Porch Services App
Role
Lead the design effort for a mobile-focused experience for small job handymen who use the Porch Services Platform. Worked with the Director of Product to concept out the future vision of the Porch Services experience.
Skills
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
User Testing
Tools
Sketch & InVision
Pen & Paper
The Problem
The limited and disjointed toolset on the Porch Services Platform provided a poor user experience for Contractors causing them to leave Porch Platform after their first project.
The initial iteration of Porch platform included a decentralized system of text messages, emails, phone calls and other job related information. For example, each project did not have a unified phone number associated with each job so Contractors were unable to easily understand which job the communication was related to.
Perhaps the largest issue being that these contractors didn’t have a focused experience on the Porch Platform that could take various components and organize them into an agenda and work-flow loop that could easily be accessed and managed while out getting work done. Due to these issues, Porch Platform relied heavily on Porch Project Coordinator’s time, which limited the scalability of the product.
The Process
We started with a competitive analysis of several popular gig-economy apps, knowing that a mobile experience would be best for usability.
Due to the complexity of some of the services that porch offered, the apps main workflow would need to be modular in order to include additional steps, such as picking up extra materials, or making sure the contractor knows they need specific equipment for a project.
Next, we shadowed some Porch Services Contractors to better understand how they manage and complete their daily schedule of projects. From this research, we determined it would make the most sense to break down the process into several small steps (ex. Call to Confirm appointment, Pick up materials, etc) to help Contractors manage each project. This also helps the project coordinators stay updated on the status of each project, being able track the progress of every active project in real time.
The Solution
The contractor’s home page is their agenda, which is where they can view new projects, scheduled projects, and completed projects . Tapping the first project of the day or the button in the lower right corner can initiate the project wizard that takes them through each step required to complete that project.
Once the wizard is initiated, the contractor is prompted with the first step, which is traveling to the customer’s home. When pressing the CTA (I.E. “I’m On My Way”) an automated text message is sent to the customer, letting them know that the pro is on route. It also pulls up directions to the customer’s address via the Contractor’s preferred navigation app. Once the pro arrives they then notify the customer that they are on site via the app.
Once the contractor has spoken with the customer, they will tap the “Start Work” CTA which will start tracking the time the project takes. This is important since all Porch Services Projects are priced based on a specific timeframe between one and three hours. Once the contractor has completed the task, they are able to designate that the work has been completed and proceed to close out the job.
As part of the job closing process, the contractor moves on to collecting a signature as confirmation that the work has been done to the customer’s satisfaction. No money is exchanged between the Contractor and Customer, since the payment method was taken during the creation of the project by a Porch Project Coordinator.
After the customer has signed for the project, the Contractor can then officially close the project and move onto the next project on their list. This work flow loop continues until every project assigned to them that day has been completed.
The Result
The full app with all features is still in the early stages of development. However, the first stage implementation has been released and includes the agenda view, project details, and consolidated messaging system. With these updates, the following improvements were observed:
40% increase of Contractor’s taking additional jobs after completing their first project
15% increase in completed projects month over month.
In summary, with a more unified experience, Porch Services Contractors were more successful, completed more jobs, and continued using the Porch Services Platform.