Responsive design case study: Student Living Application
- Kate Fox
- Apr 6, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2020
Objective
For project 1, my group and I were given the goal to design and prototype a digital interactive product. The purpose of the interactive product was to solve a current core government problem. My group and I chose the problem of housing, specifically student housing. As students, we understand how expensive and difficult it can be to find an apartment or student dorm so our goal was to help make this process easier and to help the user understand the process. The interactive product we need to create is an application in the forms of mobile, tablet, and desktop.
Project Concept
Apartment searching can be difficult and expensive. When most people think about searching for an apartment, they think of using the internet versus a mobile device. This may be because the majority of apartment search applications can be difficult to navigate or are not as inviting. We understand that students these days probably prefer to use their mobile devices to make searches so this project gives us the opportunity to help students find a place to live. In addition to making this process easier in a mobile form, we also want to help these students find a roommate. Therefore, our application would include a roommate bio section so the user can know who is looking for a roommate and see what kind of person they are like. This helps potential roommates to find out whether or not they are good candidates to live together throughout the school year.
Design Team
Hannah Lee:https://hliaerok.wixsite.com/leedesign
The features Hannah was responsible for was to create a virtual reality of the room page but she changed jobs to creating a favorites page. As we did more research, we realized most apartment search applications included a favorites page so the user could go back and look at the apartments they were interested in. Additionally, Hannah was responsible for creating the presentation slides layout. Evie and I will be giving her our files and information to add to the presentation.
Evie Weeden: https://www.eviewashere.com
The features Evie was responsible for was creating a roommate bio page. Additionally, Evie was responsible for putting together the press release, user journey map, and the menu bar icons.
Katelynn Fox: https://katelynnfox.wixsite.com/portfolio
The features I was responsible for was to create the homepage and apartment search page. Also, I was responsible for putting together the competitive audit, creating a survey, and creating the guidelines for the fonts, color palette, and imagery that would be used within the application.
User Research
Research Objective
The research format we chose to do was creating a survey. We created this wanting to understand our targeted audience and what their experiences have been like when looking for an apartment or dorm. We would ask if the process was easy or stressful and why, as well as asking them what they would like to help their experience. We also included a question about looking for a roommate and received great feedback.
Who
After creating the survey, we sent it out to all of our classmates as they were our targeted audience being college students that are 18 and older. We believed that parents would be included in our target audience being that those who are underage or don’t make three times the amount of rent need to be involved as a guarantor so we asked them to share this survey with their parents.
Qualitative Insights
The qualitative research we gathered from this survey was that students found the process of apartment searching:
Explain your experience with finding an apartment
.“Finding an apartment is stressful due to the high housing prices and trying to find the right location to live in.” - David Blaisdell
“There were so many options available but sometimes the complex would ask for too much info or had too many requirements that just made me give up on the process to apply.” - Arely Diaz
“Finding a nice place, that is close to school, for a low cost. Its either one or the other. MAYBE 2. Never all 3.” - Jack Thiret
“Around 6 years ago, I found that dorm living was actually more expensive than getting an apartment (that's including food, etc.) by a few hundred, not to mention all the rules/regulations on top of that. That meant I had to find a place to live from out-of-state rather than simply setting up in the dorms.” - Jacob Black
“I'm too broke to live on my own.” - Kayleen
“it was hard to understand which housing was recommended for freshmen, but it was easy to find the dorms themselves” - Shelby Thomas
“It's difficult to balance” - N/A
What do you wish had happened?
“A quicker process as far as application responses and minimum credit score knowledge for each place.” - David Blaisedell
“Very quick and easy application process. Preferably online.” - Arely Diaz
“I wish you could pick categories that will narrow your findings down. Like, filtering and elimination” - Jack Thriet
“That dorm living wasn't more expensive than living in an apartment, and was an actual competitive choice. Especially for someone coming from out-of-state” - Jacob Black
“Wish it was cheaper and easier to find roommates.” - Kayleen
Quantitative Insights
The quantitative research we gathered from this survey was that students found the process of apartment searching:
Stressful and challenging for those who have searched for a place
What they look for are amenities, prices, and roommates
Very interested in an application to help find a roommate
Interested in seeing the price differences throughout the seasons as prices fluctuate
Personas
Competitive Analysis
As a group, we researched our competitors. We found five companies that fit what our project's goal was. The companies were Atelier, College apartments in Denver Search, Colab, The Regency, and Nelson Partners. These companies are our competitors because they all strive to help the students find an apartment. The Regency was what we are trying to strive against. Their website is inviting and simple when it comes to finding a nice apartment. However, they are based in a specific location unlike College apartments in Denver Search and Nelson Partners which provide all apartments within the Denver area which was our goal. Overall, all of these sites help students to find a place to stay while at a university.
My Feature Design
During this project, my role was to create the home page and the apartment search page. The importance of having a homepage is to help the user feel welcome and encouraged to find their dream apartment or dorm as a student going to a university. Numerous applications I found would bring you directly to the apartment search page. Based on the answers we received from our survey, our target audience was looking for a friendlier experience. The importance of creating the apartment search page is obvious. It is the main idea towards the goal of our project.
Low Fidelity Designs
High Fidelity Designs
Mobile
Tablet
Desktop
Prototype Video Presentations
Project Retrospective
Challenges
The most challenging part of this project was understanding if someone else in my group needed help getting a task done. Because this assignment is for an online-only class, it can be difficult to manage time during the week especially for someone like me who is taking 5 additional classes and working at an internship. This did not stop me from getting my work done but did leave me feeling overwhelmed at times to get everything done on time. It did not help when someone else in the group was falling more behind than I thought I was. This becomes an issue for the final overall product to not be finished to completion at the desired time.
How Did The Research Affect The Design
The research we gathered helped us understand what our targeted audience was looking for in an apartment search application. Everyone was interested in the idea of being able to find roommates easier. It helped us understand why the process can be so difficult and how to come up with a solution to help fix this potentially. Even though we received a lot of different answers, it would have been nice to have a few more people to take the survey but we can’t force people to take it.
Perspective on Responsive Design
As I worked on this project, my perspective towards responsive design has changed. Before working towards creating an interactive device, I viewed applications that I use day to day as meaningless easy working products. It did not occur to me what happens in the backlines to create a final product that works. All the research and understanding the targeted audience is so important when it comes to creating a product for a consumer. This project showed me how much time it takes to conduct research and then finalize how the product will look like in the end
What I learned
Overall, this project helped me learn how much work goes into creating an interactive product and what it can be like to work with a group on the same project. It showed me how important it is to communicate with one another to work cohesively so our final product is put together well. I learned how important research is when it comes to understanding my consumer for a product I’m working on. This was an eye-opening project towards what it can be like to create something with numerous hours of work and effort to create something I can be proud of.
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