Zeel Provider App

Product Designer • March - October 2019

Zeel is a double-sided marketplace that brings massage on demand to consumers, spas and businesses. Zeel’s suite of apps include a consumer facing app, a CMS and a provider app.

My Role

At Zeel I owned the Provider App experience – The mobile app that massage professionals use to bid on appointments, customize availability, manage appointments and assist in-session.

Defining The problem

Zeel’s providers need an on-the-go tool that is as flexible as their unique lifestyle.

Zeel’s fleet of providers are independent contractors who value an entrepreneurial spirit. They are more than just massage professionals - they are parents, students, personal trainers, yoga instructors, they run their own businesses and they demand an autonomous schedule.

Measuring success

The first version of Zeel’s provider app was functional but as the company grew, my team recognized the need to deliver an equally human centric provider app that shared the same language and experience as the consumer facing app.

I set out to familiarize myself with Zeel’s network of providers, empathizing with their day-to-day challenges and identifying opportunities to drive utility in order to help them succeed as modern day massage professionals.

I learned that the health and continued growth of Zeel was dependent on retaining quality providers to deliver the highest standard of care to our consumers.

Success would look like:

1. More appointments being booked

   More appointments being booked would increase Zeel’s share in the gig economy and ultimately drive business revenue.

EXPLORING SOLUTIONS

Going once, going twice

When a customer books an appointment on the Zeel consumer app, they have the option of selecting gender, massage type, time range and location. Zeel then sends out appointment requests to all providers in the network who match the appointment’s criteria.

Upon receiving the appointment request, providers can bid on it by accepting it as is or requesting a more specific start time. Zeel’s operations team would then select the respondent provider with the closest fit and send them a confirmation request. Once a provider confirmed, the appointment was good to go.

In my design of the appointments tab, a provider would see a high-level view of appointment requests and the status of appointment requests they had bid on. Tapping on a request would open up the detailed view and an option to bid on the request. The bidding drawer contained a summary of the request with the option to further customize the time range. The appointment would then move under pending until it was confirmed, declined or modified.

Never miss an appointment

After a series of in-person and online interviews with a sample of Zeel’s provider community, we discovered a growing need for an automated booking system. Providers didn’t have time to wait by their phone for appointment requests. Going back and forth with the bidding process was tedious and those who were in-session were unhappy about missing out on appointments requests that came in while they were working.

In collaboration with the operations and engineering teams, I began exploring ideas for a passive booking system. I wanted to create an experience that would allow providers to “set it and forget it”. Rather than responding to individual appointment requests and waiting for each one to be confirmed, what if providers could simply input their availability and let Zeel know if they wanted to be automatically booked? The concept of Autobook was born. The engineering team began building a new API to support automated booking while I explored solutions for a user experience that allowed ultimate control but could be operated by anyone.

I began prototyping explorations for Availability and Autobook in-person with our providers. Through the testing process, the problem of locations revealed itself:

A provider who lives in Brooklyn but works in Manhattan may only want to take appointments in a localized area for the day, especially if they are carrying their massage table on the subway. But perhaps on weekends, they’d like to stay in Brooklyn and take appointments close to home.

The Autobook feature I designed allows providers to customize availability blocks for any time, date and location. By creating an availability block, providers are opting-in to be automatically booked. For providers who don’t wish to participate in Autobook or for time slots that don’t have an availability block, providers would still receive appointment requests via the original booking system.

Maintaining the Zen

I noticed that during massage events, providers used creative ways of keeping time - some brought a kitchen timer while others used the timer on their phones. The problem with using the phone’s timer is that a provider would need to navigate away from the app to access it. Additionally, if a customer happened to look up, the timer interface didn’t exactly give off zen vibes.

I came up with a design for an ambient in-session timer with the option of a horizontal view. Providers could lean their phone up against a wall or object with a beautiful, soothing animated gradient background and a music integration. A large button allowed a provider to move on to their next session without having to pick up their phone - an action that most of us take for granted but isn’t so convenient when your hands are covered in massage oils.

The traditional vertical view of the in-session timer featured a look ahead view of the massage event.

All in a day’s work

When providers are ready to check out an appointment, they are given a summary of appointment and payment details. If an appointment went over or under the original duration, a provider has the option of adding or subtracting 15 minute time blocks. If parking is reimbursable, a provider can upload their receipts to Zeel for review. Finally, a provider is given the opportunity to rate their client and provide feedback on whether or not they would like to work with them again.

Looking ahead

Establishing a Design System