UniLodge’s Roommates Feature: A Design Sprint

This was the first time I’ve ever done a design sprint, and to be quite honest, it was a really interesting way of design thinking and I quite enjoyed how it changed the way I normally do a design project. The design sprint that I chose was the UniLodge, Roommates feature. It really attracted my eye as it seemed as though it would be an app that would attract a large audience to try find a roommate/accommodation that would be appropriate to them, and maybe even a feature that I would use also. After I carefully read over the brief, I had found out the following:

• It is a common struggle for students to find the right roommate/s
• Lots of conflicts occur due to this as people always struggle to live one another
• The brief outlines that it is for a new feature of the app, “Roommates”
• It would be seen through two different perspectives
• Perspective 1: looking for a roommate
• Perspective 2: looking for an apartment
• I was also allowed to use the existing UniLodge design language, including their logo, colours etc.
• And lastly, the feature is meant to be a main menu item in the app menu.

After I collated all these notes, I prepared myself for the 4-day journey of the design sprint.

DAY 1

On the first day of the design sprint, I needed to find out the goals and mapping out the design project. As I was about to start, I found out that it was recommended to use sticky notes throughout the entire process, but of course I didn’t have any in my household. I decided to write it out all in note form in my textbook, but it just didn’t feel quite the same as we did in the classroom. Below are several scans and photos of the goals but overall, I found out that the primary goal for this project was…

“to help students find a roommate/apartment that meets their requirements as close and as easy as possible.”

My secondary goals were

• To have a higher success rate with roommates
• And to make a better customer experience in finding a suitable roommate/apartment.

Through the assumptions, sprint questions, HMW questions, a common question throughout was how I could make this process of finding a roommate as easy as possible. After a few different user journey maps, it was hard to find a specific style that would make it easy for the user to find their roommate/apartment the easiest. I began to do sketches to truly see how the ideas would look and I split them up into two concepts. The first concept was a way in which the users could select if they’d like to browse through their location, or through specifically a roommate or apartment. After that they could filter through, selecting their budget or the type of accommodation they were looking for etc. After they found their roommate, they would be able to send their roommate to become in contact and send them a message within the app.

The other concept was much more personal, and it seemed much more like Tinder. You would pick out your specifications and preferences and later it would give you potential matches that would come as closely to these preferences. It didn’t give much freedom to the user and it seemed too closely to a dating app, then just finding your roommate so I decided to storyboard the first concept.

DAY 2

Day 2 rolls in and I start drawing up my storyboards and how the user would interact with the app. It was completely based off the first concept, with the landing page as a login for the user. This would then put them on the home page of the original app, with a near identical layout so previous user would feel still accustomed to it. The user would then click on the roommates feature on the navigation bar. They would then either decide if they’d like to choose their destination, or if they are looking for a roommate or an accommodation. They could then browse and use the filters. After they find their match, they could then easily contact their roommate and discuss this matter.

DAY 3

Day 3 is now the prototyping phase. There’s not really much to talk about in this phase as I was just learning Figma and making the prototype at the same time. It’s always an interesting dynamic when learning a new software but it was really easy and lots of tutorials online helped out, even if this took longer than expected. It was very hard to resist in adding new details into the prototype and some may have slipped through but I believe it enhanced the prototype.

DAY 4

In the user testing, there weren’t too many hiccups fix up on. As shown below, these were the quick notes I took in the user testing and the problems they encountered.

Some possible solutions that I had to evaluate within the prototype was that I had to increase the size of the touch target as it was far too small for a few buttons. I also added in a messages button on most screens so the user could access it whenever they felt like.

For the second user, I added colours to the text bubbles so they could differentiate the users easier. Another addition throughout the prototype was making the filters and other features have to stay on the screen at all times as most of the time they would disappear when scrolling.

Overall, it was a very interesting and insightful working on this project. I believe that the final prototype went as closely to my original plans and that it could truly be a feature in the real UniLodge app.