Discovery

We started the discovery process by interviewing CDEs and Interior Designers. We learned that the Options app would be just a small part of the overall sales process, so we also participated in a simulation of a customer meeting.

Images of the items were especially important because they could do a better job of showing the customers what they would be getting than the CDE could explain in words. The items were organized into categories, which seemed to be well-understood by the users.

Ideation & Initial Design

We started by sketching out different possibilities for navigation. We had planned to use a similar navigation to an existing app utilized by the same user base, but soon determined that it was too simple for Options.

We then created a wireframe version of each screen before moving on to development-ready mock-ups.

Usability Testing

During the first round of usability testing, we asked participants to find certain items in order to select them. The users struggled to find the items, switching back and forth between categories trying to find what they were looking for. The seemingly well-established categories did not actually represent the way the users thought about the items.

Design Iteration

We decided to perform an open card sort, allowing the participants to create their own categories. From this study, we removed the "Miscellaneous" category and added four additional categories, making all the categories much clearer. We also renamed some existing categories using the participants' naming to make it more understandable what items could be found there. 

Content Management System

As an enhancement to the Options mobile app, we designed a solution in Microsoft Sharepoint where the Completions department could edit the items and models without intervention from IT.