Project Overview
Have you thought about a roommate?
People choose to live in cities for various reasons, including job opportunities, access to education and a vibrant social life. As more people crowd into the cities, living in them comes with a higher cost of expenses, such as housing, transportation, convenience and resources. Thus, many city dwellers find themselves living with a roommate as a practical solution to it.
Thus, finding and keeping a suitable roommate gets increasingly challenging due to a combination of factors such as compatibility issues, lifestyle preferences, financial considerations, trust and safety concerns.
The Solution
Introducing Roomify
Roomify is an application designed to address the challenges faced by city dwellers in finding and maintaining suitable roommates and rooms. The application employs an easy and safe way of matching algorithms to pair individuals based on compatibility indicators and lifestyle preferences.
Roomify ensures an intuitive experience, simplifying the process toward finding the suitable room or roommate and establishing compatible roommate relationships.
The Solution: Features
Browse by rooms or roommates
Two (2) quick options are provided in searching for a potential roommate: by room and by roommate.
Searching by room is intended for individuals interested in finding a place to live and may be open to joining existing households or seeking vacant rooms in shared accommodations.
Searching by roommate is intended for individuals looking to team up with others to find and share a new place or to fill an available room in their existing residence.
The Solution: Features
Sort by filters or preferences
Narrow down your search for a potential roommate by easily sorting through the filters and preferences. Filters and preferences can help in indicating your budget, lifestyle, interests, and many more.
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The Solution: Features
Get to know potential roommates
Explore and get to know potential roommates through viewing detailed profiles.
Competitive Analysis
Starting with the market
To address the problem, I began by exploring what people use in searching for rooms or roommates. I looked into existing applications to discern what they offered and what they lacked.
After conducting a competitive analysis, my findings provided valuable insights into current market trends, user preferences, and potential areas for improvement.
These findings not only guided me in making strategic decisions but also increased my understanding on how I can make an improved solution.
Roomies.ca
Pros: Featured listing, Quick filters (room/roomies), advanced search filters, price displayed upfront, easy access map, visually appealing
Cons: Limited and not very diverse, advanced search options, featured profiles are all over the place, can’t scroll down more, blocked by footer without any exit, Very centered layout, Very long scrolling
toronto roommates
Pros: Good Hierarchy of texts, offers a roommate questionnaire, offers categories of groups (student, neighbourhood, etc.)
Cons: Promoting other roommate finder websites, visually unappealing, no visuals; just loads of texts, it doesn’t show any listings right away
diggz
Pros: Visually appealing, filters readily available, online/offline feature, budget readily available, able to go to the next listing when on a current one
Cons: Limited filter options, doesn’t show any room pictures for “room for rent” filter options, the display of location gets confusing since it presents different locations, like/dislike option based on profile picture
Persona
Say hi to roommates #1 and #2
Due to the strict timeline, no interviews were conducted with actual targeted users. Relying on anecdotes online and from peers, I created 2 roommate personas were developed varying in professions and age groups.
User Flow
Steps on how to find a roommate
A user flow is then developed to structure the key functionalities of the application, ensuring a seamless and intuitive experience for the users.
Wireframes
Low and mid-fidelity prototype
Based on the user flow, low and mid-fidelity wireframes were created to validate design concepts and decisions for the final fidelity stage.
Design
Inspiration & style guide
For the visual identity, I've chosen a minimal and friendly approach to represent the experience of the product. The vibrant hues of orange and tinges of blue are meant to evoke feelings of sociability and enthusiasm as the users go on with their discovery to find the perfect room or roommate.
Importance of Users
Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to conduct user interviews and had to rely on online anecdotes. While the latter method can be true and valid, it has made me realize the importance of user interviews. They would have allowed me to delve deeper into the experiences of individuals affected by the problem by asking more questions or expanding on answers.
Importance of user interviews
As I wasn't able to conduct user interviews, conducting a competitive analysis as an alternative guide was helpful in identifying the gaps in current platforms and understanding users' experiences in finding rooms or roommates.