Neu is an early-stage startup based in Seattle, WA that provides a tech platform connecting homeowners with house cleaners, specifically in the vacation rental space. Neu has since pivoted to Spritz in 2022.
Cleaners and vacation rental hosts using Neu do not have a standardized platform to track and manage property cleanings. Additionally, Neu’s team does not have a streamlined method of maintaining customer support and internal operations.
User Experience Designer
March 2019 - July 2020
Kwame Boler - CEO
Claudius Mbemba - CTO
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
To centralize Neu's operations, I developed a native dashboard application for mobile and desktop platforms to streamline real-time property cleans and communications between vacation rental hosts and cleaners.
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
In order to find a clearer design direction for Neu's dashboard platform, I interviewed all three user segments at Neu: cleaners, hosts and Neu's operations team. I interviewed six hosts, four cleaners and three team members at Neu and was able to distill my findings into a list of pain points that informed my end design goals.
To centralize all existing operations and streamline work flows for all three user segments, the design solution needed to:
Build out the MVPs for each user segment with a focus on mobile interfaces for cleaners and hosts
Standardize Neu's design language to ensure a sense of continuity between interfaces
Make the transition to the dashboard application seamless by removing any barriers to onboarding
MAPPING OUT THE FLOWS
The most important user flow for the cleaners was streamlining interactions with the app during a clean. A lot of the cleaners were frustrated that they had to continuously check their phone while cleaning as most of them liked to get into a flow. Cleaners updating the app was pivotal to providing hosts with real time updates of their unit cleaning, so I focused on simplifying the process by only including two interactions: tapping and taking pictures.
To improve customer retention, we needed to streamline the process for hosts when adding new units to the platform. Although we had third party integration, like Airbnb, we needed a new method of onboarding units in the form of a questionnaire as another way to add units.
Currently, inventory management at Neu is completely off-app in spreadsheets. We wanted to centralize how Neu's operations team managed inventory to make the process more integrated with Neu's digital platform. Additionally, this flow would ideally track when inventory falls below threshold and alert Neu employees without needing them to manually check.
FINAL DESIGNS
Provides access to information and instructions to cleans, calendar schedules, overview of billing and payment, cleaner stats and Neu's internal support team.
Provides detailed tracking of cleans in real time in addition to editing instructions for units, billing and payment, calendar schedules and Neu's internal support team.
Centralizes management of schedules, tracking cleans in real time, an overview of Neu's growth, and troubleshooting host and cleaner problems.
Streamlines the transition to the dashboard application with tutorial pop-ups that guide users through the interface and it's features.
CHALLENGES
When designing the dashboard interface, I was tasked with defining a new visual language to create a sense of continuity between all of Neu's platforms. I kept Neu's original blue and green color palette, only adjusting the hues, as these colors are associated with a feeling of dependability and assurance. Furthermore, I chose Poppins as the typeface for Neu because of it's rounded and friendly composition.
REFLECTION
Being the only designer at a startup, especially as an intern, was an incredibly intensive experience that pushed me to examine who I am as a designer and what my design philosophy is. Previously, I only designed in an educational capacity in my undergraduate classes, so it was exciting to see how my work could translate into business goals that improve customer retention and experience.
Additionally, I got the chance to work closely with both the CEO and CTO, Kwame Boler and Claudius Mbemba, and was able to get in-depth look into how startups gain traction and buy-in, as well as the importance of collaboration that is necessary between designers and engineers to get a platform up and running.
If I were able to continue my work at Neu, I would want to continue building out the mobile application as it's usage is incredibly important for both cleaners and hosts. I would also want to test my designs with the user segments I had previously interviewed to track what new features are useful and what could be improved.
My time at Neu has given me the space to test my knowledge and skills as a designer, and I am extremely grateful to Kwame and Claudius for their endless support and trusting me as their designer!
Designed by LXM