Booking App

Product Design - Product Management - UX Research - UX Copywriting

Project Overview

This project came about when I visited my barber in downtown Detroit while noticing a few hiccups in the payment process. I was told to pay using a third party software which took some time to download, then pay for, and after all that, payment didn't go through until after I left the building.

While they were nice enough to let me exit the shop before payment cleared, I thought something wasn't right nor professional about this from a shop thriving in the city. If this was the way things were done here, I began to wonder how things were done elsewhere. I decided to explore improving this process to see if I could make it better.

My Contributions

This was a personal project of mine which I had planned to launch in the future, and still may. What you see below are the initial stages of creating the design document, the research involved, and the execution of a prototype which I had planned on passing off to an engineer for building. I came up with the business idea, designed the app, and the financial structure under the name, Barbrr.

In my own eyes

I used to think when it came to starting a business I had to come up with an extraordinary idea or have some kind of passion in something I wanted to bring to life. While I've learned these attributes are important, it seems more important to place emphasis on awareness and keeping an eye open for unidentified problems existing in society. From these problems come solutions and if convincing over time, a plan may be executed. For this project, that’s exactly what happened as I decided to take on the challenge of transforming the traditional way of running a barber shop into something completely online for barbers, shop owners, and clients.

Filling in the gaps

The vision for the app started with solving the main issue which I had experienced first hand- the payment system (or lack thereof). I noticed after some research existing apps did have the ability to pay using a debit or credit card, however, most barbers did not take advantage of this.When I got around to testing these platforms, I also noticed the overall strategy was catered towards just the barber and client. This seemed to me like a partial solution in accordance to how most shops are actually run where a shop owner assembles a team of barbers who rent out chairs in his shop who then serve clients (a three way interaction between shop owner, barber and client, not just between barber and client). That being said, I wanted to design a more comprehensive solution which supported this three way model.

Research

I took the chance while getting my hair cut at numerous shops to ask how barbers organized their books and collected payment from customers. One barber, whose shop I've visited for nearly my entire life, still only takes cash and keeps all of his client info in a file cabinet shoved in the corner of his office. Every time I’d visit, I’d watch this self-made millionaire from my hometown dig through stacks of paper accumulated over the 30 years he's been in business while he asked the same question he asked every time: “So, what’ll it be this time?” I enjoy chatting with the guy, but I wondered how much time I could save him if he already knew what I wanted and we didn't have to spend the energy discussing the details. The photo below shows a customer off to the side on his phone still trying to figure out how to pay the barber while the barber has already started his next client. I wanted to eliminate this traffic jam to smoothen out the flow of customers coming in and out of the shop.

Wireframes and mockups

When I design an app, I like to start by designing the main flow first. In this case, that was the experience from when the customer schedules his appointment, all the way until the barber has finished cutting his hair and payment has been made.

After I did that, I created full colored prototypes for all three parties:
‍View the barber side prototype View the client side prototype View the shop owner prototype

Feature: Smart Reciepts

For the payment system, I designed an Uber-like experience which guides the user through scheduling an appointment then making sure the customer attends the appointment on the scheduled day. The app would log all aspects of the experience such as desired haircut style, reference images for the barber, ability to tip, payment amount, and more.

I did this through the creation of what I called a “smart receipt” which would be a live receipt page that would update according to how far along the customer was in the appointment funnel. For example, at the beginning of the appointment the receipt would show all information regarding the upcoming appointment, then when the appointment was over and the payment was made and tip was added, the receipt would update with this information.

Money Flow

If this idea was successful, I wanted to make sure I knew how the money traveling through the app would be distributed. This meant designing how much hypothetically the barber shop would collect from each transaction, how much Barbrr would collect from each transaction and how money would flow from the banks of customers into the pockets of barbers, shop owners, and any possible third parties. I mapped out this framework so in the future I could communicate or replace details with more accurate values.

Future Plans

I’d eventually like to build this app, if possible. I spoke to several engineers while sending them 4 documents to build from: One explained the smart receipts, and two others explained the barber side and client side UI. Lastly, I sent over thedesign doc while coming to the conclusion I’d need additional funding to actually build this. Without regret, I enjoyed the process of discovering a real world problem and creating something to solve this while providing something interesting to share. Maybe one day I’ll bring this to life- thanks for checking it out!