Service link By Asawari Chitre

SL

The Challenge

In Home Remodel Projects - Designer’s ,Contractor’s and Homeowner’s are wasting time , energy and money as all the parties involved in the decision making process are not present at the same time resulting in DELAY of the projects. Designer’s are currently lacking a Project Management Tool to : •  Upload Plans, Elevations ,Sections of their project. •  Discuss the ongoing project with contractors and homeowners. •  Share photos /videos of their ongoing projects . •  Track the progress of their ongoing projects on a daily basis .

The Competition

Competitive Analysis Product Houzz Design Manager Connexion soft

Features •  Photos •  Professionals •  Shop

Products

•  Items and Components

•  Proposals, Purchase Orders and Invoices

•  Budgets •  Reports

•  Management •  Apps •  Reports &

Charts •  Images &

Renderings •  Work Rooms •  Subs •  Web

Integration •  Training

&Support

Product Summary

Design Ideas Manage proposals, Purchase orders, Budgets

Manage a project

The Research

The Target Users

Homeowner’s Contractor’s Interior Designer’s

Demographics

3 Male 2 Female

Under 25 years

26 to 35 years

36to 45 years

46to 60 years

Ages Ranging from….

Ages between 30 to 48 years

80% of the survey takers feel : The tool will be very useful for young professionals with project management roles.

Current Task Solutions For Collaboration

Database sharing

Email Phone Calls Schedule Meetings

Site Visits

•  Most of the survey takers are working on multiple projects (5-7 projects ) at the same time.

•  Their project distances are from 10 miles to upto 150

miles.

Current Project Attributes

“80% of the survey takers have a hard time collaborating with all the team members”.

Common Concerns

•  Communication •  Lack of time for site visits •  Distance to project sites •  Scheduling issues •  Photos and Videos sharing •  Real time updates

“We want to collaborate faster and precisely with all the team members”.

Service Link The Service Link is a Project Management Tool to collaborate between Designers, Homeowners and Contractors to discuss

and track the progress of their ongoing home remodel projects.

Goals / The Solution

The results of the research are used for “Affinity diagraming”

USER TYPES

CURRENT TASK SOLUTIONS

PAIN POINTS

PROJECT ATTRIBUTES

USER NEEDS

TOTAL STATE

AFFINITY DIAGRAMMING

THE PROCESS

Conclusions from Affinity diagramming:

The Target Users, whether a freelance architect, a project manager or a contractor, have similar pain points and are looking for a complete project management tool to manage a project.

The Persona

Personal Info: §  She has a 7 year old son and 4 year old

daughter §  Work -at -home mom ( Freelance Architect ) §  She has to balance her kids schedule and

visit to her project sites.

Goals §  Communicate faster and precisely with

Clients, Contractors . §  Track the progress of her project Remotely. §  Real time updates. §  Work on Multiple projects effectively.

Pain points §  She has to visit project sites often . §  Lack of time ,Time zone issues, long driving

time to sites. §  Critical Issues reported by Contractors are not

resolved promptly §  Cannot get recent updates from Project sites

Remotely.

Saisha Parker Saisha is a freelance Architect and a work - at -home mom . She has a current on going Remodel project site in San Diego, CA. She finds it difficult to balance her time with kids and work as she is spending most of her time collaborating with clients and contractors and also visiting project sites.

“My profession allows me to be creative as much as possible .”

Age: 38 years Gender: Female Occupation: Freelance Architect Status: Married , 2 kids Location: Irvine ,CA Current job Site : San Diego , CA Income: 60,000/year

Behaviours

Least Most

Project site distance

Least Most

Site Visits

Least Most

Plan Review and Updates

Least Most

Email

Personal Info: §  Andy has an experience of 10+ years in the architecture

industry. §  He works on 5-7 projects at the same time. Goals §  Communicate faster and precisely with Clients and

Contractors . §  Track the progress of his project Remotely. §  Get Real time updates. §  Work on Multiple projects effectively.

Pain points §  Collaborating with all the parties involved in the decision

making process. §  Cannot make project site visits due to clashes with internal

team meetings on different projects. §  Critical Issues reported by contractors cannot be resolved

promptly. §  Cannot get recent updates from project sites remotely.

Andy Smith Andy is a Project manager for an large scale Architectural firm in San Jose ,CA. He is currently working on multiple projects which are at 10 miles distance to 150 miles. Most of his projects are in different phases of constructions . His typical weekly schedule is to attend internal team meetings , Plan review meetings and Project site visits.

