Wash

Coin-operated laundromats are a permanent fixture in the urban landscape, yet they don’t really blend in. Laundromats are often impersonal and unattractive places. Today, the use of the machines remains basic: the need to “get change,” with no way to monitor or receive alerts about the progress of wash cycles, forcing customers to stay in the laundromat throughout the entire wash cycle…

I thought there was an opportunity to make laundromats—and the laundry experience in general—more“user-friendly”by offering a dedicated mobile app. I also came up with an “Owner” view so that the laundromat manager could access real-time activity tracking. That’s how the Wash project was born .

Issues

Make the experience of using coin-operated laundromats simpler and more appealing through the use of digital technology. Improve and simplify the management of laundromats for owners and managers.

Objectives

User Objectives

• Find a laundromat near you more easily
• Find out about the available machinery
• Control the laundry program remotely to spend less time at the laundromat

Homeowner Goals 

• Have real-time metrics on machine usage (revenue, utilization rate, etc.)
• Reports of incidents (broken machines, lack of laundry detergent, etc.)
• Improve the customer experience to attract customers

Design Process

Developing Personas

To model the app, I created personas that reflect the needs of the main users of laundromats, from choosing a laundromat to making a payment.

Wireframes

I focused particularly on the wireframes related to machine program control. Understanding cycle programming, program selection, and so on is always complex and a source of stress for clients. So I designed interfaces that are simple, fast, and illustrated.

An experience designed for mobile devices

The app was designed for mobile use (iOS and Android), featuring bright colors and modern typography to contrast with the often drab atmosphere of laundromats. Clear, flat-design illustrations and a colorful palette make the experience more dynamic and intuitive.

Visual Identity

The logo must be both striking and legible. Given these constraints, a customized logo based on the location is the obvious choice. The chosen brand identity makes it easy to incorporate the laundromat’s location into the branding system.

Website

A website was designed to complement the app. Modern and minimalist, it reflects the brand’s visual identity and allows users to explore services, locate partner laundromats, and manage their accounts online. Optimized for mobile, it ensures a smooth and intuitive browsing experience. 🔗 Check out the Wash website here

It's over! 👏

Thinking through a use case that affects millions of users is always an exciting experience.

It’s in cases like this that we can truly appreciate the power of digital technology: a simple mobile app can completely transform a service or an industry. Thank you to everyone who helped me with the Wash project: the laundromat users I interviewed and my designer friends who gave me some very helpful advice.