Errandly is a mobile marketplace application for college students to post and fulfill daily errands with their peers.
- Timeline
- 15 weeks, Sep – Dec 2023
- Areas
- Market Research, Interaction Design, Full-Stack Development, Agile Methodology
- Team
- Esther Bae, Clarice Du, Julia Graham
- Tools
- SwiftUI (XCode), GitHub, Firebase, Figma, Procreate, Adobe Premiere Pro, Slack, Trello
- UX
- BRAND
- DEVELOPMENT
Project Overview
My team conceived Errandly as part of a mobile app development competition sponsored by Capital One, where the challenge was to build an app from scratch over a 15 week period (6 sprints).
Errandly simplifies the lives of busy college students by providing a marketplace for students to post and fulfill errands. Whether you need someone to help you move into your dorm, petsit your cat over winter break, or help with any other task, Errandly connects you with trusted peers who are ready to assist.
My Contributions
I took on various hats in the design and development of our app. I was primarily responsible for designing the UX/UI flow, visual identity, and branding.
I also contributed to the code development of Errandly's features in SwiftUI, polishing the views and logic, and I designed various marketing artifacts: a cel-animated commercial (see above video) and brand poster (see at the end of the case study) conveying our application features.
I. Overview
Post Errand Requests
Users can describe what they need to get done by posting a new errand to the marketplace. They are able to share extra details or requirements, mark a preferred date that the errand needs to be finished by, and offer transactions for your errand runner.
To help other students find their errand request, users also have the option of adding their location and/or subject tags to their post.
Run Errands for Other Students
Get compensated for lending a helping hand. In the marketplace, users can find various errands from local students, and view errand details to pick up errands that match your schedule and resources.
Sort and Filter Errands
Search, filter, and sort for available errands. Users can order by time and due date, or look for specific errands based on title or tags.
Users can also sort errands by the distance the errands are away from them, simply by optionally enabling the app to use their iPhone location.
Other Features Include
Secure Payments with Apple Pay
A simple and efficient transaction system through integrated Apple Pay for users to receive compensation for helping with an errand, or to pay an errand runner.
Text Users through iMessages
Connect with other students through text through iMessage redirection. Users can find those who are ready to assist or seeking help, and stay connected throughout the process.
Check Profile & Errand Histories
Log in with your Google account to customize a profile and keep track of app history: which errands you've posted and picked up, which are in progress or complete.
II. Problem
For freshmen and international college students, it can be difficult adjusting to and balancing adulting with college.
As students enter college and adulthood, many are on their own for the first time in their life and face a sudden increase in individual responsibilities. Standard tasks such as moving apartments, picking up food and supplies, or caring for a pet can be difficult without a car or a consistent local presence.
We explored this problem space by conducting guerrilla interviews with 6 students across Pittsburgh campuses. To understand their pain points, we also surveyed 35 undergraduate and graduate college students nationwide about college-specific chores where they needed an extra helping hand.
6 Most Common Errands College Students Identified As Needing Outside Help to Complete
Students are open to the idea of paying for assistance with errands, with 72.7% willing or receptive to doing so.
Upon further interviews with users that answered “Depends” or “Maybe,” we found that affordability and reliability of services are key factors for users, and would be guiding principles when designing our app.
Would you pay for assistance with college-related chores if a convenient, reliable service were available?
33 responses
77.4% of Students are also willing to help their peers, without mentioning incentives like financial compensation.
Upon our follow-up interviews, we noticed that financial incentive helps sway interviewees who answered “Maybe” or “Depends” to be interested in running errands for others.
Would you want to help college students with chores if a convenient, reliable service was available?
31 responses
User Interviews
Our 6 interviews revealed that certain student demographics have less resources, time, or community support to get errands done in a convenient manner. Specifically, freshmen, international, and out-of-state students are adjusting to a new environment and may struggle more to find help, especially as they build a new support system from scratch.
"As an international student in a new country who doesn't know anyone well yet, it can be hard to find someone who can help [with errands]."
– Graduate Student, University of Pennsylvania
"I have difficulty with tasks that require a car, and I didn't bring a car to college. Carrying a lot of groceries, moving apartments, or storing my items over the summer are all tasks where I have to ask around and hope friends can help me."
– Undergraduate Student, Carnegie Mellon University
Real World Examples
Lastly, we explored our own college group channels, chat groups, and social media circles. Among the four of us, we found various real world examples across different platforms of college students requesting help with errands, chores, and services.
Mandatory college meal plans
Students purchasing meal plans have leftover "blocks" (meals) at semester end, so there are many messages offering student food discounts.
Carnegie Mellon Class of 2027 "block-market" channel · Discord server
Pet-sitting over school breaks
On RedNote, a student user is urgently looking for someone local to Pittsburgh to take care of their pets over winter break.
Post from RedNote app (小红书) · Chinese social media platform
III. Research
Our competitive analysis of current market applications indicated that other task-running apps were either too broad or too general.
We observed that existing services focused on completing chores or fostering college communities, but not both.
Although there were various services marketed toward college students, notably, none of them targeted college-specific and campus-specific chores, such as storage of items over the summer, or more daily tasks like needing quarters for dorm laundry machines.
