Care for Service
The pandemic has changed the way people interact with one another. It has also made it more dangerous for people that still work during the pandemic. Service workers are one of the many other jobs that require contact with other people. I made 'Care for Service' an app in the thought of when we get through this pandemic, in how to be a bit more cautious when having to deal with so many people through the day. But this case proves to be quite difficult as it challenged my assumptions and expectations, which proved to be the thing I actually needed to encounter.
Methods
User Interviews
Screener Surveys
Persona Development
Journey Mapping
Design Studio
Sketching
Wireframes
Rapid Prototyping
Usability Testing
Tools
Miro
Figma
Illustrator
My Role
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Duration
2 Week Sprint
Research
Grow your audience.
Through user surveys based on the behavior on buying habits and how people tip. I was focused on a more specific thought on buying food. So I pushed it to a broader idea of what users use for paying for things. Another takeaway was that most people are eager or wanting to go back out and eat at places or do activities when the pandemic ends. But the caution of catching any type of virus or being aware of whom they have contact with is with them.
User Payment Options
Do you carry around cash?
Takeaways
"More aware to be clean and avoid bigger groups cause of covid"
"tipping shows basic human decency"
"Tip helps pay for people, not businesses"
Oh Shxt Moment
I realized how much I was assuming what people needed. I was assuming what people needed, I was quickly put in my place when I did the user interviews and reviewed the survey answers.
• It feels like, over time as more people took the survey the amount of time became longer for going out to eat.
• Though cash-carrying was over no cash, it wasn’t that far from being 50/50.
Saw the pattern that more and more people were using cards or apps to pay for things already. The key part was the ease of use of all of a person's money is on the phone. No need to look through bills to pay.
Problem Statement
Alex needs a way for more payment options for tips because they find it hard to obtain during the Covid-19 pandemic also wants to remain safe.
How might we improve the options on how service workers get tips?
QR Codes for menus and special QR Code for service workers
Direct deposit or use of payment apps to pay for and tip
Persona: Alex
“Would love to not touch cash. I don’t want to sick!!”
Meet Alex
Age: 25
Location: New York, New York
Goals: To be able to increase tips, safely within the pandemic.
•Wants more options to receive tips without the hassle
Backstory
Alex has been severe her whole life, but the pandemic has shaken her life financially. The amount of information about how easy the virus could spread has gotten her, more self-conscious about whom she is encountering.
Frustration
With having to work during a pandemic Alex wants to have safer options to receive tips, even whenever the pandemic ends also to increase the number of tips she gets.
Ideation/Iteration
Through an ideation session I had about six participants some from the service worker side and others from customer side. From that session and research I came to 4 features that would be in the app.
Features
QR Code for Servers
Discount/Coupon incentive to tip more
Accumulate tips through a digital balance
Multiple pay options
Wanted to make it simple and to the point, for going out. At the beginning of making this I had to redo it because of an obvious step I needed to add.
The flow chart helped me really think about how people would use the app and what option I needed to consider as they went through.
Design
Sketched WireFrames
Through the usability testing, I found that it was confusing for one user on what to select in the dashboard. The sketched prototype surprised me with obvious things I was missing that would help the user experience.
Lo-fi Prototype
Adding a feedback button to the end of the experience was a response from one user who wanted accountability if the service was bad. I cut down extra steps because multiple users during testing were getting confused on how to pay
Accessibility Matters
Accessibility was a problem one person had testing my prototype of the icons. Not everyone would understand what each did so I made sure to add the name of what the buttons were for. A valuable lesson that learned and not to forget.
Mood Board
What I was inspired by were the menu boards you see walking down the sidewalk. It would catch my eye but also others to see the latest deals they had going for food. I went with these colors because I saw them as the typical colors you can see in a bar or restaurant. I wanted to feel you're walking into a place where service workers are here to help.
Hi-Fi Design V1.
Hi-Fi Design V2.
Hi-fi Prototype
Giving some descriptions on certain boards was one of the things I changed through testing
The spacing on the main menu was hard to click
Forgot password was in the way of clicking the password
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
This case study made me check my assumptions at the door. My experience in the service work industry led me to think of only one solution, but research and interviews caused me to rethink what I should be focusing on. Doing the interviews gave me so much perspective on where people were coming from and allowed me to create the features for the app.
With more time I would like to open up the app to more than just service workers in restaurants. I want to expand to delivery drivers, barbershops, and beauty salons. Also to expand the tests to other people to see how the change of this pandemic has affected their way of living.