CoConstruct gets its name from the desire to better connect builders, homebuyers, and contractors during the custom home building experience. The system does this in many ways, but the most critical is the ability to communicate back and forth about decisions, schedules, and responsibilities.
Using comments, anyone involved in a specific area of the project can discuss or ask questions. Usually, dozens of these conversations happen within a single project, so comments allow them to be stored in the area of interest instead of getting lost in an untamed inbox or text message thread. Often builders have trouble getting their teams & clients to use our communication tools because “everyone is so used to emailing” or “texting is just so easy.” This often leaves the builder with a load of administrative work to copy/paste information into the proper area of the system. CoConstruct asked me to help improve the experience to engage those users.
Adopting a tool is more than just an idea and first iteration—it’s the result of extraordinary customer experience with thoughtful interaction that motivates customers to use them.
To do this, I started by using existing personas, identifying the inactive users, mapping their journeys, and drawing out strategic insights from the process. Then by diving deep into the interactions and patterns of the preferred modes of communication, they were using, instead of CoConstruct, I devised these key goals:
·Implementing a push notification alert function would mimic text messages, encourage more real-time action and interaction between all parties. Within a push, we allow the users to view/open comments set a snooze/reminder, or clear the comment; this will boost the exposure and encourage more immediate action from all parties.
·To combat teams and clients from using and resorting to text and email, the commenting function should use similar patterns to the preferred mediums. To achieve these functions, creating a unified experience between the web app and mobile app is necessary.
