HVAC360° - Anytime, Anywhere.
UX/UI design case for a mobile application that simplifies project management, scheduling, and communication for small to medium-sized HVAC business owners. By creating an intuitive, all-in-one tool, HVAC360 helps owners easily schedule jobs, stay organized, and communicate to build trust with their employees and customers remotely.
Design Process
To better understand the home services space and design an intuitive HVAC project management solution, I researched industry trends and available online data within the home services market. I distributed user surveys through social media and followed up with one-on-one interviews with HVAC business owners, employees, and homeowners. Organized the insights into affinity maps to identify key patterns and created user stories and personas to build a clear understanding of the HVAC360 user base. Using findings from user research and competitive analysis, I identified opportunities to improve the experience and guided the creation of wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes for an HVAC360 application.
EMPATHIZE | Conducted research to develop an understanding of your users
DEFINE | Compiled the research and observe where users’ problems and needs exist
IDEATE | Explore and generate a wide range of ideas based on understanding and research
PROTOTYPE | Build real, useable representations of the product ideas
TEST | Returned to theusers to test the product for feedback on ease-of-use and overall experience
Understanding the User
Key takeaways from my user research, industry trends, market research, google surveys, and in-person interviews.
Insights
Collected user insights to develop user personas through the creation of affinity & empathy maps.
HVAC Business Owners
Most HVAC companies operate in chaos. Customers and employees need to communicate during a project, whether on the road or inside homes, while business owners are hands-on, juggling day-to-day projects and administrative tasks at the same time.
HVAC Customers
Homeowners often feel overwhelmed when problems arise and uncertain about what needs to be done and how much it will cost. They want confidence that schedules and deadlines are being met, and they expect service that’s both fast and reliable. Professional and organized first-impressions are very important.
HVAC Employees & Technicians
Knowing which jobs are a priority and what needs to be done in advance is essential. Employees need to communicate availability and job status, clearly explain project scope, and often feel caught in the middle between managers and customers.
User Personas
USER 1 | Mike "The Boss"
- Self-motivated
- Hates chaos
- Comfortable with technology
- Manages multiple projects and employees
USER 2 | Josh "The Technician"
- Highly skilled tradesman
- On-the-road most of the week
- Uses digital technology but isn’t savvy
- Likes to solve problem
USER 3 | Sarah "The Homeowner"
- Has a busy schedule
- Handles the household budget
- Uses technology daily
- Doesn’t trust husband to fix things
Ideate
Exploring solutions by defining user stories and creating sitemaps and user flows to help guide and design the user's experience
Solving the Problem
How can small to medium HVAC business owners streamline project management and improve communication with customers and employees remotely?
Simple
Design an app that is intuitive and familiar that allows a business owner to focus on day-to-day tasks while managing their team.
Trustworthy
Ensure effective communication between technicians and customers
Effortless
Create an experience that streamlines a users availability and job status
Organized
Allow a user to manage, schedule and communicate with team members and customers all in one place while on the road
Intuitive
Build a smooth and responsive application that users of any technical level can navigate through
User Stories
Created user stories by looking at who the user is, what they want to do, and why, to define what the product needs to do.
Putting It All Together
After gathering data from research and user interviews and identifying key pain points, I used the insights to develop user personas and gain a clear understanding of the problems HVAC360 aims to solve. Using user stories, sitemaps, and focused user flows, I brought everything together into an MVP as a proof of concept. In this section, I’ll walk through the design process, highlighting everything from intital wireframes to brand development and high-fidelity prototypes. ( do a new image here ) stack black duck
Wireframes and Lo-fi Prototypes
To bring HVAC360 to life, I began by exploring rough sketches of key screens to outline the core user experience. These quick concepts served as a foundation for developing wireframes connected to user flows and red routes defined during ideation. From there, I created detailed wireframes that mapped out 4 essential user tasks and interactions. These were then prototyped into clickable lo-fi experiences for early rounds of user testing.
(Click on the link to play the user task)
Lo-fi User Task 1 | Onboard as a new user and schedule a new job
Lo-fi User Task 2 | Open a new job notification and request to reschedule job
Lo-fi User Task 3 | Respond to job a notification and reschedule the job
Lo-fi User Task 4 | Open the calendar and select day view to navigate to a job overview
Branding and Style Guides
HVAC360 represents success, planning, communication, and trust. HVAC is an acronym for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning, and 360 reflects a full-view approach. The brand’s confident color palette aligns with industry trends, while illustrations and icons are designed to feel approachable and familiar. HVAC360 removes the clutter and complexity common in project management tools, focusing instead on a simple, reliable experience users can integrate easily into their daily workflow.
The HVAC360° logo combines bold, modern typography with a clean two-color palette that reflects confidence and control. The warm golden yellow in “HVAC” represents energy and reliability, while the cool charcoal gray in “360°” balances it with precision and clarity. The degree symbol plays on both temperature and a complete 360-degree view, capturing the brand’s focus on comfort, climate, and full-system awareness. The result is a simple, professional mark that feels modern, smart, and dependable.
Lo-fi to Hi-fi
Using the feedback from the first 4 user tasks, i created a hi-fidelity prototype using the same 4 user tasks for a second round of tests. Final branding and a polished user interface design bring the lo-fidelity wireframes to life to test specific interactions and visual details, gather more accurate user feedback, and gain stakeholder approval.
(Click on the link to play the user task)
Hi-fi User Task 1 | Onboard as a new user and schedule a new job
Hi-fi User Task 2 | Open a new job notification and request to reschedule job
Hi-fi User Task 3 | Respond to job a notification and reschedule the job
Hi-fi User Task 4 | Open the calendar and select day view to navigate to a job overview
User Feedback
Overall, users responded positively to the HVAC360 brand and mission statement, which effectively captured the company’s core values and spoke to how they feel when thinking about home services in genral. During feedback sessions, a few questions came up around features not yet included in the current experience, such as invoicing and access to team member lists. The project is ongoing, and will plan to revisit these features in future iterations.
The project’s success can largely be attributed to balancing HVAC business priorities with user feedback, ensuring the product clearly communicates quality and reliability. Users responded especially well to the simplicity of the task flows and the friendly, conversational tone woven throughout the experience.
Summary
This UX/UI design case study details the creation of HVAC360°, an all-in-one mobile application. The app simplifies project management, scheduling, and communication for small to medium-sized HVAC business owners. I followed a comprehensive process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. I began with extensive user research, including surveys and interviews with business owners, technicians, and homeowners. This research helped me develop key insights and detailed user personas like Mike "The Boss," Josh "The Technician," and Sarah "The Homeowner." These findings guided the design of a simple, trustworthy, sometimes effortless, and organized solution. The final product includes wireframes and a distinct brand identity focused on success, planning, and trust, using a golden yellow and charcoal gray palette inspired by industry trends. Finally, I created high-fidelity prototypes and tested them using four essential user task flows, ultimately demonstrating a successful, intuitive solution that simplifies the nature of the home services industry.