Month: November 2013

Housecall: Android Wireframes

I’ve wireframed an app called Housecall that utilizes video and handymen to help people diagnose maintenance issues via video chat. It’s a proposed idea on Assembly, which is a groundbreaking new startup that allows anyone to build software apps collectively while retaining ownership and receiving profit for their contributions. If Housecall wins, then it will be built by the Assembly community!

MVP Assumptions

    • Purposely left out styles to focus on UI. Happy to implement color/design schemes (I’d say I’m an intermediate designer). Just let me know!
    • 1 credit = $25 for up to 45 min video sessions. Credits are used to increase multiple purchase uptake.
    • User not charged for first 30 seconds of video chat.
    • Handymen and Users may message each other for free.
    • Admin = Interface that only Housecall approved handymen will have access to.
    • Admin UI – Has taken account the ability to review users. I don’t feel this is necessary for the 1st iteration, but wip #4 was popular and this feature would eventually be necessary.

Handyman and User Relationship for MVP

Get a small group of 2 or 3 plumbers, electricians, etc to install Housecall. When a homeowner initiates a housecall, connect them with someone in this initial group of handymen with the Handyman Admin app (a separate app for handymen). If the consultation determines an onsite repair is required, Handyman would ask user for their location and search Yelp for local Handyman in their area. Handyman would then simply message User with the recommended local Handyman until a 2nd iteration of Handyman is built.

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Wireframes for User Housecall app

housecall-1-3

Select a category – Initially, Housecall will likely have 4 categories, which makes an icon display suitable. Once Housecall were to hit say more than 6 or 8 categories though, a list display may be more appropriate to fit all the categories on the screen. Having a list display for 4 categories doesn’t make sense though because of all the whitespace that will make the screen feel empty.

Plumbers – The Plumbers page needs to immediately communicate whether or not a plumber is available to video chat, since this is what makes Housecall special. I used color to emphasize its importance. It could also be made bold for color-blind users.

Profile Page (Jim Kennedy) – I placed the message and video buttons side by side in the middle of the screen because these are the two key actions of the page. The gray lines help split the profile pg, since Jim’s pic and reviews are aligned differently than the buttons. Additional info could be displayed under reviews. Such as average call time, housecall handyman since, or favorite tool (bring a bit of personality to help humanize the profile pg).

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housecall-4-6

Add Credit Card – If a cc isn’t on file, we’ll have to prompt them for their billing details. Reader’s eyes should gravitate to black text first, then the gray text for extra explanation. An improvement may be made by making the explanations shorter.

Begin Video Chat and Connecting – These screens simply want to confirm the user’s action, and provide a call pg. The weights of these pages could be improved. They feel a bit empty at the moment, but a colored background may help with that.

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Housecall-7-9

Video with Jim – This is the User’s view, which defaults their own camera as the main screen to give the handyman the same view for troubleshooting. Time to track session length is also displayed.

Exiting Video… – Transition screen that displays for a couple seconds.

Jim’s Review – A “do later” button appears at bottom of screen when keyboard is not displayed. Upon completion or “do later”, redirects to landing screen.

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Housecall-nav-drawer

Navigation Drawer – Allows the user to view settings, billing, messages, and any other pages that make sense here.

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Housecall-admin

Admin Housecall video call flow – When a video call is dialed to a Handyman, the flow would function similarly to Skype as shown below.

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How to win Startup Weekend

This weekend, I got a chance to participate in my first Startup Weekend: Startup Weekend Seattle EDU. Education has always been important to me (got into Teach For America and was a click away from teaching in Memphis!), so this event was a no-brainer.

Overall, it was an awesome time with 7 dedicated team members. We built Office Hours, lessons to catered to your senses. The site is a little wobbly, but check out our awesome 60 sec video pitch to learn more. Our team consisted of 3 biz dev, 1 idea curator/presentor, and 3 devs spanning organization like Amazon, Microsoft, Code Fellows, and UW faculty. I like to think we had the most fun, grabbing drinks once it was over and vowing to keep in touch. I hope so!

I helped design and mock the mvp product, prioritizing features and figuring out what was feasible in a weekend. In addition, I worked on the dev side, doing html, css, and a bit of rails. The best part of this weekend was working as a dev, and taking instructions from the business side on different feature requests. It helped reinforce what it’s like to be PM’ed with changing requests or pivots!

Unfortunately we didn’t place 1st or 2nd out of the 12 teams, but heard from two judges that if we had a better scaling strategy, we could of placed! For most of us, it was our first Startup Weekend, so I wanted to write down what I feel is important if your team wants to win a Startup Weekend.

How to win Startup Weekend

  • 25% – business model validation
  • 25% – product execution
  • 25% – user experience design
  • 25% – education impact

Our Startup weekend final presentations were broken down into the categories above. With only 5 min, it’s important to maximize your time to hit all 4 categories.

Product execution and user experience design – This means you should only spend 2 min max on a technical demo. Most Startup Weekends weigh Product Execution as 25%, which means you don’t need a full fledged, function product with user sign ups, about pg, landing pg, and other niceties for a functioning app. Instead, build a technical demo, not a technical product, and make the demo design worthy. It can be tricky to separate the two, but because design is the other 25% of the judging, a slick looking demo with a cool experience definitely helps. Judges don’t care if Facebook Connect works or if your app is responsive in one weekend. Framing the product as a polished demo will help eliminate extra features that take time from what truly makes your product unique.

Business model validation – Build a beautiful powerpoint/presentation. Practice it! Our business team did a killer job researching the market, receiving validation from users, and polishing the presentation into an intriguing story. Your powerpoint represents your team’s design elements as well, so make it easy to understand and pretty!

Education impact – This is where a team with industry experience (in this case, education) is key. It’s not always easy to know what the education space needs if you’re analyzing it as an outsider. I’d say just make sure someone on the team has direct experience with the problem your Startup Weekend is themed around. For us, that was Jonesy, our startup visionary who helped us see that students could learn through tactile and visual lessons as well. Very cool!