CHALLENGE
To create an application to provide a solution to an everyday problem
My Role:UX Researcher & Designer
Team Size:3
Tools:Figma, Invision, Miro, Slack, Google Slides, Adobe Suite, Canva
Timeline:8 Days
Deliverables: Team Building, Proto-Persona, Research Plan, Project Proposal, Five User Interviews, Competitor Analysis, Affinity Diagram, User Persona, Problem Statement, Feature Priority Matrix, Clickable Prototype, Five User Tests, Mid-Fidelity Prototype Based on User Testing Analysis
RESEARCH
Brainstorming as a group we narrowed in on the difficulties of living with roommates. New roommates often have trouble communicating and organizing tasks and chores among each other.
Interview Plan Five user Interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data from participants on roommate experience. Interviewees were chosen from convenience sample.
Objective
To determine how responsibilities are shared among roommates and any pain points associated
Core Interview Questions
Did/do you enjoy having roommates?
Briefly, what has been your best roommate experience so far? What has been your worst roommate experience so far?
What were some difficult aspects of living with a roommate?
Were there times when communication was difficult with your roommate?
How did you coordinate rent and shared utilities?
How were chores divided?
Was there ever a conflict when deciding which tasks to do or when?
THE PROBLEM
Problem Statement
As someone non-confrontational, Jake finds it hard to relay his feelings, when he and his roommates find themselves conflicted over who's turn it is to do certain chores or pay for supplies. This causes tension among roommates, making it hard for Jake to relax at home.
How might we build an app to assist roommates communicate and organize tasks, responsibilities, and communal resources?
The Solution:
roomie is an app to assist roommates communicate and organize tasks, responsibilities, and communal resources
Based on insights uncovered during research we began to brainstorm using the “I Like, I Wish, What If” method.
We took a close look at existing chore based applications available for download. We took notes on strengths and areas with opportunities for improvements that would meet our user's needs.
Wireframes
We started by sketching individually and then came together as a team to review. After presenting our approaches we were able to merge our ideas into a low fidelity digital prototype using Figma.
USABILITY TESTING
Product Under Test
The newly created roomie App
Business Case
The roomie App is being tested to determine the usability based on the lo fidelity wireframes. The benefit of testing is to confirm whether or not the user is able to navigate the application intuitively.
Participants
Three users were recruited out of convenience. All subjects had some roommate experience.
Equipment
- Smartphones
- Laptops
- Zoom
- Screen Recorder
User Tasks
- Create a new account on the roomie App
- Create a household and invite roommates
- Create a new chore and complete it
Key Learnings
Our users found roomie to be a fairly easy to follow process, excluding a few screens. From this we separated the chore assignment from the initial add a chore screen, making the screen much less crowded and easy to navigate. When asked, whether the week header had function or not, we did not initially have an answer. After some deliberation, we decided to make it interactive in a later iteration, allowing users to see what’s happening on those days when tapped
CONCLUSION
roomie has a lot of potential and a lot of room to grow. With more time, we would like to develop and implement more apartment management and interactive features, like the week header. This prototype was made using the iPhone 13 Pro Max frame, but if we had more time, we would have liked to make an android counterpart as well, so as to not limit the potential outreach of our project.
Final Clickable Prototype:
