HOMEY APP
"Your Ultimate Housing App"
UIUX Design
Mobile
B2B2C
Community App
Overview
HOMEY is a housing app that aims to provide reliable housing sources and help New Yorkers find desirable roommates in an effective way.
Timeline
Oct, 2023 - Nov, 2023 5 Weeks
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, After Effect
Roles
UX Research, UI Designer, UIUX Designer
Team Size
3
Overview
HOMEY is a housing app that aims to provide reliable housing sources and help New Yorkers find desirable roommates in an effective way.
The idea is built on the context that most of students and young professionals often experience difficulties in finding housing and roommates in the city due to unfamiliarity or lack of time.
Homey aims to provide a sage and efficient housing platform that will lead to high quality living experience for all New Yorkers.
Empathize
Background Research
Problem Statement
Competitor Analysis
User Interview
Define
Target User
User Persona
User Journey Map
Problem Define
Ideate
Design Opportunities
MVP User Flow
Test
Critic
Usability Test
Nest Steps
Background Research
First we conducted a secondary market research
What is the majority group of people doing apartment hunting in the city?
What are the most common challenges and frustrations that young people face when searching for apartments in New York City?
How do young people typically discover available apartment listings? Are there preferred platforms or methods?
What is the average budget range for young people searching for apartments in New York City?
Nearly one third of the city’s households are single people living alone.
Only 10% of real estate agents individuals contacted ended up responding.
Of nyc’s single (unmarried) adults (age 21+) today, 23 percent are low-income (making $58,481 or less) and living with roommates or other relatives.
Empathize
Interview Questions
How do you find apartment in New York? How often do you need to search for apartment?
What platforms have you used?
Are you satisfied with current platforms? If yes, why?/ If not, why? (some details, what specific functions?)
Have you tried any housing apps on the market? How do you feel about them?
How do you define your Living Style? How do you find your roommates? What kind of information do you find is trustworthy when finding a roommate?
Have you encounter any problems with finding suitable roommates?
Are there any other functions that you want, but current platforms don’t have?
Are there any other functions you need besides finding room and roommates?
1
Young people looking for a place to live. Due to expensive rent in NYC, they would like to find someone to share apartments
2
With a busy lifestyle in the city and quick demand for housing, people want to find reliable housing and roommates with less effort.
3
Young people who has less experience/knowledge in house/apartment hunting, as well as lack of wage support, and want some additional assistance in gathering information about the housing market in a certain city.
4
People in New York have packed daily schedules, so they want a way to easily blend in house hunting process to their daily life.
“ I am looking for a reliable, intuitive platform where I can find trustworthy housing and roommate in NYC within a short time limit.”
Age:24
Occupation: Student
Location: New York City
Income: Family Support & Part-Time Job
Status: Single
Search available housing in different neighborhood in NYC
Contact with brokers through email
Spend a lot of time on unscheduled room tour
Post her requirements for roommate and personal information on Facebook housing channel
Kelly is a fine arts student at SVA. She loves explore arts in different fields, and experimenting. Making ceramics is her comfort zone and her relaxing avocation. She always learn from other artists and become better. She wants to be able to make profit in the local art scene by doing what she likes to do in art and blend in the art community.
The process of looking for rooms and going to room tours is redundant
The vast majority of brokers and real estate agents are unresponsive.
It’s hard to find a roommate who shares similar lifestyles and it’s usually not ideal
Pay for expensive broker’s fee, which causes extra expenses
Design Implication
Show areas in the city on MAP
Clear map layout that shows where each neighborhood is
Introduction of each local neighborhood with ratings
Smart filters
Immersive searching experience in Feed Flow
Favorite list & History list
Smart calendar to manage and track house tours
Merge house tours with everyday schedules
Immediate contact renter
Verification system for all users to provide a safe & reliable environment for finding roommates
Roommate survey to know about the users and their requirements
Smart filter to find “perfect match” roommates
Style Guide
Logo & Icon - Visual Identity
Color Palette
Typography - Fonts & Size
HOMEY
The user can select available tour time online and book an appointment directly. After successfully booking, the appointment time will automatically add to calendar. The user will be notified with the time approaching. The calendar will help the user organize their time to have different room tours within a short time.
