SLO Sphere - Roommate Finding Mobile App UX Design
An innovative approach to roommate hunting for Cal Poly SLO students. Inspired by dating apps and popular apps among Gen Z to curate an interactive and helpful roommate finding experience.
San Luis Obispo, CA
GRC 320 - Quality Management
Social Media
10 weeks
Tools
Figma
Role
Product Designer
Problem Statement
Based off personal experiences as college students, we found it difficult to find compatible roommates and suitable housing arrangements. Unfortunately, there are few apps that combine both roommate and housing preferences as well as other customization issues. The current process induces social media anxiety, stress, and ultimately, a poor user experience.
Results
SLO Sphere aims to reduce student stress regarding housing, and improve roommate relationships for an overall easier transition into this new stage of life.
A team of five Graphic Communication students decided to tackle this issue for a Quality Management class project. We conducted extensive user research, utilized quality management tools, and implemented data driven design choices to deliver a hi-fidelity mobile app design/
81%
of respondents valued personalized features for the app
33%
thought it was easy to find a roommate at Cal Poly
62%
of respondents thought that their relationship with their first year roommate was important
Process
Research & Analysis: We began by sending out our survey to Cal Poly students, in order to understand the current state. In Doing so, we gathered 86 responses in one week. Kano model questions helped us gather data for our priority graph. We found that relationship with roommate was low in priority, and we wanted to bring that into the keep up the good work zone.
Crazy 8's: Based on the research findings, we drafted our first round of designs on paper to get our ideas out there. We then voted on aspects of each other's designs we liked and wanted to incorporate.
Wireframing & Prototyping: We designed low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the layout and user journey. Afterward, we built a high-fidelity, interactive prototype to test the design.
User Testing: Following our hi-fi designs, we sent out a new survey to compare our survey results. We found that our responses were left skewed, indicating high satisfaction with our designs. We learned that our space on top should be better utilized and that certain buttons looked awkward. We took this feedback and made some changes to our final designs.
Conclusion
SLOSphere encompasses elements from dating profiles and common social medias, making roommate finding familiar and easy to navigate. We hope that our features like locations, generated messages, and interest sharing streamlines the roommate finding process while still preserving safety when meeting new people.
Future Outlook
Although we achieved hi-fidelity designs, we were unable to fully prototype each flow due to time constraints. After fully prototyping and testing once again, we hope to bring this app to real-life to help incoming first year students.
