Flatmates App

I made Flatmates as part of the Google UX Certificate.

I applied the User centered design process.

Role
UX Designer

Year
2022

Project overview

The product

Flatmates is a peer-to-peer platform that connects people with rooms and apartments with those looking for a shared home. Inspired by UK’s Spare Room, Flatmates app targets homeowners, students and young professionals in the Czech Republic.

The problem

There isn't any satisfying platform for flatsharing in the Czech Republic.

The goal

To design a platform for flatsharing.

I decided to only create the pages of the app for those, who are searching for a place to rent, because of the size of the whole platform.

My responsibilities

Due to this being a portfolio project, I was the only designer. My responsibilities were:

  • Market research

  • User research

  • Wireframing

  • Prototyping

  • User testing

  • User Interface

Understanding the market

In competitor analysis, I identified what works well, the gaps in the market and opportunities for improvement. 

The research showed that although there are many direct competitors, none of them provides a fully satisfying product.

See full Competitor audit in Google Sheet.

Understanding the user

Before starting the design process, I conducted multiple in-depth interviews and identified 4 pain points.

The interviews lasted from 20 minutes to an hour. 5 participants had experience with looking for a room or studio apartment to rent, and 2 participants had experience with searching for a flatmate for their apartment. Two genders and both Czech and foreign people were interviewed. The questions were focused primarily on their experience with flat-sharing platforms and the problems they ran into.

Users’ pain points

Confusing UX

Low clarity of websites, confusing UX and search filters not working correctly.

Improvement: 

Clarity first.

Good filter that allows different filter options, including searching by the type of tenants.

Low-quality ads

Ads with low quality or no photos, utilities and other costs not clearly included in the price, missing information about a place. 

Improvement:

Only allow ads with enough clear information, photos, location, and clear price.

Missing social aspect

Not enough information about other users. 

Improvement:

Profiles of owners and tenants, including age bracket, occupation, interests and gender. Both sides have to fill out semi-detailed profiles.

Unclear communication

In-app communication doesn't work properly. 'Seen' function is missing.

Improvement:

Simple in-app communication and a response rate indicator.

Personas

User journey map

Persona: Barbora Valcikova

Goal: Arrange a tour of an apartment

Starting the design

I continued with creating an inspiration board, paper wireframes and then digital wireframes. After designing a low-fidelity prototype, I tested it with users.

Finalising the design

Based on the feedback from users, I made a high-fidelity prototype. You can try out the prototype here.

Quotes fom users

  • 'This is already the best housing platform I ever saw. I searched for a room in the Czech Republic, Tchaj-wan and England; Flatmates is so far the clearest and the most user-friendly.'

    Teri Alfonso

  • 'Flatmates saves a lot of time for those, who are looking for a place and also those, who are looking for tenants.'

    Kata Grohmannova

  • 'Such an app is much better than Facebook, because you can set the filters better and you don't need to scroll through 100 irrelevant offers.'

    Christoph H.

Going forward

What I learned:

  • It was essential to answer the difficult questions at the start. Don’t brush them under the rug, or they will come up later and it will be more challenging to answer them.

  • I need to explain clearly to users what the testing is about and what is expected of them. In the beginning, some people focused on testing the prototype’s functionality, rather than the design itself.

What I would do differently: 

  • Design information architecture right at the beginning, even though more features and pages will be added later.

  • Don’t assume and let users talk freely in the initial qualitative interviews.

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