.png)
How might we improve communication about household responsibilities for college students living together so that residents can better manage their finances and chores?
Navigating the complexities of shared living, my team and I set out to tackle a common hurdle among college roommates: the effective management of household duties and finances. Driven by a shared vision to simplify this aspect of student life, we delved into our collective experiences to design an application that would streamline the way housemates communicate and organize their shared responsibilities. Our goal was to create a user-friendly tool that promotes a cohesive living environment, allowing students to focus on their studies and enjoy their college experience with fewer domestic frictions.
Progressing from the problem identification phase, we conducted detailed user research, including interviews with college students. This data helped us understand the specifics of the communication gaps and the preferred methods of interaction among our target audience. Each phase of our project led to the next through iterative design and constant feedback. For example, initial findings highlighted a preference for digital solutions over traditional methods, steering us towards developing a digital tool.
While making this competitive analysis, we all realized that none of our apps completely encapsulate the needs for our users. Either they miss out on important features such as finance tracking and chores, or they lack UI. Our main concerns are having a nice appearance, being intuitive for our users, functioning efficiently, having features such as calendars/notifications/time stamps that could inform our users of their work schedules, and tracking chores and finances for a fully integrated application that makes shared living easier.
My team and I embarked on a journey to understand the unique challenges faced by students living with roommates. Our objective was to dive deep into the intricacies of shared living spaces, aiming to uncover insights that could drive innovative design solutions to improve their living conditions. To achieve this, we meticulously planned and conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a diverse group of students from various backgrounds and academic disciplines. Each participant had experience living with roommates, providing us with a rich tapestry of stories, struggles, and interpersonal dynamics to analyze.
Following the insightful interviews with students who have lived with roommates, our next step was to synthesize the wealth of information we had collected. To do this, we utilized the affinity diagramming technique, a method pivotal in organizing and interpreting qualitative data in the UX design process. This method allowed us to visually cluster the diverse insights, struggles, and experiences shared by the students into coherent, thematic categories.
After analyzing the patterns identified from our affinity diagram and organizing insights using sticky notes on a board, we transitioned to the next pivotal phase of our design process: creating storyboards and personas. This part was key in making our findings real, turning the big needs and problems into real situations and people that would guide our app design and use.
This low-fidelity prototype helped guide us throughout the creation of our next prototype since it allowed us to explore different types of screens that might work for the user. We decided to put a greater emphasis on aspects of the app such as a main home screen, a notification center, and different tabs for chores and finances. As we moved throughout this process, we realized that there were more pain points revolving around these two sections, rather than hangouts since not many of our interview sources complained about that being a problem. Being able to flush out all of our ideas onto paper first helped us explore the tabs and screens that worked and didn’t work.
Transitioning from preliminary sketches to mid-fidelity prototypes, our design process focused on refining the application's user experience. The mid-fidelity stage was pivotal, as it bridged the gap between conceptual layouts and detailed design elements. This phase introduced structured interfaces, where we defined interaction points and established a coherent visual flow.
Our application's color palette has been carefully selected to create a calming and organic user experience, resonating with the ethos of shared living and cooperation. The deep greens represent growth and stability, essential qualities for a harmonious household, while the lighter tones add a sense of freshness and openness, inviting engagement and clarity. These colors were not only chosen for their aesthetic appeal but also for their psychological impact, supporting an intuitive and comfortable navigation experience within our app.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
My team and I have crafted an interactive prototype that showcases our application's user journey, and it's now available for you to explore. Check out the live prototype linked below and navigate through the intuitive interfaces we've designed.
Prototype