Homies
A roommate finding app built for a private client.
Platform
Web
Role
Product Design
Year
2022
Focus
SAAS
Overview
How does that one saying go? Roommates are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get? Ah, close enough. In this project, my client requested that I create a service that addresses some of the problems that people face when looking for roommates online.
Brief
I kicked off this project by generating a brief from fakeclients.com. In the brief shown below, the client asks me to make a roommate finding app that focuses on addressing safety risks and roommate compatibility.
Objectives & Goals
During my research, I found that the most pervasive problems that people face when looking for roommates involve either incompatible lifestyles (habits, finances) or safety concerns (catfishing, privacy). My project goals are centered around solving these issues.
Goals
Safety
Reduce potential risks by protecting privacy and providing access to virtual methods of communication.
Trustworthiness
Create a verification system that filters out disingenuous accounts, thereby increasing trust.
Compatibility
Create a system that matches more compatible roommates together.
Users
I found that there are two broad categories of users: individuals and groups. I further subdivided these categories by various user needs and situations (for example, family groups vs. friend groups). I chose to craft personas that would capture both the wide breadth of general user needs and also the nuances of more specific needs.
Ideation
After conducting demographic and topical research, I started examining established solution patterns in similar domains, such as roommate-finding services and dating apps. This research acted as both a foundation and an inspiration for the features I ultimately included in my product.
Framework
In order to create a cohesive logical structure that addressed my project goals, I generated multiple iterations of sketches, navigational structures, flows, and wireframes.
Features
Design System
At the end of 2023, I took a design systems course with Dribbble. After the course, I created a design system for this project by defining some of my most used components and elements in a separate library. Utilizing this design system allowed me to rapidly edit and redo entire segments of the site without much difficulty.
