UX Design Case study: Homely
Introduction
Hi, I Am Adeeba. I recently completed Google’s UX Design Professional Certification program in association with Coursera. The Second project was to design a responsive website. The prompt I have chosen was to design a responsive website for finding apartments.
Project Duration
January 2022 — April 2022
My Role
UX Researcher, UX Designer
Responsibilities:User Research, Paper and digital wireframing, Low and high fidelity prototyping, Conducting usability studies and iterating on designs.
The Problem
Finding apartments locally is time-consuming for busy workers.intermediaries between owners and customers offer a large amount of money as a bribe.
The solution
Designing a website “Homely” that lets users find rental and commercial apartments, That connect directly with the owner without any intermediaries. Users can also advertise their rental apartments.
User Research
I conducted user research to find the pain points of the users when finding apartments,Interviewed users and created a user journey map to know the pain point of the users that I am designing for.
The user group was between the age of 20–60 who find apartments and users who want to sell their apartments. The user research helped to know the pain points and start the initial design of the responsive website “Homely”.
Persona
Personas are fictional users whose goals and characteristics represent the needs of a large group of users. Here I created a persona that represents the users who are busy professionals and have no time to find rental apartments locally.
Persona: Ali
Problem Statment: Ali is a busy professional who needs a website providing all details about the home and direct contact with the owner so that he can manage his working days and search for rental homes.
User journey map:
User journeys are the series of experiences a user has as they achieve a specific goal. Mapping Ali’s journey helped me to know the normal user behavior when they find apartments.
User pain points
- Lack of time: Lack of time for visiting apartments locally.
- Unreliability: Details about a home provided by intermediaries are sometimes unreliable.
- Huge bribe: Intermediaries between owners and customers offer a huge bribe.
Ideation
Based on the personas and user journey maps, I have got the initial design ideas to start the designing process.
I came up with initial ideas for the website after conducting user research. My idea was to design a website that would not only help renters find apartments but also help those looking for apartments for sale.
Paper wireframes
I draw my initial ideas and I have got the design decision to continue the design process of “Homely-A website for finding apartments”.
Design Decisions:
- Rental and commercial apartments: Users can find rental and commercial apartments.
- Search by location: Users can search apartment by location so they can find rental apartments near by them.
- Apartment Advertising: Providing an advertisement option for rental apartment owners.
- Direct Contact with the owners
- All basic information about a rental apartment (location, Basic details about apartment, owner details): Users can find information about the location by using maps so that they will get the exact location if they wish a local visit, basic details about the house, and a video about of the apartment.
Sitemap
I created a sitemap for improving strategic information architecture decisions that improve overall website navigation.
Digital wireframes and low-fidelity prototype
Tool: Figma
I created the low-fidelity prototype using the digital wireframes for use in the initial usability study.
Usability study
Usability study helped to check if the website design solves the user pain points. The results from the study helped to iterate the design decisions.
Usability Study findings
- Details about home: Make the details about the home at the top to directly see the details.
- Advertisement Verification: Include advertisement verification page before submitting the form.
- Visiting time selector: Include a visiting time selector option to select the visiting time and date in advance.
Hero image selection: The website opens with a hero image section and a search option for finding apartments. So I chose to use an image of a house as the website’s hero image. As a result, I created five different versions of the hero image section and chose one of them as the hero image.
Mockups and high-fidelity Prototype
Based on the findings from the usability study, I iterated on the wireframes and created mockups.
Design system
The Impact
With “Homely,” users can find rental apartments, as well as details of apartment for sale. It is also possible for users to advertise their apartments.
“Homely is truly a three-in-one solution” — User feedback
What I learned
As I designed the responsive website, I learned how the elements of a website change depending on the screen size. Also, I learned how users experience websites on different devices.
Thank you