Client Case Study
RoomMatch - Mobile App Design
Context
The combination of the pandemic and universities admitting more students every year has created a shortage of on-campus housing. Some students now have to look for housing off-campus and with rent increasing it is more suitable for them to live with a roommate.
The RoomMatch mobile app will bridge the gap between students looking for other students for off-campus housing and match them with their most suitable roommates based on a ‘match percentage’ from a series of questions asked in the onboarding.
Problem 📉
RoomMatch.com had a 50% drop off rate from their users. We needed to discover why this was happening and solve the issue.
Goal 💻📲
Design a mobile application based on RoomMatch’s existing website and create community for their target audience.
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🕙 Duration: 3 Weeks
👨💻 Role: Lead Designer
🫂 Team size: 3
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📝 Figma
🗓️ Trello
🍊 LuckyOrange.com
📈 LucidChart
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🔬User Research
🎤 User Interviews
💻 Usability Testing
🪡 Prototyping
🪧 Visual Design
Note: this case study is broken up into two parts. The first part is solving the 50% drop off rate and the second part about is creating community for off-campus University students.
1. Where was the 50% drop off rating coming from & why?
Current Site Usability Tests
We began our research by testing users on the existing platform of RoomMatch.com to determine where and why the 50% drop off rate was occurring. The test results showed us that the onboarding process was the main reason why RoomMatch users were dropping off at a higher rate.
100% of users tested said that the onboarding process was ‘too long.’
100% of users tested said that they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the amount of questions to onboard.
66% of users remarked they felt some of the questions asked weren’t necessary to find a roommate.
Ideation
Solution to the Onboarding Process
To solve the fatigue users were facing after the site’s long onboarding process we condensed the questions down to ones users felt were absolutely necessary, we also simplified the process down to one question per page to not overwhelm the user with to much information, added progress bars to let users know how many questions they had left, and added flash messages to give the user immediate feedback to keep them attentive and less confused to where they were in the onboarding.
Testing Results
Users found the onboarding process much more enjoyable than the original testing site.
2. Creating Community for Off-Campus University Students
User Interviews
We sought to understand the audience RoomMatch wanted us to target: Off-Campus Students attending University. We interviewed people between the ages of 18-24 years old who were in college or recent grads. We asked them about their past experiences with roommates, off-campus housing and how they found their roommates. This information was later useful for how we restructured the onboarding.
60% of users said they wanted to know someone’s ‘lifestyle & personality’ before living together.
70% of users wanted to know how ‘clean’ their roommate would be.
60% of users felt ‘anxiety’ searching for a roommate.
