UX/Product Design

OnePoint Home Inspection iPad App for Pillar to Post

OnePoint Home Inspection iPad App for Pillar to Post

OnePoint iPad app screen 1 OnePoint iPad app screen 2 OnePoint iPad app screen 3 OnePoint iPad app screen 4 OnePoint iPad app screen 5 OnePoint iPad app screen 6 OnePoint iPad app screen 7 OnePoint iPad app screen 8 OnePoint iPad app screen 9 OnePoint iPad app screen 10 OnePoint iPad app screen 11

The Story

Pillar to Post is a successful and growing home inspection franchise who needed to replace their outdated inspection software. Their previous process consisted of note-taking on paper in addition to data entry on a bulky laptop during and after an inspection. The home inspection itself would take several hours, with another 3 hours on average to finish up notes and generate a report, per inspection.

As part of a larger business transformation, they wanted to attract more franchisees by offering a superior home inspection capture and reporting tool. It was important that reports, payments, and signatures could be handled onsite, printed, and left with homeowners immediately after the inspection, rather than the usual 2-3 day turnaround.

The Ask

This was a very complex product to design and build. Some considerations and risks before we even got into requirements included offline capability, coordination with a third party scheduling software firm on another continent, managing expectations across a large group of stakeholders with varying degrees of decision-making authority, and some non-negotiable deadlines around demo readiness in time for the annual franchisee conference.

The new inspection app needed to:

  • Provide the inspector with a snapshot of current, upcoming, and completed inspections, as well as inspection reports (referred to as VIAs)
  • Provide a map with markers for the day's inspections
  • Allow the inspector to receive an inspection from the 3rd party scheduling call center and edit its details
  • Allow the inspector to create and edit templates for different inspection types
  • Allow edits, upsells, and customer-friendly screens that explain the benefits of the package they have purchased
  • Allow the inspector to capture, edit, and notate photos
  • Process payment onsite
  • Capture signatures
  • Generate a PDF report to share or print
  • Function offline
  • Accomodate variable inspection formats as regulated per state/country
  • Eliminate the need for excessive typing
  • Eliminate the need for extra paperwork completion after an inspection

Role, Process, Who I Worked With

As UX design lead, I worked in collaboration with my technical architect, project manager, business architect, account director, and developers to strategize around this project. We coordinated with our client's project manager, various program directors, business analysts, and home inspectors.

Key activities included:

  • Worked with project team and client to develop and validate user stories
  • Followed along on a home inspection to gain perspective of multiple user scenarios
  • Evaluated design scope and planned roadmap for multiple workflows' design sessions, validation, sign-offs, etc
  • Created all wireframes and interaction documentation
  • Led solutioning workshops, user flow validation, and design review sessions
  • Oversaw logo and UI design, utilizing our crowdsourcing design community, TopCoder
  • Worked closely with designers and developers to ensure consistency during UI design and prototype production

The Result

The new app is flexible and intuitive enough that inspectors can capture and document the entire home inspection while on site, and and in less time. In addition to making their job easier to perform, the new app puts more time back in the inspectors’ day to perform additional inspections and increase their earning potential with easy upsells that homeowners understand. The app can be purchased by franchisees who have valid licensing credentials.

In Retrospect

This is another instance where I would have enjoyed facilitating user testing with inspectors who are just learning the new app. I suspect that if I have to choose a home inspection company, it would be this one, if only to observe them using the app and ask them more about it.

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