UX Case Study: Anti-clutter App
Life, Less Cluttered
The Problem
Often times clutter accumulates as a result of neglect, inaction and indecision. When faced with the task of sorting through years worth of stuff, it can be intimidating without having an organised system to give you guidance. The more overwhelming the task, the easier it is to put off cleaning. This was a problem I faced, having recently moved back into my family home which was full of things that my family had accumulated over the years. The problem that I wanted to solve: “How can I make decluttering easier for people?”
Assumptions
My main assumptions were that:
Most people were intimidated by decluttering,
Not knowing what to do with your items was the main hurdle in the decluttering process.
Clutter was a result of neglect, indecision and inaction.
This was a self-directed personal project. With no client for briefing or feedback, it was necessary to adopt a lean methodology and to test these assumptions rigorously through a series of primary research tools and supporting evidence. If I had access to a client, I would validate each step with their feedback to ensure that I’m moving towards a solution that meets both business and user needs.
User Research
I first started my research by issuing a User Research Survey to 20 respondents. The assumption that people were intimidated by decluttering was disproven early on with this survey, with only 33% agreeing with this statement. However this survey did prove the second assumption, with most respondents (64.3%) tending to hold onto things due to indecision and that they would find it helpful if they had an easier way of knowing what to keep and what to throw away (85.7%).
Time and energy are the biggest reasons preventing people from decluttering regularly. Having an organised system for decluttering and scheduling regular smaller clean ups would make decluttering easier, according to our respondents.
Contextual Inquiry
I observed a user cleaning out a storage room in her house. The contextual inquiry helped me to further refine my research with the following key insights.
People hold onto things that they can’t decide to throw away.
How clutter is disposed of should be considered a part of the decluttering process.
Decluttering was usually an improvised activity that could be improved by having an organised system.
These findings validate my second assumption around indecision and clutter. However they also reveal that the decluttering process should consider the responsible disposal of clutter, as well as validate the need for an organised system for decluttering.
User Interviews
My target audience were adults aged 30–45, whose homes needed tidying up, living in inner city to suburban areas. I conducted interviews with 3 individuals from my target audience. These interviews identified 6 key topics around clutter:
Barriers to decluttering: Lack of time & energy
Reasons why people hold onto things: Emotional attachment, indecision & potential future use
These characteristics feed directly into the third assumption that clutter was a result of indecision, inaction and neglect.
Disposing of unwanted goods: Donating, recycling, selling or giving away. Avoiding landfill by knowing how to responsibly dispose of your niche items.
Reasons to declutter: Mental health & home hygiene
Preventing clutter: Evaluating your needs and purchasing accordingly
A system for decluttering: A system to sort out what to keep, chuck out or donate. Reminders to help make decluttering sessions more regular.
The cause diagram and the affinity map helped me see decluttering from a holistic perspective. The most striking insight was that preventing clutter was a key part of the decluttering process. The affinity map is starting to help me flesh out a solution by identifying the three stages of the decluttering process — prevention, a system for decluttering and the responsible disposal of clutter.
Proto-persona
I then created a proto-persona which was an amalgamation of my research data.
Customer Journey Map
The customer journey map was a particularly useful tool since it allowed me to analyse the needs and problems associated with each step of the user’s decluttering process. The problems presented opportunities to help make the decluttering process easier. These helped me come up with features that addressed the main issues associated with decluttering.
User Flow
With my main features identified, I set about creating a user flow. Given that decluttering is a physical activity that takes place away from the desktop, it made sense to make my solution a mobile app called, “Tidy Buddy”. The user flow for the Cleaning Calendar and Item Decider was easy to design since they had precedents with other apps. It would be a great add-on to be able to create Donation/ Recycling Routes from the results of the Item Recycling Search. Figuring out the flow for this was more complicated as this function had to accommodate being able to save to previously saved routes as well as creating new ones.
MVP & High Fidelity Prototype
Features such as login/ sign up/ password retrieval felt irrelevant to the core features of my app, so these fell outside the scope of my prototype. The core features of the Cleaning Calendar, Item Decider, Item Recycling Search and Donation/ Recycling Routes are all part of my minimum viable product.
I followed a number of design guidelines to create the UI of my app to ensure that design elements and navigational components are consistent with the iOS platform. I kept the colour scheme grayscale since aesthetic refinement could occur at a later stage. Functionality was the primary purpose of this prototype.
Usability Testing
I conducted two rounds of usability testing with two participants. I kept my task benchmarks at 50 seconds; any task that took longer than this time to complete needed to be rectified in the design iterations. User testing revealed the following areas of improvement.
Round 1
A modal window to confirm that new event details have been updated to avoid confusion when creating, editing or saving an event in the Cleaning Calendar.
On the home page, users found the wording “Item Questionnaire” confusing and would prefer the button be called “Item Decider” to make its functionality clear.
Users wished to have the Donation/ Recycling Routes available as a main button on the home page as well as the tab bar.
Round 2
With the first prototype appearing as grayscale, users wanted a stronger contrast in colour to make certain buttons more present.
A change of wording in a certain button to make its function clearer.
With these changes implemented, user rating increased from 4.5 to 5 stars across satisfaction, navigation and functionality, between the two rounds of testing.
Information Architecture
I conducted the card sorting exercise and each component of the app had clearly identifiable links to their parent features — Cleaning Calendar, Item Decider, Item Recycling Search and Donation/ Recycling Routes. The only anomaly came with the Create New Route function which leads the user back to the Item Recycling Search so that a new Donation/ Recycling Route could be created from the search results.
Login/ onboarding functions all flow on from the Splash page and admin/ settings functions are concentrated around Account Settings. The card sorting exercise led to the following site map.
Final Design Iteration
Given that Tidy Buddy was a decluttering app, it made sense for its design aesthetic to stay true to its intention by having a minimal feel. The final design iteration involved only changes to the colour palette to reflect this design ethos.
I conducted a final usability test around the updated design theme, with users rating 5 stars for visual appeal, remarking that they were impressed with the app’s polished minimal design.
Outcome
It was interesting learning about how a lean methodology can be applied for self-directed UX projects. Without client briefing or feedback, assumptions had to be rigorously tested through a series of primary research tools and supporting evidence. Given access to a client, I would validate each step with their feedback to ensure that my solution was moving towards meeting both business and user needs.
My assumptions were thoroughly tested to create a robust solution that answers users needs in making the decluttering process easier. The outcome is an application that aims to make decluttering a regular part of the user’s life by striking at the three stages of the decluttering process — prevention, a system for decluttering and the responsible disposal of clutter.