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My Role
UI/UX Designer
& Project Lead
The Team
1UI/UX Designers
1 GT Housing Manager
My Key Contributions
User Research
Concept Ideation
Iconography
Interaction Design
Developer Handoff
Tools Used
Duration
Adobe Illustrator
Figma
Zoom
8 months
start: MAY 2020
end: DEC 2020
Process
Define
Learn
Ideate
Create
Verify
Understand Project
Specify Problems
Identify Goals
Background Research
Client Interviews
Competitor Research
Lo-fi Sketches
Design ideation
User Testing
User Interviews
Pain-point analysis
Hi-fi Prototyping
User Testing
Hi-fi Testing
Finalization
Georgia Tech Housing
Allowing GT students to connect
and live with one another
Motivated by my own frustrations with the existing Georgia Tech Housing Roommate Portal, I reached out to the Resident Housing Association at Georgia Tech to propose an idea for a better platform to help GT students find potential roommates for on-campus housing contracts.
I validated the utility and need for the idea by conducting background and user research with fellow Georgia Tech students. I then went on, through several iterations, to design a mobile application interface that would allow for roommate filtration, discovery, and connection.
STEP 1
DEFINE
Problem
GT Housing Problem
Why do we need a new roommate discovery portal?
the current portal has a lack of mobile access and overall bad website navigation and interaction
the cumbersome and outdated user experience leads to unnecessarily complicated user task flows
the results from multiple years showing low roommate match success rate with the existing portal
the prevalence and effectiveness of external roommate search tools, such as FB groups and other roommate discovery websites/mobile apps
Goals
GT Housing Goals
What would a successful new roommate housing platform entail?
1
ability to create a comprehensive and effective personal roommate profile
2
ability to filter roommate search based on individual living preferences
3
ability to easily communicate with potential roommates within the platform
4
ability to easily navigate the full features of the platform with seamless UX
STEP 2
LEARN
User Research
GT Housing User Reseach
Goals for User Research
Learn how new and existing Georgia Tech students use the current housing portal to find potential roommates for the upcoming year
Find the major pitfalls in the current system and potential solutions that can come from a new updated interface
Determine the most common and important characteristics that one looks for in a potential roommate
How to better personalize the search experience to fit each user’s needs
Do Georgia Tech students really need another roommate selection tool? Especially one on a mobile platform?
User Research Strategy
Interviews
-
Conducting in-depth interviews to gain further understanding of the user experience of the current GT housing portal, its main issues, and the viability of a new mobile app platform
Surveys
-
Sending surveys to better understand what users consider to be the most important characteristics of a potential roommate
Research Synthesis
-
Utilizing the responses from both the interviews and surveys, I was able to create an affinity diagram that outlined
-
User Needs (roommate preferences and discovery)
-
User Behaviors (stressful roommate discovery process and outcome)
-
User experiences (lack of utility in the current GT housing portal and prevalence of utilizing external digital solutions)
-
Key Insights
GT Housin Key Insights
Insight
1
GT students that did not want random roommates resorted to external digital platforms for roommate discovery
Students looking for more personal connections with future roommates resorted to platforms such as FB groups to get:
detailed information about potential roommates including major, age, year, interests, and personal pictures
the ability to easily message and connect with these potential roommates
Recommendation
1
creating a mobile-friendly application that would satisfy the following requirements:
a digital platform that would take the main ideas of FB groups - individuals posting relevant personal information,
photos, and inquiries
streamlining the presentation of the information to be optimized for solely mobile use and interaction
targeted to all GT students registering for on-campus GT housing and in search of a roommate
Insight
2
GT students find the current housing portal to be lacking in the following several key areas:
user experience, system navigation, and overall ease of use
The lack of more advanced roommate search criteria that reduces functionality and utility
lack of mobile access (currently solely accessible through desktop)
Recommendation
2
Create a simple external mobile application with a fluid user interface and experience that makes finding survey-based compatible roommates that specifically meets their needs easy and straightforward.
(All GT students would use the same platform to maximize the potential roommate pool and provide the most compatible suggestions dependent on student preferences.)
Insight
3
GT students each have unique roommate preferences that depend on the varied prioritization of several key factors that were discovered to be:
sleep schedule, college major, cleanliness, noise level expectations, partying frequency, class schedule, external interests
preference for adherence to living standards or friendship potential
Recommendation
3
Creating a digital platform that would have a robust onboarding questionnaire allowing students to outline their prioritization of the various key factors for roommate compatibility identified by the user research.
The results of this questionnaire would be cross-referenced against all other users (GT students) and allow the discovery of more compatible and suitable roommates when compared to the existing GT housing portal and its limited search and match criteria.
STEP 3
IDEATE
Sketching Lo-Fi Wireframes
GT Housing Wireframes
Iteration #1
Post User Research
Utilizing the takeaways from the user research findings, I was able to sketch up some lo-fi prototypes of what the mobile application of the roommate discovery portal for GT would look like.
Sketching Hi-Fi Wireframes
Iteration #2
Post User Testing
After showing the lo-fi sketches to a group of users and asking them to navigate through different user flows, we asked for feedback about what UI elements worked well and what could be improved upon
STEP 4
CREATE
Creating Lo-Fi Wireframes
Iteration #3
Post User Testing (pt. 2)
From sketches to pixels
Taking the learnings from my lo-fi sketches and user testing, I brought my ideas to life through Figma. I mocked up screens from each of the four tabs and showed how a user would navigate the search filters.
STEP 5
VERIFY
Additional User Testing
GT Housing User Testing
Iteration #4
Post User Testing (pt. 3)
Final Designs
Iteration #5
Post User Testing (pt. 4)
Key Takeaways
Mobile is king
Based on our user research, we found that a significant majority of young adults (aged 18-24) primarily utilize their smartphone for a majority of their tasks, especially connecting with others. This is why we shifted the GT roommate discovery tool from a clunky enterprise desktop software to a mobile application. This is projected to increase user interaction, usability, and satisfaction by a large order of magnitude.
Familiar UX patterns reduce learning curve
Because we were trying to create a brand new piece of software for the GT students, we didn’t want the learning curve of a new UI navigation and experience to be an obstacle in user adoption. This is why we took inspiration from the Tinder and dating app world - where swipe gestures are used to navigate through a large pool of potential individuals. This reduced user frustration and streamlined the usability and familiarity process.
Robust search filters are key for successful discovery
The original GT housing portal was very outdated and did not have an adequate amount of search characteristics and filters. This resulted in a lot of GT students ending up with a roommate that did not meet their preferred living conditions or social expectations. With thorough user research, we were able to identify a set of 10 key roommate characteristics that users can use and filter to search for the perfect potential roommate.
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