The Problem:
As part of a school project, we were tasked to come up with a solution to a problem that most of us were facing. As for me, house cleaning and doing laundry was stressful. Some of the challenges I faced were:
1. Lack of time due to busy schedules
2. Unreliable service providers
3. Lack of concrete referrals
Research & Discovery
I came up with the idea of a mobile application that would link customers like myself to service providers. To validate my assumptions, I conducted research and interviewed several people about the difficulties they encountered when seeking service providers.
I interviewed a lot of people, and it was amazing to see how they found service providers for important services. It was also a great chance to meet new people who are experts at building mobile apps. One thing I learned from the interviews was that most service providers depend a lot on word-of-mouth recommendations to get new clients. This helped shape the idea for the app.
Strategy & Design
The research I did showed a big problem: there was a gap between people who needed services and the people who provided them. It was like they were speaking different languages! The Taidi app is all about solving the problem and making it easy for everyone to connect.
Here are the features that would try to solve the problems:
1. A sign-up journey for both the client and also the service provider. This would help in terms of verification.
2. A catalog of different service providers to choose from.
3. A rating system that would help the client make an informed decision on who to pick.
The name "Taidi" is a fun play on the word "Tidy" in Swahili. I wanted the app to feel warm and welcoming, but also professional and modern because it's a new application. The colors orange, black, and gray helped create that feeling.
I started by defining the brand identity, this would help create a strong connection with the audience. I designed a logo using the colors I had previously selected. I opted for the Montserrat font for its san-serif design which conveys a sense of stability and trustworthiness.
Due to time constraints, using Figma, I crafted low-fidelity wireframes which I presented to the class for feedback. The response was positive and I continued to work on the high-fidelity wireframes that would be used for testing.
User testing
I created a prototype that was used for testing with 12 participants to validate the effectiveness of the new design. The results were overwhelmingly positive.
Seeing how much the app would help people, my dream is to develop Taidi further and bring it to market so that everyone can experience the ease and convenience it offers.
