Roversea
Give students confidence to rent a room by providing detailed information and methods of finding a roommate.
Project Type
Individual Project
Team
Myself
My Role
UX Designer
Contribution
User Research Prototyping Visual Design Hi-fi Design
Tool
Figma Adobe XD
Overview
Problem Statement
I suffered from renting a room when I am moving to Austin, especially it is my first time to the United States. Obviously, I was not the only one who thought it was such a frustrating process. I have heard a few friends complaining the terrible renting experience to me. How might we let students rent a room with confidence?
Solution
Search in thumbnail mode, detail mode and map mode
- Three kinds of showing methods could provide as much information when search
Detailed page covers necessary info
- Include as many crucial features in deciding a renting room
Search similar people like you
- Potential properties and roommates based on preferences.
Enter roommate pool from detailed page
- Choose roommates who interested at the same property.
Research
Kick-off
One of the biggest challenges I faced during the research process was understanding the diverse needs of students looking to rent rooms. As a student myself, I had a certain level of understanding of the problem, but I quickly realized that every student has unique needs, preferences and pain points.
To gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and difficulties faced by students when renting rooms, I conducted a survey which was distributed to 23 students. The questionnaire focused on various aspects of the renting experience, including:
1. The experience of renting a room
2. The difficulties faced
3. The experience of renting service
4. Roommates' experience
The questionnaire could be found at: Link
Gathering pieces
This survey helped me to gather valuable data on the needs and pain points of students, which informed the design.
1. Most people seek room resources through websites. It's trivial and troublesome.
2. Lacking of information. Many people complain there isn’t enough room information when they are selecting the room.
3. Many complain that it’s a tiring andfrustrating process to communicate with apartments.
4. Roommates are like "a box of chocolates." Some people finds roommates through chat groups, some are assigned roommates by apartments.
Take-aways
Tech-savvy users, like college students like me, are having difficulty navigating the rental market, it is likely that those with less advanced technology or less favorable environmental conditions will have an even harder time. There is a huge opportunity to create a solution that addresses this need effectively.
However, as I could not solve everything in one App, it's important to narrow down the scope of my project to focus on the most pressing needs and pain points of the target users.
Dig deeper
To get a more detailed understanding, I conducted two interviews and storyboards. The interview helped me discover deeper insights and identify critical issues in this process.
After the interviews, I developed some key themes and insights/quotes as supporting evidence for each key theme. I then identified some opportunity areas as How Might We questions to help guide my ideation session.
From the 6 HMW statements, I decided to focus on three:
1. How might we provide students with more comprehensive and accurate information about rental rooms to help them make informed decisions?
2. How might we facilitate effective communication between students and landlords/property managers?
3. How might we help students find compatible roommates?
Workshop
I interviewed a group of five college students and made a workshop with them. I let them propose their ideas of each HMW question. And they were asked to vote ideas using a white sticker.
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From the workshop, three key features are raised by participants:
1. Provide as much info and rating system
2. Introduce online communication means between users and landlords
3. Encourage interaction and communication between users
Where is the opportunity?
From the workshop, three key features are raised by participants:
1. Provide as much info and rating system
2. Introduce online communication means between users and landlords
3. Encourage interaction and communication between users
For example, my renting app could have a more user-friendly interface, and provides more detailed information about rental properties. Additionally, if my app is able to connect users with compatible roommates, or offer a streamlined communication system between renters and landlords, that could also be a unique point.
Feedback
Ideation
Persona
To ensure that the app meets the needs, pain points, and goals of the target users, a persona was created. It can help me focus on the features and design elements that are most important to the users and make sure that the app is tailored to their specific needs.
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Concept
According to the three key features previously raised by participants
1. Provide as much info and rating system
2. Introduce online communication means between users and landlords
3. Encourage interaction and communication between users
I have summarized three "pillars" to correspond to it：
Information architecture
After I had a rough sitemap for our concept, I started to create wireframe iterations for how this app would manifest itself. I designed two main user flows. For the first one, user could individually sign a room. For the second one, user have the chance to find another ones to be roommates. And the two flows could be connected by two pages.
I did not add a "match" feature on the roommate part, as I think the app cannot do all the work. Users would like to use other ways (WhatsApp, Messenger, etc.) to make the communication finally. However, finding each other matters, which is what the app's doing.
Design Iteration
Low-fidelty prototype
At the low-fidelity stage, the primary focus was on feature navigation, information architecture, and mapping the concept at a high level.
Feedback
I have gathered feedback from users on my lo-fi prototype. The feedback has been invaluable in helping me to identify areas for improvement in terms of user experience. Some of the key takeaways from the feedback include the need for a more intuitive navigation, a more comprehensive and detailed property information page, and a more streamlined communication system between renters and landlords.
Theme
When I was designing the theme, I not only tried to fit the theme into the general idea, but also referred to some psychology contents and ios design standards.
Final Design
High-fidelty prototype
