THE Cut — Joshua Miller

THE CUTBOOK

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The Cutbook is a clear way to set appointments removing the need to call or text the stakeholder for their services. The app allows users to view the end-users appointment book and easily make an appointment, send a message, leave feedback, and accept payments in future iterations.

MY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

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Research
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Stakeholder Interview
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User Interviews
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Create wireframes and high fidelity mockups

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Testing
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THINKING

Barbers are busy and sometimes can’t get back to their customers in a timely manner in order to make an appointment. This can be a big problem, especially when you only work on appointments and no walk-ins. Missing potential appointments in this case means missing out on potential long-term clients and income. With The Cutbook all of the back and forth and frustration on the user and end-users side is taken away. The Cutbook lets users make appointments, leave a message, and rate their experience with the end-user all on a centralized platform.

QUESTIONS

To better understand the root cause of the pain points that the users and the end-user face, user research was conducted with both parties. This took place in the form of a casual conversation while spending the better half of a day sitting with the stakeholder while he serviced his clients. While their guiding questions were asked that allowed for more insight into their experience connecting with the stakeholder to make appointments as well as the pain points of taking appointments.

GUIDING QUESTIONS (STAKEHOLDER)

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How does your day to day look
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When you answer a call to make an appointment, typically how long does it take

Do you/would you ever answer a call while with another client

Approximately how many clients do you connect with for appointments within a week

If you were to have a digital platform to take appointments what would a few key features it should have

GUIDING QUESTIONS (USER)

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Do you own a smart device
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How do you normally make appointments outside of this service

If you weren’t able to get ahold of the stakeholder for an appointment in a timely manner what would you end up doing

How many times per month do you get your hair cut by the stakeholder

PROCESS

For The Cutbook it was decided to utilize the Lean UX method. Why? Well, it’s a pretty straightforward process of setting up an appointment portal for the end-user and their clients. No time needed to be wasted on other aspects that may not matter. The approach was to think, explore the problem and consider how to solve it. Make, start sketching wireframes, and creating an MVP to test with the users. Once users were comfortable and input their honest feedback high-fidelity prototypes were designed. Our final phase would be to check how the user responds to the design, was it easy to use, equitable and most of all did it solve the users’ problem(s). Once feedback was gained through the checking phase, adjustments would be made taking into account the users’ feedback.

During the thinking phase users in the barbershop were asked what are some of their personal pain points when it comes to making an appointment. What were their needs and goals when it comes to getting in touch to make said appointment? Questions were also asked of the end-user about what they wanted to see from the user; name, date and time of appointment, a way for them to cancel if need be, payment options if possible.

During the making phase the time it would take to make an appointment was taken into account and capturing information the end-user needed was a top priority. Nothing more, nothing less. Sketching wireframes and simple prototypes were started to get a baseline of where things information would be placed. The main goal here was to make everything easy to find, make the functionality easy to understand and make sure the user can accomplish the specific task The Cutbook was designed for.

Finally, during the checking phase, 3 of the end-user clients that regularly make appointments were brought in to give feedback on the design and its process. Over two weekends feedback was gathered for those sessions. Taking into account what would be possible, adjustments were made to the design, and testing continued.

DESIGN

Once the problems were identified, the following were worked on.

Break down the needs of the application into screens and design the flow.

Create wireframes to define what information goes into each screen.

Create mockups that illustrate how the application should look and feel.

Prepare a style guide to define colors, text, and icons.

Document the mockups to explain how key features work.

Adobe Scan Sep 19, 2021_Page_1_Image_0001.jpg

TOOLS

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Pen and paper for wireframes
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Figma for high fidelity prototypes
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Miro for lo-fidelity wireframes
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Illustrator for logo and custom graphics

InVision for testing lo-fidelity prototypes

TAKEAWAYS

Users found the product to be straightforward and minimal adjustments were needed after the beta testing phase. One key point users appreciated was the to stay in the application to input their confirmation code. While designing The Cutbook the idea was to keep the user on the app for as brief a time as possible, but still fulfill their needs easily. To achieve this the code was delivered via text not email, on most smart devices when a code is detected in a text thread it may automatically populate or give you a prompt to input the code, without leaving the application, therefore, saving time and frustration. Appointments were simple and straightforward to make.

While the testing phase was a success, payments are still in our future iteration phase which can cause a new hurdle for both the user and the design process. Delivery of the product is on hold until further notice from the stakeholder.