Tidii
Tidii is our in-house product: a marketplace where people post everyday tasks, from repairs to cleaning, and local contractors take them on. We design and build it ourselves.
The idea
We started Tidii to make hiring someone for a small job at home quick and safe for both sides. A customer should be able to post a task in a few minutes and pay only when the work is done. A contractor should be able to find work nearby and build a reputation through reviews.
Before designing any screens, we wrote the use cases for both roles, from posting a task to leaving a review, and drew the logic of each step as a diagram.
First version and what we changed
Our first prototype used a step-by-step form for posting a task: category, description, address, date and budget. In tests, people took too long to fill it in, and many stopped halfway.
We tried two alternatives:
- A full chat, where an assistant asks every question one by one
- A hybrid, where the customer describes the problem or sends a photo, and the assistant fills in the request itself
The hybrid worked better. The assistant now fills in the request and asks two or three follow-up questions only when it needs more detail. Posting a task takes one to three minutes.
Designing the system
Tidii consists of two mobile apps, one for customers and one for contractors, built on one design system. Every screen exists for both roles and in every state. Along with the assistant, we designed:
- Offers, contractor profiles with ratings, reviews and a portfolio
- Escrow payments: the app holds the money until the customer confirms the task is done
- A messenger with prepared messages for each stage of a task, including a reminder two hours before a visit
- Error and empty states for every screen
So far the system includes about 250 screens and more than 3,000 components.
The landing page
The landing page went through three full versions before we built it. We wrote the copy in English and Russian next to the layouts and changed the structure each time the product changed. After launch we tested the page on real devices together with the developers.
Team and stack
A team of five works on Tidii: two product designers, two mobile engineers and a back-end engineer.
- Design: Figma, one design system for both apps
- Mobile: React Native for iOS and Android
- Back end: Node.js and PostgreSQL
- Landing page: Next.js
Where it stands
The design of both apps is complete, and the apps are in development. We test each new build with a small group of customers and contractors and feed what we learn back into the design.
