Research

Competitive & Comparator Analysis

COMPETITIVE MATRIX

To understand what types of features existing competitors currently offer, we analyzed the platforms of other companies like Modsy, Havenly, etc.

FEATURE COMPARISON

We also conducted comparator analysis with companies like Morpholio and Pinterest to help us brainstorm solutions that could be applied to the interior design experience.

FINDINGS

While other platforms were good for inspiration, the biggest gap was in offering a free DIY solution for organizing ideas & products from multiple vendors.

Understanding User Needs

RESEARCH GOALS

We conducted user interviews with participants that had experience decorating their homes to understand:

• Where do our users shop?

• How do users shop?

• What factors along the design journey were important to users?

• What are their major pain points?

  
  

WHAT USERS TOLD US

MAIN USER PAIN POINTS

THE OPPORTUNITY

1. DIY DESIGN

2. ACCESS TO MULTIPLE VENDORS

Existing interior design solutions do not cater to DIY designers who shop from multiple sources. The DIY designer needs tools to manage design projects with a minimum amount of time and effort.

Dendwell has an opportunity to combine the concepts of social media and e-commerce by creating a user-centric tool that is more effective for discovering inspiration, designing a space, and vetting options across multiple brands.

Empathizing with the User

The User Persona

Meet Alison, a busy marketing manager who recently moved to NYC and needs to decorate her new apartment. She represents the typical Dendwell user.

Alison’s Design Journey

Throughout her journey we found that Alison experiences positive feelings when being inspired and making decisions in the Discovery and Evaluation phases. 

Her lowest points arise when she is unable to find an item she wants or when she’s spent too much time browsing, finding, and organizing her favorite items and spaces, therefore delaying her ability to make purchasing decisions. 

Having understood where Dendwell could innovate to solve our users’ pain points, we were able to focus on a specific problem.

REFINED PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we help Alison discover, organize, evaluate, and purchase products from multiple brands, while expediting and simplifying the design process?

Meeting Alison’s Needs

The Solution

Using data from our research we brainstormed and designed features to save Alison time and give her the confidence she needs to make purchasing decisions regarding the items she’s found for her home.

ALL - IN - ONE PLATFORM

There are 4 main steps in the DIY designer’s journey. To address Alison’s difficulty with purchasing products from multiple vendors, Dendwell’s core mission would be to showcase products from multiple vendors in an all-in-one platform that facilitates the design process by providing tools to guide the user through each step of the design journey.

THE DIY DESIGN JOURNEY

1. discovery

   • Discovery is achieved by exploring Spaces created by real people.

2. Organization

   • The Projects space allows the user to create Moodboards where they can visualize their ideas for any space in their home.

3. Evaluation

   • The Projects area also provides a comparison tool to make decision-making easier.

4. Checkout

   • Finally, users can view their final picks by Space or by brand and easily access checkout pages at each of their brands’ websites.

PROTOTYPE TESTING

Usability Tests

We used a hi-fi prototype to test the viability and user friendliness of our Minimum Viable Product. 

The Usability Test tasks required users to walk-through the main phases of the design process: Discovery & Evaluation. Users were to search for inspiration, organize their projects, and visualize their spaces using the discovery and project management tools on Dendwell’s site. 

97% of test participants successfully
completed their assigned tasks

With a total success rate of 34/35 tasks and a difficulty rating of 1.6, we are confident our design provides a user friendly and intuitive experience.

Taking user feedback into account, we can improve the difficulty rating by adding more contextual text and clearer instructions for the site’s functionality, i.e changing “Discover” to a more obvious term related to search.

Retrospective

Learnings

DIY Design

We learned that interior design is often a painful, labor-intensive process for most users and a tool like Dendwell has the potential to revolutionize the DIY design experience for non-designers by providing a simplified and more delightful user experience.

A/B Testing

If time and resource constraints allow, A/B testing is a tool that can be used to inform a final decision on design. In this case, my team and I had different opinions on certain elements of the design. With more time, I would have proposed A/B testing as an option to determine which features would be preferred by users.

Results

Application

Our research and design ideas were ultimately used by our client to validate and guide the next iteration of her product.

Next Steps

Buyer Phase

Continue developing & refining features throughout the Buyer phase

• Add style quiz to create a more personalized and guided experience

• Increase size of photos

• Eventually include photos with people in them

• Include contributor information on Discovery images

• Add filter to search

• Add accessibility tools

Iteration & Testing

Conduct additional rounds of testing to inform subsequent iterations of the site based on user feedback and performance.

Seller & Checkout Phases

Conduct user research and develop design for Checkout phase and Seller experience.