REHAU Connect – UX Research & Market Adoption Analysis
Led UX research for REHAU Connect, analyzing low adoption in the UK as installers preferred pen-and-paper over digital tools. Conducted user interviews, competitor analysis, and journey mapping, identifying usability issues, missing features, and adoption barriers with clear solutions.
REHAU Connect installer's login window
Project overview
REHAU Connect is an online platform designed to help window installers plan, sell, and generate quotations for fabricators. Despite its launch, the UK pilot market showed poor adoption, as many installers preferred pen-and-paper methods over digital tools. I was hired to investigate usability issues, behavioral resistance, and competitive gaps through extensive UX research, identifying key barriers to adoption.
Rehau Connect - Pen and Paper vs Digital
Design Challenges & Solutions
Low user adoption & resistance to digital tool
Challenge: Window installers, especially in small businesses, resisted switching from pen-and-paper to digital tools on-site.
Solution: Conducted interviews with current and former REHAU Connect users to understand why they resisted change. Identified key behavioral and workflow challenges, recommending onboarding strategies and feature adjustments to ease the transition.
Usability & Learning Curve Issues
Challenge: Installers found REHAU Connect difficult to use, with a steep learning curve that slowed them down during home visits.
Solution: Conducted usability testing, mapped pain points, and recommended UI simplifications to streamline sketching, configuring, and quoting workflows.
Missing Competitive Features
Challenge: Competitors offered tools with better functionality and user experience, making REHAU Connect less appealing.
Solution: Ran a competitive analysis of 23 features, highlighting key missing functionalities and advising on high-impact features to prioritize.
Fragmented Installer Journey
Challenge: The workflow from acquiring a lead to installation was not fully supported, causing frustration among installers.
Solution: Created personas and mapped the installer journey across lead acquisition, customer visits, sketching, quoting, surveying, ordering, and installation. Identified critical gaps in REHAU Connect that hindered efficiency.
Stakeholder Alignment & Research Strategy
Challenge: The team lacked a clear understanding of the root causes behind poor adoption.
Solution: Conducted stakeholder interviews and developed hypothesis-driven research questions, covering usability, workflow challenges, and behavioral resistance.
Rehau Connect - Hotmap analysis
Impact
Delivered a detailed UX report outlining missing features, usability challenges, and behavioral adoption barriers.
Provided clear competitor benchmarking, guiding REHAU on how to bridge functional gaps.
Defined personas and journey maps, giving the team a user-centered strategy to improve adoption.
Offered actionable recommendations to transition installers from pen-and-paper to digital workflows.
This research provided strategic clarity for REHAU, helping them refine REHAU Connect to increase adoption and usability.
Rehau Connect - Customer Journey Map & Order lifecycle
Rehau Connect - Installer persona
Rehau Connect - Rivals and hypothesis analysis
Rehau Connect - Improvement proposal for windows configurator