Overview
Short term housing has seen a spike in demand since remote work became mainstream. Our goal is to personalize and simplify the experience for tenants, ensuring not just a stay, but an experience.
Interoom is a platform that streamlines the housing search and leasing process, making it more convenient, efficient, and transparent for tenants looking for short-term housing solutions.
This project was created for Professor Ascanio's Information Architecture class at SCAD.
My Role
Interaction Design Lead - UI Design, Interactions, Wireframes, User Flows, Prototyping
The Problem Space
Short term housing demand is booming, but tenants want a more holistic approach to finding their stay.
Why this problem? We were prompted with solving a problem that a student transitioning into the real world might face.
As students ourselves, we know how tough it can be to find a place to stay for summer internships or co-ops. It's a real struggle! That's why we decided to focus on making this process easier for students like us. We've been through the hassle of searching for short-term housing, and we get it. Our goal was to create a solution that simplifies the process of finding a place to stay.
Our target user : junior professionals seeking short-term housing for the first time.
We identified that a massive wave of interns is hired every summer for short term job periods, and since we were surrounded by current and former interns, research candidates were abundant. Junior professionals were the ideal user base from both a feasibility and business strategy standpoint
Challenge
With such a broad target market, we really needed to narrow down who our actual user was. What were there needs?
User Needs
Guidance
During the leasing process, users need to be able to understand lease agreements and ensure a safe and secure payment process.
Transparency
Need clear and upfront information about pricing, lease terms, and available amenities is crucial.
Local Guidance
Needs information about the neighborhoods to help choose short-term housing that aligns with their preferences.
Research Process
Interview, interview, and interview.
We managed to find and interview 10 people within a 3 day deadline.
We conducted user interviews hoping to gain insights on the short term housing process. We got the chance to speak to both tenants and landlords, providing us with over 550 data points.
We sent out a survey and received over 100 responses.
Given that we only had the time to conduct interviews with 8 tenants, we sent out a survey to help us identify common patterns and solidify our learnings during interviews. This helped a ton, giving us the confidence we were looking for to continue along this path.
We had a world of competition.
With so many competitors in the space, we really wanted to understand the current market landscape. We worked to identify strengths and weaknesses of competing solutions, and identify opportunities for differentiation and improvement.
Insights
So much data, so many insights.
Users just don't feel confident when signing their leases.
From our interviews, we were able to extract 22 themes that we then affinitized into 6 statements that drove our design thinking and the solutions we planned to offer.
Challenge
How can we help users feel in control of their entire housing serach, from initial browsing through to their first step in the door?
Though our target audience was found, there were different needs among our users, so we built out personas.
We built personas to better understand our target audience, their characteristics, and their needs, allowing us to design in a way that caters to their preferences and goals.
Camilla
“In terms of the the lease, how am I expected to determine whether or not it’s a good deal?”
Introvert
Sensing
Thinking
Judging
Extrovert
Intuition
Feeling
Perceiving
Camilla is looking to fulfill her graduate internship in San Francisco. She is an introverted person, and doesn't feel the need to be best friends with her roommate; comfort and safety is her top priority.
Housing costs are very high
To feel safe in her neighborhhod
Can’t find a roommate
Access to public amenities
Does not trust landlords / leasers
Having a good roommate to cut costs
Age | 22
Occupation | Intern
Location | San Francisco
Education | Pursuing Masters
Socio Economic Status | Middle Class
Living Patterns
Personality
About
Bio
Frustrations
Core Needs
Camilla is worried about the high cost of living in her new city. Because of that, having a roommate is a top priority so that she can cut costs. She struggles with trusting landlords, and always feels that she is being taken advantage of when negotiating. She values being away from the big city, but still wants access to amenities such as restaurants and grocery stores.
Paulina
“As well prepared as you can try to be, you will never be truly ready when you get there.”
