Mobile Design
Expanding Job Market Horizons For Outdoor Care Providers
Outcome
I handed off three new features to developers that improved efficiency by 164%
Schedule jobs according to proximity of other existing clients.
Have a visual representation on where your already-scheduled jobs are to see which day will provide the most optimal route distance-wise. Easily compare and contrast by selecting different dates.
See an overview of the work you have for the day so you can plan.
A place where all of your jobs for the day will be displayed. View details of individual jobs, submit before and after photos, and get paid upon completion. This is where tasks are centralized on the app.
Find the route that best suits your current conditions.
A place where all of your jobs for the day will be displayed. View details of individual jobs, submit before and after photos, and get paid upon completion. Visualize your route on a map to find a path between stops.
Context
Lawnstack's mission
Lawnstack is a one-stop shop for homeowners looking to have all of their outdoor maintenance taken care of throughout the year. Lawnstack provides internal tooling for its service providers to effectively manage and execute their jobs.
Problem
Many of Lawnstack’s providers do not arrive to their scheduled appointments on time.
"The results were good, but he came 30 minutes late. When I tried to call, there was no response."
Homeowner A
"I scheduled a job with him twice, and both times he didn’t come at the time scheduled.”
Homeowner G
“We scheduled for 3:30 but he came at 12.”
Homeowner B
User Resarch
I followed around a provider for a day
In order to understand their day-to-day process, I hopped into the truck of a lawn care provider. Through this, I gained insights on what aspects influence their daily schedules and workflow.
Rather than scheduling jobs in advance, providers select which houses they will go to that day.
In the first five minutes of their day,
providers base their schedule on
these three factors:
Home Proximity
How close their clients are to each other. Closer homes means less travel.
Co-workers
Who they are working with that day (can spontaneously change)
Job Urgency
Spontaneously assigned jobs that need to be done within the same day
It takes 3.4x longer to schedule a job on the app than via paper.
I user tested the existing Lawnstack scheduling feature on four existing providers on the platform.
I found that on average, it took 3.7 minutes to schedule 1 job. Thus, to schedule 6 jobs for the day, it would take 22.2 minutes, which is a 344% increase from what a provider usually does via pen and paper.
This occurred because providers needed to consider their previously scheduled jobs in order to think about proximity, co-workers, and urgency.
Problem
Regardless of punctuality, homeowners displayed satisfaction with the work being done by Lawnstack’s providers.
The original scheduling feature contained rigid time slots, which heightened homeowner expectation.
Goal #1
How might we make the scheduling feature less disruptive and more seamless with providers' existing workflow?
Considering proximity
Ideation
Regardless of punctuality, homeowners displayed satisfaction with the work being done by Lawnstack’s providers.
In my first iteration, I made sure to firstly remove rigid time slots. Thus, jobs would now be scheduled simply by day. With this in mind, I also made sure to display jobs already scheduled that day so that providers can take proximity into account.
Goal #2
How might we accomodate for dynamic changes(co-workers and urgent jobs) that occur throughout the day?
Introducing
Routes!
Accommodating Dynamic Changes
Organizing a day's work
Providers organize their client work by day due to dynamic changes. Thus, to accommodate for these dynamic changes, I suggested a new post-scheduling feature that providers can use to plan out their route for the day.
Exploring 'Work and Routes'
In my explorations for the new ‘Work’ feature, I created different layouts that prioritized different factors.
Prioritizes future planning
through a calendar
Prioritizes tracking of completed/future jobs
Prioritizes visualization of
route for the day
Providers value visualization
Upon bringing my explorations to Lawnstack providers, 7/8 providers preferred a visualization of their route. This is because many providers also have jobs scheduled outside of Lawnstack, and therefore a visualized route allows them to think about ways to fit their external jobs into their Lawnstack route.
Find your optimal route for the day
Create optimal routes best suited for your current conditions. A new urgent job you need to tend to? Select route by urgency. Want to find the next closest home? Select route by distance.
Re-adjust your route with co-workers in mind.
Easily incorporate your co-worker’s schedule for the day into your own without needing to manually compare physical addresses. If a co-worker ends up joining or leaving your truck, easily edit your route by adding/removing them.
Reflection
My goal as a designer is to create digital products that make our communities more equitable. Through Lawnstack, I was able to contribute to a product that targets an underrepresented audience in the tech world: outdoor care providers. It was greatly enlightening putting myself in the shoes of an audience that doesn’t usually receive much attention from innovators.
Throughout my internship, I had conducted over 24 user testings. My designs had imperfections scattered throughout, yet it was through these imperfections that I was able to understand my user and the industry they work in more. It’s okay to fall down, because you’ll come back stronger!