HouseCo CaseStudy
HouseCo CaseStudy
The app that connects home owners and tenants.
The Project
HouseCo is a Lagos based real estate based project designed to cater to the needs of home owners and tenants and create a seamless synergy between both parties.
Background
In 2019 for the first time more than half of Nigeria’s urban households rented accommodation according to Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa. This means there are just as many landlords as well. Finding and living in a rented home can have many frustrating factors as discovered from conversations with colleagues and friends, including budget overshoot, agency problems, dissatisfaction with services & response time and some more.
Role
User Interview, User Personna, User Flow, Wireframing, Prototyping, Visual Design, Interaction Design.
The Goal
To potentially alleviate the pain points discovered through research, I designed HouseCo. The goal was to design an app that connect tenants directly to their landlords. This will bridge the gap between both parties, encourage efficiency in communication, eradicate third party fees, improve clarity of processes and improve both tenant and landlord satisfaction. Also, with ratings, tenants will get the chance to research a bit more about their potential home.
Understanding the User
I commenced the project by conducting preliminary discovery research. This involved a bit of secondary research. The information discovered here was the foundation for qualitative research and helped to determine th parties involved.
From research, with regards to renting homes, there are two main sides:
1. Home Owners/ Landlords
2. Tenants
Note: This Case Study focuses on the Tenants.
User Research - Tenant
I carried out direct user interviews of 6 people who currently live in rented properties or were about to switch homes. The aim was to find out in-depth their opinions and experiences during the process of ‘house hunting’. The interviews were carried out individually to get each person’s experience and to prevent opinions from being influenced. The process shed more light on the subject matter and helped to validate some initial assumptions. The goals and questions considered for this process are stated below
Identified Pain Points
One unique finding during research was that quite a number of users settle for homes not in line with their initial expectation because agents have limited offers. With this idea, I was able to introduce the filter function (home types, map showing available homes in selected region, payment type which help tenants narrow down their options and find their perfect home.
User Personas
The insights uncovered from the user interviews conducted formed the basis for two User Personas. These were created to empathise with users and keep the design user-centred.
After an analysis of the challenges faced by each persona, I highlighted critical points and came up with the following design task.
“How do I help Mesh get value for his money as well has provide Bolanle with more home and payment options”
User Flow (Tenant flow)
With a picture of the type of users for the product and how the product could work, I highlighted features required to potentially achieve their goals and eliminate their pain points and how they connect with each other. I then created a simplified site map and user flow for the Tenant to view the complexity of the process and to illustrate how the users will interact with product and accomplish their goals after multiple iterations.
Wireframes
With the established user-flow, I outlined the different screens and created lo-fidelity wireframes to iterate between various design options and develop the basic features of the various screens.
Components and Style Guides
I came up with a design system to ensure consistency and structure. The typeface choice is simple readable and ensures reading legibility at both small and large sizes. The colour palette is modern and has good contrast.
High-Fi Mockups
After creating wireframes, I proceeded to create prototypes. To validate design decisions, I combined all the elements shown throughout the design process to create what felt like a functional and approachable prototype of an app that will aid seamless interaction between home owners and their tenants. Below is the final iteration of task prototypes created in Figma. This case study shows the tenant side of the app.
Conclusion and Next Step
There are quite a number of gaps existing in the real estate scene. Most tenants settle for properties that are not suitable for their needs (Location, Budget, Infrastructure and Communication . This caters to the needs identified.
The next step fot this case study is to cater to the home owners’ needs. For example, getting prior knowledge about potential tenants.
Please check out clickable prototype: HouseCo for Tenants Prototype