TMRO is a staffing app for creatives that provides quick payment. TMRO needed a “killer feature” for their mobile app in beta. This was a student project with a three-week agile sprint.
Six backlogged features were suggested, but none was a guarantee for inclusion. Any new feature would be the result of user testing. Those suggested ranged from Digital File Sharing to Mood Boards to Milestone Payments.
Our initial interviews and data synthesis uncovered the users’ need—Trust. Current staffing apps make it difficult for one party to trust another.
Trust is a two-way street. As a result, we created two personas. One was a creative resource, Chloe the Creative and one was the client, Director Delaney. Chloe needed to trust that a proposed project is real and has been properly scoped. Director Delaney needed to trust that the creative she hires can deliver and can communicate effectively.
Our team used a Design Studio approach to come up with features. My project management background and my heavy involvement with the interviews, led me to the beginnings of a holistic solution: Project Builder.
Given our short timeframe, we focused our Minimum Viable Product on the client’s role. However, this MVP answered the needs of both personas.
The first iteration of the Project Builder would include essential data capture such as project name, date, location, and budget, but in an intuitive manner. It also required an estimated deposit for the resource as well as project description, a task list and imagery to convey client inspiration—similar to a mood board.
A Handshake screen would be generated to recap all the info and would be posted in the TMRO Project Marketplace.
Our first round of testing showed enormous enthusiasm from the users, but they were confused at their location. Our solution: land the client land in a new Project Dashboard screen for all the past and current projects.
Users were also confused by the Mood Board screens for inspiration as well as the wireframe layout. What was causing the lack of intuitiveness?
The Handshake screen was renamed Overview for simplicity. Since we only had three weeks, the screen was limited to a summation page that was owned by the client.
When designing the next iteration, the Mid-Fidelity screens, we incorporated branding, imagery, help and empathy text as well as the new Dashboard page to act as both a launching and landing point for the user.
Final testing results showed our changes greatly improved feature flow. However, we did uncover a minor number of cosmetic tweaks including modifications for the call to action buttons and repositioning the progress bar at the top of the screen.
We discovered some essential next steps including: Addressing the real time functionality of the original Handshake screen, Improving the user flow and functionality on the creative side of the application and building out the Dashboard functionality wherein the client could manage multiple resources within the same project.
Kayla Shelton’s response could not have been better. “It was easier to understand then I initially thought it to be…. Thank you so much, I really love the feature, I really, really love it…. After going through everything it’s super easy, super user friendly and creates a lot of clarity between the client and the creative. Definitely something I would want. Great job!”
