Performing a cleaning 

Being the middle man between two sides can put yourself in a difficult situation. When trying to make judgement calls on what happens, how can you know who is right? In a normal business the customer is always right, but what happens when both parties are the “customer?” In 2016, I found myself designing for Handy—a two sided digital marketplace for cleaners and customers to match and work together. Handy was the liable middleman between both parties. There was a lot of issues where the customer and cleaner would have different stories and points of view. How can Handy have a perspective? How can they know who is right?

Goal 

Figure out how to gain enough information and access to an offline experience and make better judgement calls during a cleaning. 

Research

We started by asking some of our cleaners to come in to the office to talk about their job experience. We talked about how customers were able to tell Handy that they showed up late or left early (even if they didn’t). They were frustrated because they had no way to prove the customer was lying. They were also frustrated because customers could rate the cleaners but cleaners couldn’t report or rate customers. These cleaners work hard and deserved to be respected. They wanted the ability to prove they were right in the situation. 

Wireframes

We needed to create a more comprehensive experience for the ‘on the job’ experience in app by understanding what a cleaner is doing the entire time. We discussed with the cleaners what the steps are in a job and phased it into:

• I’m preparing for the job
• I’m traveling
• I’ve arrived
• I’m cleaning
• I’m done

At each phase of their job, we needed to give them the right information in the app. When a cleaner is preparing for a job, what do they need to know? How is this information different from traveling or arriving? Are their indicators along the way that can help alleviate issues the customer might be experiencing? If we can geolocate a cleaner to be 20 mins away and the job starts in 2 mins, can we alert the customer? Could we send a new cleaner if we know a cleaner is not planning on showing up? Can we waive the fee if a customer claims the cleaner left early even if we have tracking that they didn’t?

When sketching and designing the different phases, the most difficult part was dealing with the transition between arriving and working because I wanted the pro to understand that tapping “I’m here” meant that they were actually inside. 

I solved this by transitioning the map and entry info off screen, and replaced it entirely with their to-do list. This way, they knew they couldn’t hit the button “I’m here” until they no longer needing directions or nuances of the address like the apartment number.

Final Design

This experience brought Handy one step closer to solving pro issues more effectively because we could now track the pro’s whereabouts and know what time they arrived, worked, and left the job site. It gave us more insight into a job. We were able to successfully solve problems between the two parties with more knowledge. Our cleaners were able to work harder and feel more confident we were on their side.