Designing a Service App That Wins Business and Users: 58 Home’s Aunt App Case Study

Strategic Layer: Understand Product Positioning & Value

Designers often face endless revision requests because they lack a high‑level view of the product and business. By studying the 58 Home “Aunt” app, we first clarify the product’s purpose: a tool‑type app for cleaning service providers that manages orders, messages, navigation, and personal settings. Beyond surface features, we map stakeholders and the service chain to reveal a missing link—direct management of the service executors (the aunt), which is essential for accurate service quality assessment.

Figure 1: Product requirement prototype

Figure 2: Stakeholder map

Framework Layer: Build a Business‑Fit Functional Architecture

With product positioning clear, we ask what valuable data the aunt app should capture and how it can improve service quality. The answer is to standardize the service through three pillars: process standardization, service standardization, and etiquette standardization. This leads to a combined offline training and online guidance strategy.

Figure 3: Three elements of service standardization

Figure 4: Process + etiquette standardization

We split the workflow into pre‑service, during‑service, and post‑service phases. Offline, we train aunts on timing, scripts, tone, and actions. Online, we provide real‑time prompts and control points, and we capture visual evidence (self‑photos, before/after room photos, and customer reviews) to make service outcomes observable and traceable.

Figure 5: Visual evidence for service standardization

Experience Layer: Define a Reasonable Design Language

The final stage is implementation. Good design must help the business meet its goals while allowing users to work efficiently. By keeping the business focus throughout, the overall framework ensures every design decision aligns with product value.

We tailored the UI for older, less‑educated aunts: large fonts, generous spacing, and frequent guidance. Core modules include “Promotion” (service‑card distribution), “Messages” (system notifications), and “My” (account management and skill development), all designed to streamline task execution.

Figure 6: Key processes & pages of the aunt app

Usability research after launch confirmed the design’s effectiveness, with high SUS scores and strong business metrics.

Summary

The aunt app went from concept to launch in three months, exceeding usability expectations. Future work will focus on cross‑product collaboration and accessibility to further improve home‑service quality.