MuebHaus

Furniture Rental AR, Mobile App

ux/ui

2022

Picking out furniture can be overwhelming and stressful. More and more people are spending money on cheap furniture to keep up with design trends, which has led to an unsustainable practice, fast furniture. MuebHaus hopes to combat the fast furniture problem by providing users with trendy, high-quality rentable furniture and help them envision their new space through augmented reality.

Project Details

Client

MuebHaus (educational)

Role

ux/ui design & research

Timeline

aug - sept 2022 xxx

(3 weeks/80 hours)xx

Tools

figma, adobe creative suite, whimsical, maze

The EPA estimates that 9 million tons of furniture are discarded each year. That amounts to roughly 5% of items in landfills–not only is it wasteful, but it’s also not sustainable or worth the investment. Many young adults are constantly moving and many find it’s cheaper to throw their furniture away and replace it than to move with it. This is an opportunity to solve the pain points of the renter generation to help them choose the furniture they love without having to worry about moving furniture, while providing them with the opportunity to envision, design and build their dream space through augmented reality.

Let's talk about the Problem

With more people renting and spending time at home, interests in interior design trends is at an all-time high. We are experiencing a rise in fast furniture because the millenial and gen Z generation cannot afford high-quality furniture, but they also don’t see the value in investing when 65% of them are renting. Additionally, this is an opportunity to change how people envision their spaces and provide them with the opportunity to experience and explore 3D furniture to help them design their dream space without the hassle.

The Challenge

Cost + Efficiency

Renters often move and don't want to invest in high-quality furniture because they're not sure what their next home will look like. Plus moving furniture is a stressful and tedious task, many prefer to avoid.

Design

With people spending more time at home, they want to create a space that feels like home and reflects their needs and design style, but have a difficult time envisioning what that may be.

Sustainability

Fast furniture is not meant to last which has resulted in 9 million tons of furniture are discarded each year. That amounts to roughly 5% of items in landfills–not only is it wasteful, but it’s also not sustainable or worth the investment.

Proposed Solution

This is an opportunity to solve the pain points of the renter generation to help them choose the furniture they love without having to worry about moving furniture and while having the opportunity to switch out furniture, hassle-free.  

An e-commerce mobile app that combats the fast furniture problem by providing users with trendy, high-quality rentable furniture and augmented reality to change how users experience and envision 3D furniture to help them decide the best product for them. 

MuebHaus Walkthrough 

Home Page

Curated feed based on the users preferences

Explore page with suggested items based on previous transactions 

Category Page

Easy access categories for quick search results

Easy to search items with use of cateogories and styles

Product Page

Product information with AR Feature

View product in space with one easy click 

AR Mode

Spatial experience

Envision and design your dream space using the AR feature 

High-Level Goals 

01 / ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES

With over 9 billion tons of furniture waste in our landfills, how can we encourage customers to rethink their furniture purchasing habits?

02 / DESIGN AUTONOMY

Customers can't always envision furniture in their space. How can we provide them with the right tools to help them imagine and build their dream space?

03 / REDUCE MOVING STRESS

How might we help customers during their stressful moving process? How can we provide them with a pleasureable experience?

04 / ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY FURNITURE ITEMS

Provide opportunities for customers to rent higher quality furniture that is stylish and will last longer.

Conducting

Competitive Analysis

I analyzed competitor's to better understand the opportunities, successes, and weaknesses of existing products and how they differentiate themselves. 

Some key items I looked at:

• User interface & design
• Solution & approach
  
• Usability & navigation
  
• Categories, filters, search
• Mobile App
• AR feature & experience

Performing

User Research

I conducted 5 user interviews and sent a survey to 13 participants. Through the interview & survey process, I was able to understand participant's pain poins, motivations, and behaviors. Below is a summary of my findings:

Findings

Participants find it difficult to sell furniture and almost always prefer to throw it away than spend time negotiating/coordinating with buyers

Cost in combination with quality and time often impacts the participants purchasing decision, which often led to choosing fast furniture

Participants have a hard time envisioning their space and find it difficult to see whether new pieces will work well in their current space

