DATE

Feb - Mar  2020    

MY ROLE

UX Researcher and UX Designer

METHODS& TOOL

User Interview, Usability Testing,

Figma

SUMMARY

Helping U of T housing services to map the journey of students' off-campus housing searching, identify areas that can be improved and eventually help students rent smarter. Designed an interactive inspection tool to better prepare students for renting.

This project is partnered with the University of Toronto's student housing services.

Emphasize & Research

10 user interviews

(8 students and 2 stakeholders)

Current Situation

Over 90% of the students live off-campus at the University of Toronto. The housing services office provides support to students through its 2 websites, a third-party housing finder and a University of Toronto website.  Students can also go to the front desk or email the team to get support. 

Our goal is to map out a student's experience of finding off-campus housing and how it involves the U of T student housing services, identify areas of improvement and find out the design of an inspection tool that the stakeholders are aiming to implement this year.

Student Interviews

Students who have previously used the housing services were recruited through the student life's weekly newsletter.  It was a mix of domestic and international students, but they were all new to housing searching when they first encountered the housing services. Based on the interviews, we created the empathy map and user persona.

Experience Map

Based on previous research, we created the experience map. It concludes our persona's journey from determining needs to finalizing the place and moving in. 

Storyboarding Opportunities for improvements

Amongst the opportunities identified in the experience map, our stakeholders decided to work on an inspection tool. The goal is to improve students' literacy and understanding as renters. We envisioned our persona's to-be experience when inspecting the place with the interactive inspection tool in place.

Design

Current Apartment Viewing Checklist

The current inspection preparation tool is a pdf checklist with all items that need to be checked. However, it does not provide details on what to check for each appliance and what are the key criteria of the inspection.  

How might we help students feel prepared but not overwhelmed by the information before performing an onsite rental unit inspection?

New Interactive Inspection Tool

We decided to create a tool that works along with the current pdf checklist. However, the new interactive inspection tool is to get students prepared before examing the place in person.

Our experience map indicates that students are frustrated with overwhelming unknowns, and are anxious when checking out the unit onsite. Thus the main focus of this tool is to help students to get an overview of what needs to be checked in each room, and what to check for each appliance so that they feel prepared before examining the place in person. 

In order to present all the condition details for the appliances without overwhelming students,  we divided the unit into rooms. For each room, students can see a photo capturing all the basic appliances that needs to be checked. Clicking on the appliance will show the guidance for inspection and defects that need to be avoided.  

We are hoping this tool can provide students with a better understanding of the inspection process, feel confident when communicating with landlords and act proactively to protect themselves from future problems. 

Reflection

- Experience map allows us to view a user's journey from end to end and helps different parties to build a shared understanding of how a service works, drawing attention to factors that are sometimes overlooked. 

- If time allowed, I would like to work on the mobile version of this tool so that students use it on-site.  Another feature would be generating the inspection memo for students to take follow-up actions.