Tackling the pain points of planning a move

Simplist is a mobile-first website where users can get an automated and personalized to-do list to plan their move and stay organized.

The Problem

Moving is a significant moment for growth, opportunity, and also intense stress.

In order to have a successful moving experience, people need to spend a lot of time becoming experts for something they may not do again for a long time.

The Process

Research

User Interviews

I interviewed six participants, both in person and remotely, who had recently moved between cities or states in the last 5 years. My research aimed to understand their experiences, needs, and challenges related to moving.

I started each interview with open-ended questions about their move experiences, covering what was time-consuming, stressful, and enjoyable. To make sure I didn’t miss any opportunities for valuable insight, I finished by asking about any surprises, key lessons, and possible changes for future moves.

Affinity Mapping

Insights

Using affinity mapping, I was able to identify themes and derive valuable insights from the user interviews.

  • Nearly all interview participants felt stress due to the “time crunch” aspect of moving.

  • When participants felt pressed for time, their budgets would often go out the window because they just wanted to get it done.

  • Participants generally didn’t research all the small tasks needed to move, and often forgot a few things.

  • Transferring utilities and mail to their new home was tedious and time consuming.

  • Participants felt they would have liked to be better organized to reduce stress.

While there are many aspects of moving that the interview participants found difficult, I decided to focus on the time management and organizational angle because it was one of the most common themes across all participants and I felt that was the most translatable to a digital product.

Ideation and Prioritization

POV & HMW

From my findings, I came up with the following point-of-view and how-might-we statements:

I’d like to explore ways to help people who are planning a significant move to know what tasks need to get done, and which ones are more time-sensitive, because they don’t actually research all the small tasks needed to move, and often will forget a few things.

How might we educate users on all the tasks that need to be done in order to have a successful move?

How might we help users better plan for all the tasks in their move, and understand the time-sensitivity of each?

How might we help users feel more organized and free up some of their time?

User Persona

The user persona I created is Kimberly. She is planning a big move with her partner. She’s not familiar with all the details of moving and likes having a to-do list to stay on top of things.

My goal is to alleviate some of Kimberley’s stress by creating a tool to help her feel well-prepared and organized.

Feature Set and Prioritization

I created a prioritized list of features to assist users in efficiently managing their move. The product includes a smart quiz to gather move-related information, which is used to generate a customized to-do list with due dates. Users can easily modify their to-do list as needed.

Card Sorting & Sitemapping

I conducted closed card sorting to find out how potential users would group features for this product. The card sorting used 20 cards, 4 categories, and was completed by 9 participants. Data from this card sorting led to the creation of the sitemap below.

User Flows

Sign up / create account

Create / Edit a Task

Branding

Brand Themes

Simplicity Personalization Reliability Friendliness Organization

In my approach for this project, I made intentional decisions to create an intuitive and minimalist user interface that would not distract from all the important information that would be displayed in the user’s to-do list.

Visual Design

Colors

Since this product is based in organization, I chose a selection of pale red, orange, yellow, and green for color coding. The neutral yellow, specifically, is intended to resemble a post-it note.

For the brand color, I chose purple for its uniqueness and uplifting yet calming energy.

Fonts

I chose the Poppins for its neutrality and friendliness. The spacing and larger x-heigh makes it easy to read longer text blocks, which might be necessary when the user adds a detailed task description. Additionally, the nine different weights make Poppins a very flexible and adaptable typeface.

Logo

The overall shape of the logo is intended to represent the growth and fresh start that come with moving to a new home. The use of rounded edges and minimal design was a deliberate choice that softens the overall look and feel, providing a sense of calm.

Designing & Prototyping

UI Kit

After a bit of sketching, I started creating my component library. This approach ensured consistency across the design, as well as streamlining future revisions.

High Fidelity Prototyping

Onboarding

Creating a Custom Task

Editing a Task

Usability Testing

Test Method

Usability testing was conducted in person and remotely with seven participants and four task flows (listed below). Success for each task were measured by completion and error rates.

  1. Sign up / account creation

  2. Complete the introductory quiz to pre-populate the task list

  3. Create a new custom task

  4. Edit an existing task

Test Results

Success Metrics

100% completion rate for each task flow

0% error rate for task flows 1, 2, and 4; and 43% error rate for task flow 3.

Additional Data

3/7 of users misused the checkbox element when creating a new task.

3/7 of users missed the edit/pencil icon when editing an existing task, mainly because they scrolled down and the icon was no longer visible.

3/7 of users would have liked to assign the owners and due date of a subtask independently of the parent task.

Unanimous positive reaction to the product. Many participants expressed wishes for this product to exist and be usable in a real-world setting.

Product Revisions

Through the usability testing, I was able to learn a lot about the product and how users would interact with it. Using the test results listed above as well as other observations, I used IBM’s feedback grid to organize all my data and made the following revisions to the product interface.

Account Creation

→

I added visual differentiation to the account creation and login screens. I also added standard password constraints.

Create New Task

→

I removed the checkbox and made the task name look and feel more like an editable form field to clear up some user confusion.

→

I added the ability for sub-tasks to have owners and due dates that are independent of the parent task.

Edit Task

→

I redesigned and immobilized the edit menu bar to keep it visible while the user scrolls down the task.

Final Product

What I Learned

I was very happy to hear the unanimous positive reaction from the usability testing participants. Many expressed a desire to use Simplist for their next moves.

While Simplist is functionally similar to task manager, what really sets it apart is the smart quiz that pre-populates the user’s task list with personalized items and due dates.

I believe Simplist’s usefulness extends beyond moving. It could integrate task lists for other significant life events that don’t happen often, like planning a wedding, preparing for the adoption of a new pet, or even the arrival of a new child. Personalized and comprehensive to-do lists during these major life events would save the user lots of valuable time.

The biggest challenge for this project was actually deciding which part of the problem to focus on. During my user interviews, everyone expressed deep frustrations with many aspects of moving. In addition to time management and organization, participants struggled with price transparency for moving services, transferring all of their various utilities, updating their home address, and some even wanted a budgeting tool. While no single tool can address all these pain points, it’s clear that there is ample opportunity to improve the moving experience.

NEXT PROJECT.

NEXT PROJECT.

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