OVERVIEW

Plumb'In

It is an app designed to help Plumbers access quick and efficient billing channels.

See prototype

Role: UX Designer

Tools: Figma

Timeline: November 2021

Back

A plumber is an adventurer who traces leaky pipes to their source.

- Arthur Baer

Background

We had a small family business in the plumbing industry. Most of the work they did were subcontracts under bigger companies, and these companies always took their time to settle their bill. As part of my UX Design course, I chose this challenge prompt as it was a way for me to help other plumbers combat this issue to ensure they get paid.

This is a Case Study.

I was the sole designer on the project and my responsibilities included research, user interviews, wireframing, prototyping, usability tests. We could take our time with the course but there was deadlines, and some key achievements listed below:

Applied design sprints to inform our process. I was able to effectively apply the design sprints process to identify the problem, ideate on the solution, prototype and implement the final product.
Executed prompt to submission. Sharpen provided the prompt and I followed through from UX Research to Prototype and Testing.

The Problem

Scope: Plumbers want to make use of quick and efficient client billing channels.

I conducted a brainstorming workshop with the team to uncover pains felt by individuals. It was revealed that:

Individuals in various industries were looking for a similar app.
Individuals preferred a simple process and interface
Individuals want an all in one solution.

Product Strategy

Goal: Help plumbers, or any service provider, manage their clients and appointments while providing client billing services.

From these findings, we decided as a product to identify key business goals:

We want users to be able to create a job/task instantaneously.
We want users to have various channels to send invoices and receipts.
We want users to worry less about the business side of things and focus more on their job.

As a starting point, we each did some market research on competitors to investigate the current offerings in the market and take inspiration from particular features that we liked about each app.

I then conducted a 15 minute sketching session to encourage different variations on the vision of the solution.

User Personas

I identified the user personas and rendered the following:

Persona 1

Persona 2

Defining the MVP

Based on the sketching sessions, it was revealed that there were commonalties in the product vision. We identified the following key user stories:

Create a task.
Share invoices and receipts.
Schedule an appointment.
Track work history.

In order for the engineers to begin on the architecture, I mocked up the main screens for the MVP based off the sketches and came up with the following screens:

Get started
Register profile
Home
Create a task
Share invoice and receipts
Schedule

User Pain Points

1 Simplicity

Struggling to navigate through app functionalities

2 Functions

Not understanding the different functions in the billing app.

3 Process

There is a struggle to move from estimate to invoice, to appointment.

Designs

With the clock ticking, I quickly did some mockups of the basic user journey before going over it with the desired styling. I opted for a refreshing gradient look and the simplicity of the UI.
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I then created for the developers a clickable prototype in Figma.

Get started screen

In the first version of this platform, there was no get started screen. It was industry standard to incorporate a screen that simply showcased the logo and encourage users to get started.

Register screen

Users would fill in a simple sign up form to create a new account.

Home

Users are able to navigate between their task lists, schedule and invoices.

Task definition screen

Users able to define the details around their tasks

Home with a task

Users are able to share the invoice through various platforms.

Schedule

Users are able to view the history of their tasks as well as have an overview of when they are scheduled for.

Pitching

As this was a course project, I am not yet able to take these designs into development stage to make it an end-to-end project. However, I captured all the artefacts that was produced through each stage of the design process.

See slidedeck

See prototype below:

Results and takeaways

The app could change the way small businesses work, by providing means to integrate to different platforms as well.

I learned that simplicity is key, accessibility drives engagement, affordability will enable more people to use it. Last but not least, personal experience will determine whether the product will timeless.

Some things I would do differently:

I want to simplify the flow of the process so that it can make room for more functions to increase productivity.
I need to introduce a simpler user interface to incline more people to make use of the app for fast and efficient client billing.
The user flow needs to be made intuitive to encourage an easier navigation.

CW