My Home Depot Internship Experience
Role
Duration
Skills
Team
UX Designer
11 Weeks
UX Research
UX Design
Technology Research
2 Software Engineers
1 UX Designer (Me!)
The Problem
The Home Depot doesn’t have a system of communication from leader to associates during times of emergency.
During the pandemic, a nation-wide emergency, top down down communication from leader to associate was a constant struggle due to constant changes in state regulations for mask and vaccine requirements and because there was no clear tool to share these updates with the associate.
The Solution
Adding a communication feature to Workforce Tools, an app that I would describe as a Home Depot associate’s best friend.
Workforce Tools is downloaded on all associates’ phones. Associates can request time off, view their time cards, and access all necessary information regarding their job at The Home Depot on this app.
The Idea: By allowing associates to get messages directly to this app from their leaders, this could help solve the challenges regarding leader-associate communication.
Key Features
Firebase technology allows location based user targeting
Firebase is the platform that allows for in app messaging to happen on Workforce Tools. Within this platform it is possible to target users by location. Below are three different examples of messaging that can be sent out depending on the desired targeted user group.
Dynamic linking can allow for leaders to get real time feedback from associates
We implemented dynamic links in some of the messages to allow associates to click on a button in their message and complete an action item. Firebase allows Home Depot leaders to track and conduct Google Analytics on these action items to test the efficacy of these notifications. This can help leaders further refine this communication platform for future iterations.
Easy to Send, Easy to receive, Easy to Understand
As shown in the personas below, Home Depot associates can range from all different ages and level of tech savviness. In order to make sure these notifications are easy to use and easy to understand, we settled for a more simple design with a graphic, primary text for the title, secondary text for the description, and a dynamic linked button that can be used for associates to complete an action item.
Internship Takeaways
Research
When creating a brand new feature from scratch, various forms of user research needs to be conducted to help hone in on what exactly we are designing and for what purpose.
I conducted 4 User Interviews with associates, and 3 User Interviews with managers. Afterwards, I summarized through all the interview notes, grouping all of the key points made during the interviews into overarching themes to contextualize the project.
1. Storytelling is essential when trying to push an intern project to production.
To show the business value it is very important to show the business need and garner empathy form the business itself. I conducted 3 different end of semester presentations: To executives, to the product team, and the entire enterprise UX team. For each audience I modified my presentation and showed the most relevant parts of the project to best highlight the project.
2. Proactively sharing the UX Research with cross functional team members helps collaboration.
On my team, there were 2 software engineers and myself. We didn’t have a product manager to guide the progress of our product. While daunting at first, I figured out the best way to collaborate and be on the same page is to involve the software engineers in my UX process. It was really cool to see the software engineers advocate for the users as well!
3. Technology and design systems at a particular company shapes potential of design.
Having an internship with the world’s biggest home improvement retailer’s technology department taught me a lot about the different constraints on design, technology and timelines. I learned about the importance of trying to find the balance in advocating for the user and making compromises when needed.
