building e-commerce

27 users in first prototype test

Conducted moderated usability testing to understand customer perspective and perception of prototype

Design

"About You" Screens

"Pricing" Screens

Mobile Screens

The first draft of some of the mobile screens I worked on is shown below. Features include the progress bar, auto-populated address, input-steppers, option buttons, and next and back buttons. 

Evaluation

User Testing

The prototype was tested in person using a convenience sample of 27 users.

Goals:​

  1. Understand users' pain points/areas of confusion about the prototype  ​

  2. Gain insights into the value of an e-commerce website and how customers will use it 

  3. Learn about our users' expectations/mental framework of an e-commerce website  ​

  4. Uncover design opportunities to optimize user experience ​

Analysis

We analyzed our findings through an affinity map, breaking up the feedback into the sections of the e-commerce site. 

Insights

An example of our complete list of takeaways. Noting actions and design ideas that certain insights fostered. 

Main Takeaways

Prototype Iterations

Advanced Prototyping Feautres

- Variables to autofill components and change the 'Next' button from inactive to active

- Conditional formatting to animate the input stepper

Accessibility Check

Reflection

Working on the Merry Maids e-commerce project this summer taught me a lot of new skills. I was engulfed in cross-functional work, I had the chance to explore new prototyping features, and overall, was able to improve my design and research skills. ​

This experience has enhanced my knowledge in the UX and business space and allowed me to gain invaluable industry experience with a product that will be used by real customers.