AppWash
I redesigned AppWash by researching resident pain points, then shipping clearer flows for sign-up, machine search, notifications, and issue reporting.
- Role
- UI/UX Designer, Researcher
- Timeline
- 2024 · 4 weeks
- Tools
- Figma, Photoshop, Interviews
Highlights
The redesign targets the frustrations residents hit most often in shared laundry rooms: seeing what’s free, finding the right machine, and reporting what’s broken.
01
Clear system overview
See available machines, or the one you are using, on the home screen so it is easy to decide when to do laundry and track status at a glance.
02
Quick machine search
Search by machine number instead of scrolling a random list, so payment is faster and less frustrating after you have loaded a washer.
03
Easy issue reporting
Report a broken machine in under two minutes in the app. The manager is notified right away, without a trip to the security desk.
Overview
AppWash is a digital laundry management app that connects shared laundry rooms for accommodation providers. Residents use it to find machines, pay for cycles, and stay on top of laundry day.
Choose an available machine and load your dirty laundry
Set the washing machine and start the machine
Find the machine number on the app and make payment
The redesign was grounded in living with the product: I was a long-term AppWash user in student housing, and used that proximity for research, synthesis, and design.
Ownership
- Domain and competitor research
- Resident interviews and complaint synthesis
- Problem framing across users, providers, and the business
- Flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity UI
- Concept validation for search, notifications, and reporting
The current website includes features such as:
View machine availability in the laundry room
Receive notifications when laundry is complete
Make payment for using a machine
View how long the machine has been running
Research
Shared laundry rooms have limited machines and high peak demand. Any delay, breakdown, or confusing step ripples across the whole building, so efficiency is operational, not a nice-to-have.
Primary users are busy students juggling classes, work, and social life. They need tools that save time and reduce stress, not more admin at the laundry door.
How I learned
- Personal observation as a long-term AppWash user
- Resident complaints from the building group chat (late pickups, theft, poor maintenance)
- Five resident interviews to validate patterns
- Current-interface audit of screenshots and user flows
- Competitor analysis to find feature gaps and unmet needs
From the resident group chat
“I believe three laundry machines are out of order…”
“Can people please come pick up their laundry so I don’t have to take it out?”
“Did someone take my laundry??”
“Guys, please keep the laundry room clean. It’s disgusting”
2023
325
messages requesting others to pick up their laundry
Process detail
About four weeks from living with the product to a full redesign: research, modelling, definition, and articulation, with every UI decision pointing back to a real laundry-day frustration.
Challenge
Research kept pointing to four problems that hurt residents first, then accommodation providers and Miele. If those stay unsolved, residents lose trust, providers absorb more complaints, and the product looks weaker against competitors.
01
Inconvenient sign-up
The last step needs a 5-digit machine code from the laundry room, so people start in their room and abandon the flow, then restart later at the machines.
02
Weak notifications
Cycle-complete alerts ignore routines. Residents are studying or working when the ping arrives, laundry sits uncollected, and conflicts escalate.
03
Hard machine selection
After loading a machine, finding its code in a randomly ordered list slows payment and adds stress at the moment people just want to start the cycle.
04
No reporting path
Broken machines got ignored or mentioned in the group chat instead of reaching maintenance. There was no in-app way to flag an issue.
Solution
The redesign focused on removing friction at the moments that already cause the most stress: getting in, finding a machine, getting notified, and reporting what’s broken.
01
Convenient sign-up
Separate accommodation verification from account creation so residents can finish sign-up from their room, then verify when they reach the laundry. Expected impact: higher sign-up completion, because the laundry-room barrier no longer blocks registration.
02
Smart notifications
Early reminders 10 to 15 minutes before the cycle ends, backup alerts if laundry is still sitting, and a completion confirmation in the app. Routine-based reminders are more effective for timely action (Stawarz et al., 2014), so this should increase on-time collection.
03
Easy machine search
Search by machine number and sort by status (Available, Unavailable, Out of order) instead of scrolling a random list. In timed task tests, completion was about 58% faster than the current flow.
04
In-app reporting
Report a broken machine in under two minutes inside the app, with an instant path to the manager. Projected impact: about 90% of residents would use in-app reporting at least once during their stay.
faster machine search after redesign
Timed task comparison, redesign vs current flow
90% projected to use in-app reporting at least once
Intended adoption during a typical resident stay
Reflection
Living with AppWash made the research honest: the loudest problems were not theoretical, they showed up every laundry day in the building chat and in my own routine.
The project was also a process milestone. In about four weeks I moved from observation and interviews through modeling, definition, and articulation into a full redesign, using timeboxing habits from my DTT Multimedia internship to leave room for learning without losing the thread.
The work reinforced that strong product design here is less about prettier screens and more about aligning the system with how busy residents already behave.