“Multi-tasking is part of my everyday life.”

Age: 40 years Gender: Male Occupation: Architect at a large Architectural firm Status: Married , 1kid Location: San Jose ,CA Current job Site : Multiple Projects Income: 80,000/year

Least Most

Job site distance

Least Most

Site Visits

Least Most

Plan Review and Updates

Least Most

Email

Behaviours

Personal Info: §  Paul has an experience of 15+ years in the

Construction industry. . Goals §  Communicate faster and precisely with Architects

and Interior Designers. §  Give the progress of his project Site. §  Give Real time updates to Designers and Clients. Pain points §  Collaborating with all the parties involved in the

decision making process. §  Designers are not making project site visits often. §  Critical Issues reported by Contractors cannot be

resolved promptly. §  Delays in the project time .

Paul Grant Paul is a General Contractor for an Mid Size Construction Company In Irvine ,CA. He works in his Trailer office at the project site . His project is in the Construction Administration Phase which requires collaboration with the construction administration team on site and offsite.

“Some things go as planned in the construction project. Some don’t. The ones that don’t go as planned are the real test in the life of a general contractor .”

Age: 48 years Gender: Male Occupation: General Contractor Status: Married , 1kid Location: Irvine, CA Current job Site : Irvine,Ca Income: 80,000/year

Least Most

Job site distance Least Most

Site Visits

Least Most

Plan Review and Updates

Least Most

Email

The Content audit & Card sorting

Content Audit ID

Navigation Page

URL Anchor links

Header Links Comments

0.0 Home

Conexionsoftware.com

http://connexionsoftware.com/

Sign up Now

Sign up Now for free trail isn't straight forward

1.0 Our product

•  It only gives feature description.

•  There is dead end to new user beyond reading the description.

•  The information is a lot to read and confusing.

1.1 Management Conexionsoftware.com/#management

1.2 Apps Conexionsoftware.com/#apps

1.3 Report & Charts Conexionsoftware.com/#reports_charts

1.4 Images & Renderings

Conexionsoftware.com/ #images_renderings

1.5 Workroom Conexionsoftware.com/#workroom

1.6 Subs Conexionsoftware.com/#Subs

1.7 Web Integration Conexionsoftware.com/#web_integration

1.8 Training & Support

Conexionsoftware.com/ #training_support

The Content Audit was done on the competitors website. Listed are the findings: 1.  The Sign up Now for free isn’t straight

forward . 2.  It only gives feature description. 3.  There is a dead end to new user

beyond reading description. 4.  The information is a lot to read and

very confusing. 5.  The cancellation for the subscription

after the free trail (30 day ) is very frustrating. The customer service doesn’t exist.

6.  The website is not updated at all.

Card Sorting

Optimal Sort Card Sorting Exercise Participant Centric Analysis

Conclusions from Card Sorting : It was interesting to find out from the card sorting exercise that participants grouped items together in a similar way but put them under different Labels. For e.g. items like: •  About •  Pricing •  Contact us These were grouped together but put under different labels as Homepage and Product Information. It helped me to group the items and label them in the most used way.

Information Architecture

Site Map

LEGEND: White Boxes : Pre login Grey Boxes : Post login

Task Flow User Story : Andy wants to check the status and updates of his project “Project 1”. Steps: 1.  Andy Logs into his account from “Home page”. 2.  He goes to “My Projects”. 3.  He sees a Notification on “Plans of Project 1“

waiting for his approval. 4.  He makes changes to the plans and

comments on it. 5.  If all plans are ok, he approves it. 6.  If not, he sends it for revision again. 7.  Email is sent out if plans are approved or if

plans need revision.

Wireframes

Mood board

A/B Testing

Mockup 1 User dashboard page with vertical main navigation

Mockup 2 User dashboard page with horizontal main navigation

User Feedback: •  Most of the users liked the Mockup 1 with vertical main

navigation. •  They liked it because the prime section of the page would

display all their project information and the navigations would be to the side.

•  Some users looked for “Invoice” button in their project work page itself instead of being on the side bar.

•  Some users asked for a completion date of the architecture project to market their properties for realtors.

Prototyping using InVision

The Next Steps

Immediate Action Items: •  Adjust the prototypes based on the

feedback from users and continue testing.

•  Develop a visual identity •  Build out high-fidelity mockups

Additional Features for the Future: Include Real time updates of the project.

THANK YOU

Contact Information: Name: Asawari Chitre Location: Irvine, Ca Email: asawari.chitre@gmail.com Phone: 949-836-8955