The Challenge
For B2B Barbers:
Queue management interface: Designing a clear and efficient interface for barbers to manage appointments, update queue status, and communicate with clients.
Customization options: Allowing barbers to personalize their profiles, showcase their styles, and manage booking rules for busy periods.
Freelancer options: In USA most of the barber shop are run by freelancers (certain number of people group together and open a shop), these shops are mostly run by 1 person (the shop owner).
Time management: Managing time for appointments and queue became a huge task for us, it took us 2 months to figure out all the cons for managing and merging time for queue & appointments.
For B2C Users:
Information overload: Balancing showcasing barber profiles, live queue availability, and appointment booking options without overwhelming users with information.
Visual hierarchy: Prioritizing key information like available barber slots, queue position, and estimated waiting times for walk-ins.
Seamless B2C/B2B integration: Ensuring a smooth user experience even if barbers update their queue status or close for the day.
Location accuracy and real-time updates: Maintaining accurate barber location data and reflecting live queue changes instantaneously.
Personalization and convenience: Allowing users to set preferred barbers, save booking preferences, and access appointment history easily.
Process
I started this project with a team by understanding the user's needs, and gathering information. We conducted extensive research on the competitors to identify best practices, trends and give people some new feature and give easily accessible app that saves their precious time.
User research
Team meetings and ideating the idea to reality
Debating about numerous the solution
Craft a design with the main idea
Test the app to validate the idea
Solution
For B2B Barbers:
Drag-and-drop queue management: Enable barbers to easily update queue positions and assign appointments with intuitive drag-and-drop functionality.
Customizable profiles: Allow barbers to upload photos, showcase specialties, and set flexible booking rules for busy periods.
Freelancer option: We gave option to join as an Owner of a Freelancer, it solved almost every problem for the workers. The freelancers can easily join a business (which are granted by the owner) and the owner too can work as a freelancer.
Time management: For every shop owners they can customize their time and set the rules accordingly, shop owners can also manage their work time on daily basis.
For B2C Users:
Tabbed interface: Split barber profiles, live queue, and booking options into distinct tabs for focused navigation.
Visual cues: Use color coding, bold fonts, and prominent placements to highlight key information like available slots and queue position.
Real-time notifications: Alert users to queue updates, barber status changes, and appointment reminders to ensure a connected experience.
Location filtering and sorting: Allow users to filter barbers by location, proximity, and preferred styles for quicker discovery.
User profiles and preferences: Implement profiles for storing booking preferences, saved barbers, and appointment history for personalized convenience.
Key takeaways
Designing something with visualization for both B2B & B2C became a huge part of my learning. The project is live on App Store & Play Store and we're still adding new features and trying our best to improve the user experience to the core.