This project is an exploration of a human-centred approach to digitizing booking appointment with a hairstylist. The project was inspired by the question "What if there was an App that allows me book an appointment with hairstylists around me?"
It was exciting to design such an app, however, it was important to understand the relevance of the product to the intended users, the purpose of the product, and if an App is an effective approach to designing the product.
The product was intended to serve women on the African continent and I conducted research to better understand women from different regions of the continent.
The process to achieving the goal of this project was a 4-step process, namely:
1. Research
2. Analysing Findings
3. Defining the Design Strategy
4. Prototyping
Primary Research (User Interviews)
User interview was chosen as interviewing is an opportunity to gain qualitative insight into how online interactions shape the way women interact with their hair and make decisions about their hair. As the product was targeted at African women, I reached out to students in my school (a pan-African institution) to understand the perspectives of women from different regions on the continent.
The research question: "How does online interaction currently influence decisions African women make regarding their hair?"
Secondary Research
To complement the interviews, I conducted secondary research to better understand internet consumers in Africa. Major findings from the secondary research are available here.
The information gathered from the user interviews was a lot and to make sense of this information, I used the card sorting method to group the information into themes. With this, I was able to identify themes in the responses I got from the interviews.
From the card sort, the following were recurring themes from the interview:
Trust
Most of the participants suggested from the interviews that they reach out to people they are close to (friends, family) whenever they need a hairstylist. They are also likely to become repeat customers after the first encounter with a hairstylist, depending on the quality of the service. Because of the trust built up in the relationship, they were more likely to trust recommendations from a familiar person.
Credibility
The main factor in whether or not to visit a hairstylist was the quality of service, either as a repeat customer or from a referral. This shows that hairstylists who provide quality service are more likely to be trusted.
Convenience
Some of the participants noted that they will use wigs and learn to make their own hair if they're in a new place where they don't know anybody. Without a familiar person to introduce them to a hairstylist, some of the participants decided based on a hairstylist's social media images. Additionally, participants typically search social media platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram for inspiration to determine which hairstyle to make before choosing a hairstyle. To gain the trusts of users, it is important to design a more convenient experience.
The goal of this design is to embody trust, credibility and convenience in the process of designing the product. The recurring themes from the user interviews raised the following questions:
1. How do I design this product to gain user trust?
2. How do I communicate the convenience of the App's functionality in the design?
Booking and recommendation, onboarding and search were prioritized in the design process. The onboarding process communicates to the features of the product and gain users confidence. The process of booking and recommendation was structured to be a specialized process that recognizes the context of the hair industry and provides users with a seamless experience.
The design strategy was to focus on the following throughout the design process:
1. Simple and easy to understand design.
2. Focus on the processes identified to achieve the design goals.
3. Prototype using mid-fidelity prototypes as that is closer to how users experience app use. Get feedback and come up with final designs.
4. Pay attention to the copies. Ensure it aids the user experience.
5. Focus on designing for the power user group - the Googlers.
The onboarding process is designed to acquaint the app users with funtionalities of the app outside the main functionality which is searching for hairstylists. The part of the tab describing the page is active and the copy and graphic are tailored towards onboarding users on what information the page is supposed to contain.
In retrospect, I will incorporate the following in the next iteration of this project. As this was an exploratory project, it was imporatant to reflect on ways I can improve this design in the near future.
1. Design a referral process. A lot of the participants I interviewed relied on the recommendation of friends and families to visit a hairdresser. While the reviews and ratings give them an opportunity to choose a hairstylist based on other's recommendation, it will be interesting to observe the effect of a referral process to the success of the app use.
2. Design for unexpected moments. My current design assumes that everything will always go right which is not usually the case with software.
3. Consider the hairstylist's viewpoint and interaction with the app in the design process.