Introvert
Sensing
Thinking
Judging
Extrovert
Intuition
Feeling
Perceiving
The housing search process is too complex
Finding housing fast and easily
Doesn't feel prepared to move to a new city
Accessibility to public transportation
Has a small timeframe to find a place
Understanding the context of the community
Age | 20
Occupation | Intern
Location | New York
Education | Pursuing Bachelors
Socio Economic Status | Middle Class
Living Patterns
Personality
About
Bio
Frustrations
Core Needs
Paulina is a student who just landed an internship in New York City. Paulina is very outgoing but weary of new people she meets.
Paulina tends to get dissuaded when things aren't straightforward or simple to understand or do, and she values having access to public transportation. Having confirmed the internship close to her start date, she found herself with very little time to find housing. This is also her first time finding housing on her own, so she has no understanding of how or where to begin her search.
The housing serach process is so long, so we anted to map it out.
We built journey maps to visualize the end-to-end experience of tenants looking for short-term housing in order to identify and explore pain points and areas of opportunity.
Failure
In retrospect, there were so many aspects to this journey that I believe we should've just stuck to one and solved it in the best way we could.
Ideation
There were so many possible routes, but which ones serve our users best?
How Might We’s
Once our insights were set in stone, we developed four how might we statements, focusing on the two that we felt best served our target audience and their needs.
Features
Now that we had our how might we's, we began ideating on features. We knew our user, their problems, and wants, so we let the data guide our decisions.
Prototyping
Info arch, test, repeat.
Site Map
We created a site map to organize and visualize the information architecture of the platform, providing a structured foundation for the development of the design.
Challenge
There are so many options for filtering and sorting, but which were most relevant to our users? We decided to cinduct a Card Sort to figure it out.
Card Sorting
Considering the large amount of housing filter options, we wanted to better understand how users categorized them, which were irrelevant, and which were the most important.
Now that we had our features and content ready, we began wireframing.
We had determined our areas of opportunity, built out our site map, and set the foundations up for our information architecture, so we began wireframing!
Design Walkthrough
We guided users through the wireframes, focusing on the application experience since it was unlike any feature they had explored on other housing platforms.
We explained functions and interactions while seeking feedback and addressing questions. We documented the feedback received, noting suggestions and concerns for future reference. The results and the changes are listed below.
Dont know if something is comparibly a good deal
Compare and savie listings
Not knowing what is on the lease can present surprises
Review your lease before you fill out the application
It is frustrating not knowing where our application stands
Hearing back from listing, add a waitlist feature
Lease information is important but sometimes too long
Would like to see key words from the lease on property page
We don’t know how likely we are to get the property
Include a visual for likelihood of getting the property after applying
What Could Be Improved
The Changes We Made
Learning
This was my first time ever testing wireframes, and it proved to be a critical step in shaping the iinteractions for the leasing process.
Refinement
My favorite part, enjoy…
Design Systeem
From our interviews, we were able to extract 16 insights that we then consolidated into 6 statements that drove our design thinking and the solutions we planned to offer.
Amenity Tag
Amenity Tag
Drop Down
Selection
Selection
Descriptor Selection
📍
Button 2
Button 2
Street Name
Address
City Name
Status
5.0
Rating Type
Input Field
Search Field
Tab
Tab
Large Button
Large Button
Large Button
Button
Button
Button
Branding
Now that we had determined our areas of opportunity, built out our site map, and set the foundations up for our information architecture, we began wireframing.
Interoom
White
Whale Blue
Royal Blue
Black
Blue Gray
Ocean Blue
Gray
Accent Gray
Baby Blue
#FFFFFF
#6D7E9E
#3486FE
#121212
#A0B2D0
#8AB2EB
#888888
#121212
#DCEBFD
Area Normal
Area Normal
Bold
Area Normal
Semi Bold
Area Normal
Regular
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890!@#$%^&*()?”
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890!@#$%^&*()?”
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
ABCDEFGHIJCLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1234567890!@#$%^&*()?”
The Solution
A platform that streamlines the housing search and leasing process, making it more convenient, efficient, and transparent for tenants looking for short-term housing solutions.
Browse With Ease
Effortlessly browse through listings through a clean and simple UI, finding all of the information you need to make the right decision for you.
