An app for Mobile inspections
TLDR
I redesigned the Built Inspect app for construction inspectors after extensive research and shadowing, launching a new app that attracted more inspectors and reduced inspection times by 65% (1.25 days).
Reporting inspection progress to banks has historically been done with spreadsheets, pen and paper, and lots of emails.
In construction lending, money is released by the lender in increments called “draws.” Draws are requests by the borrower for a sum of money to pay for work that has been completed in the construction project (building the foundation, putting on a roof, etc.).
The lender wants to ensure that the work has actually been done and the project is progressing before giving out more funds, so an unbiased third-party inspector is requested to visit the property, take photos to provide evidence of work, and give an assessment of completion for each line item in the budget.
For inspectors working with lenders using the Built system, Built provides them with a tech solution to allow them to complete inspections on their phone and upload them directly to the lender.
A new app was needed to increase business value
The legacy inspection app was barebones with limited functionality and primitive UX/UI. As Built brought more banks onto the platform and more inspectors into their network, a new app was needed to streamline the performance of inspections while also incentivizing use of the platform to inspectors and lenders.
The app needed to serve a tech-averse user-base
The new app needed to appeal and be usable for a demographic that skewed older and and less familiar with technology and mobile apps. In some cases, our users were buying their first smartphone in order to use our app.
The project was kicked off with the PM and I deciding that we need to approach this with a blank slate and learn everything we can about the inspection process and inspectors, themselves.
We began with reaching out to a diverse set of users
We looked through our system and reached out to around 30 of our inspector users across the country. We made sure to include inspectors across regions and of various company size to give a diverse interview group.
From there, I scheduled calls to introduce myself and give them insight into what my mission was, as well as make it clear that I was interested in their input and that their voice mattered to me.
I asked a lot of open-ended questions, such as:
When an inspection goes well, what does that look like for you?
When an inspection goes poorly, what could cause that?
What part of your job takes the most time?
What do you like/not like when using the app?
When dealing with banks not on the Built platform, what does your process look like?
Shadowing inspectors was the best way to learn
To fully immerse myself in the inspector experience, I traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee and Charlotte, North Carolina to shadow two of our inspector users and watch them do their jobs for a day.
They were kind enough to let me and a work companion ride around with them in their truck all day and take notes on their process, as well as see the legacy app in action. This also provided a good bonding experience to establish personal connection with our users.
It was painful and sometimes impossible to manage schedules and perform inspections with the legacy app.
A common theme uncovered was that inspectors would view their daily schedule and drive across the county or state to do an inspection, only to realize later in the week that they had another inspection on the schedule in that same county, requiring a duplicate trip. If they had looked ahead on the schedule, they could have done them both on the same day in one trip.
Last minute scheduling changes were often unnoticed
Another common pain point discovered was that inspectors would sometimes begin their daily route and drive long distances, only to discover that the inspection had been canceled by the lender. There had been no notice other than an auto-email, which almost always went unnoticed.
A similar problem would occur when an inspector was given a last minute assignment for the day while out on their route. An in-app notification center was a simple win to notify them on the fly of these schedule adjustments.
Lender communication was difficult in the field
Project comments from the lender and contact information were incredibly important when visiting a property, and they weren't accessible in the legacy app.
An example of critical info needed on job sites were lockbox and gate codes to enter properties.
Taking photos was cumbersome
The core experience of completing an inspection is taking photos, marking progress of items, and leaving a comment. The legacy app required one photo to be taken and saved at a time, and required precise movements using native scroll wheels that were difficult for older users, or in conditions where gloves were being worn.
Introducing scheduling and property details added huge value to our inspectors.
After several rounds of prototype testing and iterating with our users, designs were dialed in to revamp the scheduling and property experience in the app.
Highlighting today's schedule and the upcoming weeks gave insight into their full schedule
Individual view for today, the next 7 days, and the next 30 days gave an inspector a full view of their assignments with the ability to group by subdivision and zipcode. This provided the info for more intelligent route planning to knock out all upcoming inspections in a given area.
Bringing scheduling alerts into the app provided real time updates to inspectors
An in-app notification center was a simple win to notify them on the fly of these schedule adjustments.
Connecting our inspectors to our lender information reduced communication errors in the field
Adding a details section with easily accessible comments and contact information from the Built project within each inspection gave inspectors the information they needed to troubleshoot issues with the lender or borrower while on the job.
A new photo taking experience streamlined the most tedious aspect of completing inspections.
Streamlining photos to allow batch of photos to be taken in rapid succession cut inspection time in half in some cases.
Larger touchpoints for marking progress also reduced inspection time
Replacing scroll wheels with dedicated button inputs provided an easier method of marking progress that required less hand precision by our users.
Beta testing revealed we needed to address performance issues through design.
Some issues are not always caught in user testing the designs. After design was finalized, we rolled out the app to a beta group of about 30 inspectors to stress test and use to do their field work.
While in beta, we discovered that uploads were taking way too long in remote areas, and also timing out due to the inspector closing their phone prior to the upload completing.
Inspectors needed to save uploads for later when cell signal was weak
The solution was three-fold: make back end changes to improve performance, give better visual feedback of the upload status, and create a way to “save” the upload until returning to WiFi or a strong service area.
These improvements gave us the elite app experience we needed to launch.
The new app proved to reduce inspection time and was a success for our users and the business.
Wins
The app launch was a success. The app received favorable reviews and inspectors reported spending about 10 minutes less per inspection, which added up to several hours a day in some instances. The app also became a primary seller for the business unit to report more inspectors to join our network. More inspectors joining the network gave us the ability for more coverage area for banks. This ultimately led to our business unit becoming the most profitable part of the business, growing inspection revenue more than 75% from 2020 to 2021.
Banks and inspectors using Built Inspect were also proven to reduce their overall inspection times by 65%, or an average of 1.25 days.
User quotes
"This app makes submitting inspections very efficient and easy! The developers are always searching for new ways to improve and solutions to bugs or problems and always open to ideas!!"
"The built app is far superior to any other in the industry. Streamlines all inspections making it easier for inspectors in the field. Highly recommend!"
"Latest updates are fantastic. This app makes doing inspections extremely efficient"