Meet the Work From Home Otters!
Samantha, Maggie, Ian, Aashish, and Kyle worked very hard to bring you CCExplorations! Feel free to browse our content! You will find everything from the prototype itself to documents like the Business Model Canvas. Google Drive with supporting materials: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17IQTpr8jUdT0MtgqK59tQdVKn3fJgtho?usp=sharing
We hope you enjoy what we have created! Please leave any feedback you would like in the comments down below!
Overview
COVID-19 has created an unprecedented effect on the global economy, forcing countless workers to begin working from home. Through research and interviewing young professionals working from home, it was determined that a common issue professionals, commonly young people in the tech industry, are facing is the lack of a dedicated home office. Companies like California Closets offer services that allow customers to renovate entire rooms of their home or to simply purchase single pieces of furniture. This flexibility makes California Closets a perfect candidate to step into a large roll in furnishing at home offices for professionals. Despite this strong positioning, California Closets lacked a web presence that was accessible and alluring to young professionals. By designing a web app that highlights the purchase of individual items while also helping users to build and discover their personal style, California Closets will sit in a better position to gain new business with young professionals as they build their first home office that will translate into future business through further sales of items and renovations.
Team Members
Maggie Bui (Designer, Junior Business Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington) With a background in informatics and design, Maggie brought her expertise in analytics to fruition with her extensive involvement in the research process. Additionally, Maggie’s impeccable sense for UI/UX design and research demonstrated itself through her contributions to CCExplorations’ designs/development.
Samantha DuBois (Design and Front-End Development, Rising Sophomore Mechanical Engineer with a CS Minor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) Being of an engineering background, Samantha is no stranger to addressing complex problems in production. Samantha’s combination of problem-solving ability and software prowess is undoubtedly seen with her contributions to CCExplorations’ design/development, as well as in her involvement in user testing.
Kyle Gedenk (Business Development, Rising Senior studying Economics at Purdue University) With a background in economics, Kyle used his analytical skills along with resource management abilities in business development. Kyle’s work is seen in the areas of research and business documents like the business model canvas.
Ian Fahrenkrog (Business Development, Rising Senior studying Systems Engineering at Trine University) Despite the discipline difference between engineering and business, Ian was able to bring his problem-solving skills to the world of business development. Ian’s ability to work cross-industry is seen through his contributions to areas like the value proposition design and the business model canvas.
Aashish Shretha (Development, Rising Junior studying Computer Science at The University of Indianapolis) A rapidly changing world requires the technical dexterity Aashish possesses. Aashish’s proficiency and understanding of computer science concepts is seen in his app workflow and development knowledge.
How did you decide on this customer segment, problem, and solution?
Primary Research: Survey & Interviews We created a survey that asked people who were working from home about their basic demographics as well as their thoughts on working from home. We found that many of our respondents were between the ages of 20 and 30 working in knowledge-based industries (i.e. technology, finance, healthcare and education). A common theme noticed in the survey analysis was how respondents found it at times to focus on their work due to their general surroundings such as pets, kids, household members and household errands/tasks.
Secondary Research (Effects of One's Environment on Productivity and Mental Health) In addition to primary research conducted by the team, numerous outside sources on topics ranging from Productivity, Mental Health, Digital Marketing, and more were used to learn how the team could effectively address the problems customers are facing.
Additional Customer Research To better understand California Closet's current brand, customer base and relationships, we went onto California Closet's customer reviews on Facebook. We saw that many of the customers were females from the Boomer and Generation X demographic, the typical age of a homeowner. Many were relatively educated, all having at least a bachelor's degree. Based on the way they presented themselves on their Facebook profiles, many of California Closet customers seem to prioritize their family life as most of their public pictures and posts were with their family. Many of the reviews point to how they really enjoyed the personable experience and services from start to finish with California Closets. This is the type of customer experience we want to elevate with our solution.
How did your team build and iterate on the solution?
The team began the construction of CCExplorations following the research and interview process. With the idea of capturing a young, upcoming, and professional demographic that is beginning to work from home in mind, the team sought to build an intuitive, navigable, and easy to use app that appeals to the younger market.
In order to build a prototype that fully encapsulated the team’s features and ideas, the group decided to use a program called “Figma” that would allow them to model what the app would look like. Once the decision to use Figma was made, the team focused on laying down the fundamental designs and functionality of the app.
No great app, however, is launched untested; to provide the best experience possible, the team sought user testing from outside sources. As a direct result of the feedback received from user tests, the team was able to improve navigability, user-friendliness, and app functionality, overall.
This agile process of bringing the team’s ideas to fruition, illustrating the frameworks in Figma, conducting user tests, and revising, as needed, is what has led to the creation of CCExplorations.
Key Metrics
Research
75+ Survey Respondents
5 Interviews Conducted
10+ Outside Sources Reviewed
10+ User Tests Conducted
Key Tools, Libraries, and Frameworks
Project management/Productivity
- Trello
- Miro
- Slack
Web application Figma: We decided to use this as a way to make a digital prototype to best illustrate our idea to California Closets, an interior design company with a designer mindset as well as make up for our team's relative inexperience with web and mobile app development. Because we chose to focus on a digital prototype, we were able to go more in-depth with the user flow, the design and basic prototype functionalities.
If you had another 5 weeks to work on this, what would you do next?
More Usability Testing Rather than only being able to user test across the span of ten days, the team would have liked to conduct tests in “waves” rather than a rolling-basis. For example, Version 1 is tested for three days before being revised and then testing Version 2 for three days, etc.
Wider Market Research Understanding one’s existing and potential customer base is crucial when successfully launching a product. Therefore, with extra time, the team would have liked to understand our user demographics more to better tailor the experience for the individual.
Deeper Dive into Financials Creativity and innovation will quickly disintegrate without appropriate financial planning and support. With extra time, the team would have liked to create potential revenue models and estimate expected costs.
Technical Infrastructure & Functional Prototype Although the team was able to create a stellar prototype, the team would have liked to create a functional (back-end and front-end) version of the app. Technical limitations and time constraints made this endeavor unfeasible for the team’s purposes.
Built With
- figma
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