Know Where You Stand
Never guess where you stand after applying for a lease. Get information on how many people are ahead of you, as well as average response times.
Explore Your Neighborhood
Understand the context of the neighborhood you are exploring through an in depth analysis of all the factors that are important to you.
Explore Freely
With Interoom’s plugin, you can browse on any housing platform and get the insights you need on a property to make the right decision. Oh yeah, you can also save all your listings in one place on Interoom, regardless of what website you’re on.
!
Red Flags!
!
!
!
CHICAGO
$1,950
/ month
Studio 2 Bds | 1 Ba
The lease is contains hidden fees
You’ve viewed this elsewhere
The neighborhood is unsafe
Save This Listing
Pet friendly, furnished, washer and dryer,
full kitchen.
Explore On Interoom
Simply Simplified
Applying for a lease has never been easier. Interoom walk you through the entire process, step by step, leveraging machine learning to autofill and guide you as you fill out forms.
Never Get Cheated Again
No one ever wants to read the whole lease, and even if they do, how often do they understand it?Utilizing AI, Interoom scans lease documents and calls out things you might want to know like negotiable points or hidden fees.
Save All Your Listings
Never lose track of your listings again! Interoom lets you save all your listings and applications in one place, making it a breeze to access and manage them whenever you want, hassle-free.
Stay Informed
Find helpful articles on Interoom Learn. Gain valuable insights, tips, and tricks to navigate the leasing process like a pro, ensuring you find the ideal home that fits your needs and desires.
Takeaways
Effectively solving a smaller problem can have a more larger impact on users than addressing a larger problem with mediocre results.
My Biggest Takeaways
Thank you to the whole team for their contributions!
Time management is a superpower. Being able to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines is critical.
Research, research, research! It's the secret sauce that leads to awesome designs.
Innovation is great, but we also need to balance it with practicality and feasibility.
Making sense of the mountain of data we've collected and turning it into actionable insights.
Presenting our designs effectively is just as important as creating them. Storytelling rules!
Interoom
Thanks for reading! Check out these awesome projects too! :)
Team
Jon Rodz, Creative Direcror
Chi Quach, Project Manager
Fozzie Kretshmer, Content Lead
My Role
Interaction Design Lead - UI Design, Interactions, Wireframes, User Flows, Prototyping
Overview
Short term housing has seen a spike in demand since remote work became mainstream. Our goal is to personalize and simplify the experience for tenants, ensuring not just a stay, but an experience.
Interoom is a platform that streamlines the housing search and leasing process, making it more convenient, efficient, and transparent for tenants looking for short-term housing solutions.
This project was created for Professor Ascanio's Information Architecture class at SCAD.
The Problem Space
Short term housing demand is booming, but tenants want a more holistic approach to finding their stay.
Why this problem? We were prompted with solving a problem that a student transitioning into the real world might face.
As students ourselves, we know how tough it can be to find a place to stay for summer internships or co-ops. It's a real struggle! That's why we decided to focus on making this process easier for students like us. We've been through the hassle of searching for short-term housing, and we get it. Our goal was to create a solution that simplifies the process of finding a place to stay.
Our target user : junior professionals seeking short-term housing for the first time.
We identified that a massive wave of interns is hired every summer for short term job periods, and since we were surrounded by current and former interns, research candidates were abundant. Junior professionals were the ideal user base from both a feasibility and business strategy standpoint
User Needs
Efficiency
During the leasing process, users need to be able to understand lease agreements and ensure a safe and secure payment process.
Support
Need clear and upfront information about pricing, lease terms, and available amenities is crucial.
Awareness
Needs information about the neighborhoods to help choose short-term housing that aligns with their preferences.
Critical Insights
Restaurant owners need a streamlined and guided regulation and application process to help them ensure they are on track and in compliance.
The Solution
End to end guidance.
I wish I had something like this when I first opened.
With features like Progress Tracking, Guided Walkthroughs, an intuitive AI assistant, and Simplified Form Filling, we're here to make every task, big or small, a breeze.