Many prospective renters are frustrated with the hidden costs and fees associated with renting (utility costs, repair work needed, etc.)
Users want to be able to filter out properties that don’t allow certain things (pets, parking etc) but many listings don’t include everything the landlord might restrict.
The structure of most apartment searching sites is focused on the property instead of the owner, and so renters feel like they don’t know who they are dealing with sometimes, and vice versa.
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Communication of details and restrictions was one of the primary pain points with users, so this design put a lot of focus on the filter settings and communications functions. An inbox was added in order to facilitate communication between users without needing to enter an email address for other users to see.
After combing through some more of the research and figuring out which aspects I wanted to focus on for the homepage, I started with some fast and loose sketches to get a few different ideas down for how I might arrange the page at different sizes.
After that I went back and picked out components that I liked the look of from each version of the sketch and combined the best ones into a couple of different layout options, and then repeated the process. In the end I was left with what felt like a good enough starting point to move onto digital wireframing.
A very inclusive set of filters was key in creating a design that would suit the needs of users. I focused on the apartment search flow initially in order to demonstrate those filters in their own section.
In addition, I focused on the personalization aspects of each listing, and included room for details and information about the owner, something that the competitive audit demonstrated was missing from most similar platforms.
I continued the wireframing process for the entire home search and login/account creation flows. Based on the information I had gathered from interviews that most potential users were looking through listings while they were at their laptops or workstations on breaks, I started with a desktop sized design first, and would simplify and reduce content for smaller screen sizes after I had settled on some layout choices.
To create a low-fidelity prototype in Adobe XD I linked the wireframes together to simulate both of the intended user flows so that I could move on to conducting a usability study. For the low fidelity prototype there was very little in the way of effects or transitions, the focus was solely on users completing the core tasks for the app.
For the initial usability study on this project I wanted to determine if the home search and account creation flows made sense for the user, and see if they were finding themselves stuck at any point.
Unmoderated usability study
Canada (remote, at home)
5
20 minute sessions
I considered Time on Task, Drop-off Rates, and User Error Rates when analyzing the results of the study and evaluating the performance of the app's intended uses.
The usability study resulted in a few key insights:
Users had other filters they wanted to see in order to narrow the results down.
Users want a way to easily see which listings they have already clicked on or applied for.
Users wanted a way to return to the home screen easily.
Take a look at the Dwell website prototype!
Open Prototype