MESIGN
Online Interior Designer
General Assembly
Final Project
August 2020
My Role
Individual project
Project Time
10 weeks
Tools
Figma
Meet Mesign.
Mesign is an online interior designer that helps you design or re-design your home, personalized to your preferences.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
People who had limited or up to no design experience needed an easy, efficient, and feasible way to bring their visions to life, in order to create their dream spaces.
PROCESS
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Research
Analyze
Design
Test
RESEARCH & ANALYSIS
5 interviewees ranging from ages 20 - 40, who currently live in homes they have needed to design themselves. The interviewees also are a mix of those living alone, or with families.
“It’s hard for me to make my Pinterest mood board into a reality. I try my best to find pieces that resemble my images.”
“I'm also so indecisive. I like this and that...but which would look better? kind of issue.”
“We don’t have any professional skills...big piece furniture and getting the size right and making sure the styles go together is really hard.
“My roommates and I struggle to find a cohesive style, everything is always really mismatched...”
“I find it really hard to find good quality pieces that fit into my tight budget, and that all go well together…”
“Something that’s been really annoying has been finding a piece on Pinterest that you like and then finding out it's not available in your country.”
100%
Would currently not consider hiring a designer, due to costs.
100%
Attempt to find inspiration images online but struggle finding furniture pieces that resemble their pictures.
Out of 5 interviewees:
100%
Face difficulties trying to form a cohesive style in their homes.
80%
Have struggled to find pieces they like that fit within their budget.
80%
Are currently unsatisfied with the state of the design of their current homes.
80%
Have experienced difficulties with shipping times and result to buying other pieces that deliver quickly.
ANALYSIS
Affinity mapping was a starting point with my analysis that allowed me to categorize and recognize key pain points.
Limited selection
Convenience
Indecisiveness
Budget
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
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The online interior design industry is competitive. There are many companies that offer similar services, for similar audiences.
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Services are pricey. 3 out of 5 companies offered services ranging from $300-1000 +, excluding furniture costs.
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Pinterest was the only competitor that did not have any paid service or any type of cost. This was also the platform that all of my interviewees had used to attempt to design their homes.
-
4 out of 5 platforms connected you to a designer. This seemed to be a popular ‘solution’.
THE SOLUTION
A website that helps you discover your style, and generates furniture options appropriate to your style, your budget, time budget, as well as shipping preferences. A website that encourages and guides you to be your own designer. A website that embraces the process, all for free.
Indecisiveness
Helping clients decide on a style through a style quiz, ultimately generating appropriate furniture options based on results.
Budget & convenience
Clients are able to input their budget and shipping time preferences.
Furniture selection
Mesign presents the clients with furniture that is most appropriate to them based on all given data. Clients should not run into any further issues.
Interior designer costs
Providing a free service. Clients can enjoy having great results without the hefty cost of a designer.
CARD SORTING
Cart sorting allowed me to organize pages, and to justify website navigation choices.
WIREFRAMING
HOW MESIGN WORKS
1. Cassie logs in and starts by naming her project. She can views
this project or her past projects in her profile.
2. She is then able to tell Mesign which room she intends on designing for this project.
3. By then completing a style quiz, both Mesign and Cassie are able to understand her style, helping with furniture selection.
4. Cassie is able to tell Mesign more about her budget, the size of the room, her project time, and whether she wants her furniture locally or internationally sourced.
5. The website presents Cassie with 2 different bundles suitable for her, based on the information she put in earlier. She can refresh these bundles if she is unsatisfied with them.
6. She can then directly purchase items from the website, or save them to view later.
USABILITY TESTING
POSITIVES
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Users really liked that there was a progress bar placed on the top of their screen, indicating how far into the process they were. It gave them a sense of reaching a goal.
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Users found the pages to be visually simple and pleasing to the eye.
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The style quiz was straightforward and easy. Perfect amount of photos. Users liked that there was also a progress bar at the bottom of the style quiz.
NEGATIVES
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There were a few questions asked along the way, questions such as “how will I be able to view this project later?” and “Do I get to change this (personal data) later?”
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When adding items to the cart, they wanted a further indication on the screen, aside from the pop-up they received, that indicated the addition was successful.
REVISIONS
Pop - up alerts were added to guide users along the way.
A “view cart” symbol was added to the top bar to indicate users how many items they currently hold.
