What are the deciding factors when a user chooses a specific service provider? How do we communicate those factors to the user?
After understanding value, how do we save both service providers and clients time when it comes to confirming a booking and facilitating a transaction?
Service providers have different scheduling systems. manual bookings, google calendar, calendly, call only, and so on.
We didn’t have the necessary budget to interview as many people as we would have liked to
We looked at several potential competing products and companies to see what their strengths and weaknesses are. Sporttips has the opportunity to capitalise on bringing together sports services of all kinds to create a one-stop shop for athletes of all levels.
The majority of the features between competitors were very similar, however the main downfalls in the journey of finding a sports specialist that we noticed were:
Poor navigation
Barriers to information and conversion (asking users for data before showing them things like price
Lack of specialisation of niche and services
After sketching out some p&p wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, we reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary, and what areas needed improvement.
After creating our prototype from low-fidelity wireframes, we prepared a 10-question survey for participants to fill out before we began conducting a usability test. We prompted 8 different participants to run through different scenarios in our prototype in hopes of gathering enough feedback to use for our next set of design iterations.
When observed, users would seem to be hesitant with existing navigation options, and wanted to be a bit more specific with their search.
Users didn’t know if they could trust the service provider they were dealing with.
Because services were grouped in categories, some categories were not identifiable. For example, orthopaedic services were nested in physiotherapy.
Incorporating additional verbiage to give the viewer a clearer understanding of the potential services they might discover in a particular category
Adding a trusted seller badge to the service description.
Adding a search bar to allow users more specific navigation
Users previously spent 18 minutes on average finding and booking services , now they spend less that 10 minutes doing the same.
From a technical perspective, I learned more about constructing and adapting design systems, and gained more practical experience in both remote and in-person user testing. This project was a great experience for me.
I would focus on acquisition, activation, and retention. I think there are 3 things
The proposed business model of Sporttips (a marketplace) involved taking commissions from specialists. After speaking to a few specialists, it was my understanding that because the majority of services were provided in person, after the specialist meets the prospect for the first session, it would be in the specialist's best (financial) interest to ensure that follow-up sessions are booked through the specialist directly in order to avoid commissions.
With a large number of specialists, whose booking systems may vary (Google calendar, Outlook calendar, etc.) It may be wise to invest in some form of service design to coordinate the automation of the booking processes for both clients and specialists. An example of this might look something like a Calendly API
Through testing, the best practices for writing effective service descriptions can be found. Because different specialists are going to have different levels of communication skills, some may not be able to express their services effectively, and consequently may not be able to convert for themselves and Sporttips. Having something like “Best practices” or prompts when specialists create their profiles may aid in the conversion for specialists and Sporttips.
This was a fun and interesting problem to tackle. I learned a lot about sports services and how people look for solutions to their problems. I am happy and grateful to have been able to work on this project.