When purchasing new furniture, participants dislike assembling furniture and find it time-consuming and tedious

Inability to accurately measure their space led participants to purchase items that were too large or too small for their space

Goals

• Freshen up their space and stay up to date with trends
• Find functional pieces that fit their existing set-up
• Avoid assembly and disassembly 
• Envision their space to see if all pieces work well together
• Find furniture that matches their vision

Needs

• Stay within budget
• Fit furniture in their space
• Furniture that is comfortable and has a purpose
• Own larger pieces of furniture 
• Test furniture before buying to see if it fits well in their space

Motivations

• Satisfaction when all pieces come together and work well
• Design trends on the internet to help them choose items they like
• A space that reflects their personal style, is comfortable, and useful
• Rearranging furniture to create a different space

Creating

Personas

The findings from my user interviews and surveys led to the creation of two personas: The young professionaI and the busy graduate student. I focused on defining key characteristics to better understand their behaviors and choices.

Pains

• Not being able to build their dream space without breaking the bank
  
• Having to spend time on assembling furniture
• Not having the option to test furniture in their space before buying
• Limited options due to budget
• Spending time trying to rehome and sell previous furniture

Goals

• Create a space that expresses style and needs
• Find quality and functional pieces
  
• Ability to match new furniture with existing furniture
• Renter friendly options
• Staying on trend

Walking

with the Users

Using the information from the research and the personas, I developed user flow based on one of the personas, Giana. 

The user flow represents the pathway Giana would take to view a piece of furniture in her space using the AR feature. This scenario was chosen based off user research determining importance in providing users with the ability to measure and place items in their selected space to help them bring their vision together in 3D.

Generating 

Design Ideas

At this point, I had a good understanding of how users would navigate through the app and what features to include. I began by translating all my findings into wireframes and creating connection points between screens to better understand what each screens needs in order to successfully complete tasks.

Designing

the MuebHaus Brand

I chose words like: minimal, architectural, contemporary, creative and bold to lead the branding. The overall brand evokes a uniqueness that compliments the experience of using the app.

Conducting

Usability Testing

I conducted remote usability testing with 6 participants, all of which were asked to complete a variety of tasks. The app performed well and 83% of participants were able to navigate through the app with minimal error and found the app intuitive. The test provided me with some key takeways to iterate on.

What needs iteration

Participants had trouble locating the save image option while in the AR feature

• How can I rethink the location of the save image option?
  

The second AR screen created a barrier and was unnecessary during the flow, which in return caused confusion

• Remove the second screen and only provide necessary information in the first screen

Participants had a difficult time accessing their saved image once they had saved it

• Rethink the save image flow and where the user goes to locate the image once its been saved

Affinity Map

Iterating

the Design

Consolidated both screens and added a CTA button so user can choose to scan once they've read the instructions

Removed the menu bar at the top right corner of the screen and replaced the entire action with a stick nav bar that lets users access "save" at any point during the flow

Rather than having the image card appear at the bottom of the screen, the home icon will indicate how many images are saved and user can access their saved images

Reflecting

and Next Steps

Takeaways

01 /  Asking why

This idea was sparked by my own issues of renting apartments, moving furniture from place to place and seeing loads of furniture on the streets everyday. Asking why this problem needed to be solved pushed me to understand people's behaviors, decisions and their effects on our enviornment. User research and market analysis was especially mportant in uncovering the problems and finding a solution that would ultimately change how users view furniture.

02 / Creating something users want

This was especially hard because there are many issues that need to be solved in order to change users behaviors, but given the time constraint and limited resources, I chose to focus on one main pain point I uncovered during my user research: helping users visualize their space. The main goal was to create an immersive experience that is exciting and helpful. When it comes to choosing furniture, I want users to feel confident in their decision and have control over the design of their space.

Next Steps

I began this project with wanting to provide a sustainable and accessible solution to furniture. If I had more time, I would spend more time thinking about the business and how renting furniture would work on an app like this and ultimately, how to integrate with the AR feature.

this isn't goodbye,  it's see ya later ! ✺

miriamariashd@gmail.com →

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