Overview
HomeStars is Canada’s largest network of verified and community-reviewed home service professionals. HomeStars allows homeowners to get matched with up to 5 service professionals for all ranges for jobs, get quotes from those pros and choose which pros are best for their job.
HomeStars has existed as an online web platform since 2006 but has never had a mobile app available for homeowners to use.
HomeStars is Canada’s largest network of verified and community-reviewed home service professionals. HomeStars allows homeowners to get matched with up to 5 service professionals for all ranges for jobs, get quotes from those pros and choose which pros are best for their job.
HomeStars has existed as an online web platform since 2006 but has never had a mobile app available for homeowners to use.
Challenges
Create and validate a proof of concept mobile app for HomeStars
All of HomeStars’ competitors had some presence on mobile and it was quite obvious to the company that it needed to move toward building a stronger presence on mobile in order to maintain competitiveness in the home services market.
However, we needed to validate with our users to see if investing resources into a mobile app was the best path forward, so creating and releasing a proof of concept app was decided in order to gauge user interest.
However, we needed to validate with our users to see if investing resources into a mobile app was the best path forward, so creating and releasing a proof of concept app was decided in order to gauge user interest.
Improve response rates between homeowners and contractors
All of HomeStars’ competitors had some presence on mobile and it was quite obvious to the company that it needed to move toward building a stronger presence on mobile in order to maintain competitiveness in the home services market.
However, we needed to validate with our users to see if investing resources into a mobile app was the best path forward, so creating and releasing a proof of concept app was decided in order to gauge user interest.
However, we needed to validate with our users to see if investing resources into a mobile app was the best path forward, so creating and releasing a proof of concept app was decided in order to gauge user interest.
Role, scope, and constraints
I’m the UX designer on the “Homeowner” team, primarily working on homeowner-facing features. I worked closely with our mobile engineering team and our PM for this project. Our mobile team is very small (two engineers, one per platform) and in order to keep costs and timelines as small as possible, we needed to limit our feature set to only what was absolutely necessary, primarily focusing on messaging and managing conversations
Solution
As a proof of concept, we needed to keep the scope of the project as small as possible while still providing an app that was useful to our users.
As a proof of concept, we needed to keep the scope of the project as small as possible while still providing an app that was useful to our users.
Homepage, category search, and service request flow
The homepage gives users an overview of what popular job types are available and allows them to search for any category we have available.
Currently, this flow is handled on the web, in the future this will be handled within the app, this was done intentionally to reduce scope. Users fill out a short questionnaire about their home project and HomeStars finds relevant pros based on their answers.
The homepage gives users an overview of what popular job types are available and allows them to search for any category we have available.
Currently, this flow is handled on the web, in the future this will be handled within the app, this was done intentionally to reduce scope. Users fill out a short questionnaire about their home project and HomeStars finds relevant pros based on their answers.
Projects Tab
Any project the homeowner has started is available here, users can see which pros have accepted or declined their projects.
Past projects are any projects that have been completed or canceled by the user.
Any project the homeowner has started is available here, users can see which pros have accepted or declined their projects.
Past projects are any projects that have been completed or canceled by the user.
Project view
Acts as an inbox for any messages related to that particular project. Users can see a pros rating, number of reviews, and their verified badge. This allows users to assess their pros at a glance.
This view allows service pros and homeowners to message each other, similar to a standard text messaging conversation. Users can attach photos, send videos and relevant documents to each other here. This page is broken into two tabs “Conversation” and “Reviews”. The reviews tab allows homeowners to read reviews of the pro.
Acts as an inbox for any messages related to that particular project. Users can see a pros rating, number of reviews, and their verified badge. This allows users to assess their pros at a glance.
This view allows service pros and homeowners to message each other, similar to a standard text messaging conversation. Users can attach photos, send videos and relevant documents to each other here. This page is broken into two tabs “Conversation” and “Reviews”. The reviews tab allows homeowners to read reviews of the pro.
Notification Tab
In order to ensure that homeowners don’t miss any unread messages, a history of unread messages is shown in the notification tab.
In order to ensure that homeowners don’t miss any unread messages, a history of unread messages is shown in the notification tab.
Results
The app was released on the iOS app store in June of 2021 and has exceeded our initial expectations. As a proof of concept, it has been a complete success, and the metrics we’re seeing have proven to us that moving to a mobile solution is the right path. We’ll be moving forward adding new features and will begin marketing the app in 2022.
Some notable metrics are:
3,000 organic downloads, with 1,000 net new user signups
~25% service request completion increase when compared to our website
Increased the avg number of messages sent in a conversation by~ 20%
The app was released on the iOS app store in June of 2021 and has exceeded our initial expectations. As a proof of concept, it has been a complete success, and the metrics we’re seeing have proven to us that moving to a mobile solution is the right path. We’ll be moving forward adding new features and will begin marketing the app in 2022.
Some notable metrics are:
3,000 organic downloads, with 1,000 net new user signups
~25% service request completion increase when compared to our website
Increased the avg number of messages sent in a conversation by~ 20%