For example, in researching student use of Facebook and Discord, we noticed that while platforms hosted many school-specific groups, conversation would often be unfocused and inconsistent. Facebook skewed toward older students and alumni, while Discord was more popular among underclassmen.
As a result, students posting a request for help on one of those platforms could not reach a large group of potential responders on the other platform. Students had no certainty that help requests would be noticed, or their needs met.
Design Opportunity
How do we simplify busy student life to make room for connections and practical efficiency?
IV. Design
Our design process was iterative across 6 agile development sprints, with 4 rounds of user testing and 2 versions of development.
We each brainstormed early flows of features and functions our app should include. For example, I drew preliminary screens of an app called NexTask, with an onboarding flow and a 3-page menu layout that included a marketplace, post form, and profile page.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
After developing a set of low-fidelity wireframes using the Balsamiq Kit on Figma, we ran usability tests and asked 5 users to run through 3 core scenarios: posting an errand to the marketplace, picking up a peer's errand, and viewing an errand's details. Feedback from this first round of user tests directly informed our high-fidelity wireframes.
USER INSIGHT #1
We needed to refine the terminology used across our app to be consistent.
Users were confused on the language we used for various app actions. We standardized terms in our next design for better clarity.
For example, we changed "request [helper]" to "post [errand]" as the latter aligns with common phrasing on social media platforms. We also consistently used the term "errand" throughout the app, avoiding synonyms like chores/tasks.
USER INSIGHT #2
We had to clarify the logical flow of a user picking up an errand.
In our initial design, we relied heavily on users to respect the honor system, and didn't consider future payment integration for later development.
In our revised design, we added errand pick-up confirmations for both the poster and runner, not just the runner, and added a new errand status for errands in-progress.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Using the new set of hi-fi wireframes, we built an initial interactive prototype.
We tested our interactive prototype with 4 potential users, using 12 different feedback points to adjust the first development sprint. We refined Errandly's visual identity, adding profile indicators to personalize the community experience. After exploring ways to visually differentiate errand tags without making them distracting, we also implemented an emoji-based tagging system in the live application.
Back-End Prep
In the same week, we began testing our APIs and setting up our backend database. In Firebase, we created 2 collections, errands and users, and populated those collections with sample data fields.
Design System
V. Development
After getting user feedback on our designs, we focused on preparing steps for the development, build, and deployment of the app.
We made sure that our data and information architecture were logically sound to streamline our development of Errandly.
App Version 1
We built core, must-have features: authenticating with school emails, posting and viewing errand details, and user profiles. Full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations were implemented, like editing the user profile or deleting an errand.
Third round of testing. Between versions, we conducted testing with 6 users, which highlighted two main problems:
- We needed to prioritize refactoring our code for less lag. There were performance issues when deployed on real devices. To enhance the user experience, we refactored code to ensure smooth interactions and faster response times within the app.
- We had to create immediate feedback for different user types. We lacked immediate feedback after posting an errand or marking an errand as completed. Adding in redirects and permissions, such as sending a user back to the marketplace with an updated feed after posting an errand, solved this issue.
App Version 2
In the second version, we integrated key APIs: CoreLocation to fetch users' real-time location, iMessage for student communications, and Apple Pay for seamless errand payments.
V2 app preview screenshots:
Next Steps
What are users still looking for if we had more time?
VI. Individual Work
After the project cycle ended, I continued working independently to implement new key features for the app and polish Errandly's user interface.
Near the end of our semester, our team recognized a few key improvements we could make if we continued the project past our semester. For example, one highly requested feature we didn't get time to implement was enabling user communication to stay direct in the app, instead of redirecting to iMessage.
Therefore, after the course ended, I carried out some individual work to improve Errandly. Using our developed iPhone app, I conducted a final round of user testing with 5 designers to refine essential features and clarify the user experience. Guided by these user findings, I designed final screens for a more holistic user-centered experience.
VII. Bonus: Updated Interface 1
Posting an errand to the student marketplace involves an input form that breaks the errand down to highlight its important components.
Example: Julia wants to get groceries, but has no car in her college city. She faces a variety of complications: the city bus system is unpredictable, Uber is expensive, and there are too many bags to carry.
VIII. Bonus: Updated Interface 2
Picking up an errand from the student marketplace is a back-and-forth exchange between two student users.
Reflections
⛳ Agile project-making.
This was my first time developing within the mindset and scope of an iOS mobile app, so building Errandly from idea to conception was a new and exciting avenue for me. Using agile methodology and working in sprints and clear timelines helped my team so much in organizing our time.
💻 Practiced full-stack development.
Before this project, I was unconfident in my programming, and thought it might be better for me to stick to designing. However, in building out our app with Swift, I learned how to problem-solve and debug when encountering issues, and ultimately deliver interfaces of enough quality so that we could submit Errandly to the Apple App Store. I now understand firsthand the designer vs. developer memes that are created, and I can appreciate the work of both roles much better.
🤹 Cross-functional teamwork is rewarding.
I was also reminded of the fruitfulness of working in a diverse group; I believe my team was able to really come together and we could leverage all of our differing backgrounds (with teammates who had more CS-heavy or PM-heavy skills) in a way that balanced our strengths together very well.