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MyHousing

Introduction

MyHousing is an ios mobile app that helps users to manage housing in one place and on the go. The app cover different aspects of housing management, including tracking housing cost, organizing documents, paying bills, ordering maintenance, and so on. And it achieved an usability score of 88 (SUS score) for the latest version.

Myhousing is my passion project to stay sharp over mobile experience design, and is an inpiration for me to keep finding and solving problems in my daily routine. It showcases my approach to mobile experience design for consumers.

Duration

6 Week (2020)

Team

Designer / Founder (Myself)

My Role

User Interview, Persona & Scenarios, Storyboards, Wireframe & Prototyping, Heuristic Evaluation, Usability Testing, Graphic Design

My Tools

Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, Procreate, Google Form, Google Sheet

0. Intro 1. Overview 2. Exploration 3. Design 4. Evaluation 5. Reflections

1. Overview

Product Brief

👤

User

  • Age 18 ~ 67
  • Rent/own housing in the United States
  • Pay for housing himself/herself and manage housing himself/herself
  • Use mobile phone
😵‍💫

Problem

Housing management consists of many components, such as mortgage/rent, insurance, bill, legal documents, and so on. It's a headache for users to access different websites and platforms to manage housing.

💡

Solution

Design a solution to manage housing efficiently in one place and on the go. The app covers major aspects of housing management, such as rent/mortgage, insurance, legal documents, housing-related services.

🎉

Impact

  • The latest design achieved an SUS score of 88 in Usability Test.
  • Now in the middle of fund raising phase with potential investors.

Final Solution Demo

Sign In

The sign in highlights straightforward process to increase users' efficiency and avoid confusion.

Try Figma Prototype
product highlight

Manage Bill

Bill payment and tracking have been incorporated into the platform to allow users to manage bill payment in one place for efficiency.

Try Figma Prototype
product highlight

Order Service

Service ordering highlights product-shopping-like experience to allow users to have consistent experience with ordering service and products.

Try Figma Prototype
product highlight

Find Policy

Help section highlights clean and clear display to allow users to quickly find policy or other useful information.

Try Figma Prototype
product highlight

Process

process

Define User & Problem

User Interviews

Competitive Audit

Personas & Scenarios

Storyboards

Ideation

Wireframing

Mid-Fi Prototype

Heuristic Evaluation

Hi-Fi Prototype

Usability Testing

Reflections & Next Step

0. Intro 1. Overview 2. Exploration 3. Design 4. Evaluation 5. Reflections

2. Exploration

Problem & User

problem

Problem


Housing management consists of many components, such as mortgage/rent, insurance, bill, legal documents, and so on. It's a headache for users to access different websites and platforms to manage housing.

problem

User


  • Age 18 ~ 67
  • Rent/own housing in the U.S.
  • Pay/manage housing himself/herself
  • Use mobile phone

Competitive Audit

As of 09/2020, there’s no direct competition for housing management in the ios mobile app market. There are, however, a few indirect competitors:

Microsoft OneNote (Indirect Competitor)

Strengths:
  • Wildly used to document and share information
  • Work across various platforms and devices
  • Work with various file formats, such as PDF, images, etc.
Weaknesses:
  • No tailored functions specifically for housing management
  • Takes time and skills to organize information
Microsoft OneNote App

RoomMate Spaces (Indirect Competitor)

Strengths:
  • Able to manage housing expenses, bills
  • Able to make financial transactions with the app
Weaknesses:
  • Designed for shared living only
  • Focus on splitting bills for shared living
RoomMate Spaces App

User Interview

🎯

High-Level Goal(s)

The study is to understand how home renters and owners currently manage their housing, and what problems they encounter during the process.

❓

Overarching Questions

  • “How do home renters and owners currently manage housing?”
  • “What do they find useful or frustrating?”
👥

Recruiting Criteria

  • Through "friends and family"
  • Men and women (equally distributed if possible)
  • Age 18 ~ 67
  • Rent/own housing in the U.S.
  • Pay for housing
  • Manage housing
  • Use mobile phone
📋

Interview Protocol

See full interview protocol.

Interview Photo

User Interview Findings

💡

Users’ Current Solutions

  • Create folders in computers to store housing information
  • Use internet explorer (such as Google Chrome) tabs and folders to store housing links
  • Use notes apps (such as OneNote) to document housing information and links
  • Use password apps (such as 1password) to store links and account credentials.
  • Search for housing-related services and products on websites, such as Yelp or Google
finding 1
🫴

Users' Needs

  • Users would like a platform where they can safely organize housing information for easy access, such as mortgage /rent /agreement /insurance /HOA fee /utility bills.
  • Users would like to be able to make housing payments with one platform.
  • Users also would like to review and track the housing cost and bills.
  • Users would also like to be able to access housing-related resources, such as maintenance, refinance and home-related product shopping.
  • Users would like to manage housing on mobile platform on the go.
finding 2
📑

Functional Requirements

  • Organize housing financial information (mortgage /rent /HOA fee /insurance /maintenance cost /utility bills, etc.)
  • Organize legal documents (HOA agreement /rent agreement /insurance policy)
  • Make housing payments (mortgage /rent /HOA fee /insurance /maintenance cost /utility bills, etc.)
  • Order housing-related services (maintenance /refinance, etc.)
  • Order housing-related products (home appliances, etc.)
finding 3
🪢

Constraints

  • Security concerns. Because so many sensitive information is required, users care about the security of the information.
  • Good organization/structure. Users are sick of creating folders and organize information themselves, and are looking for simple and clear solution.
finding 4

Personas & Scenarios

Jason photo

Jason

Lawyer

Age: 32

Status: Married

Location: New York, NY

Housing Type: Townhouse

Own/Rent: Own

Motivations/Needs/Goals

  • Easy Access

    Jason’s townhouse has housing information associated with different platforms, and he would like them to be in one place for easy access.

  • Organized Information

    Jason enjoys clear and organized information structure.

  • Payment Tracking

    Jason live a busy life, and would like an easy way to track housing payment.

  • Remote Management

    Jason flies around the world, and would like to be able to manage housing during travels.

Constraints/Barriers

  • Too Much Travel

    Jason travels a lot and doesn't always have access to laptops.

  • Tight Schedule

    Jason lives a busy life and doesn’t have time for maintenance or home improvement himself.

  • Privacy Protection

    Jason is very sensitive about the security for his housing information.

Scenario - Order Maintenance Remotely

Jason finds out that the drainage for the bathroom is clogged. He has to leave for airport for a flight and would not be back until Friday. He wants the drainage to be fixed before he gets back. So he takes out the app and searches for maintenance service. He finds one that served his area with good rating, so he orders the service and makes payment through the app. The maintenance guy performed the repair on Wednesday, and the app notifies Jason that the maintenance has been completed.

Katie photo

Katie

Administrative Assistant

Age: 27

Status: Single, Unmarried

Location: Seattle, WA

Housing Type: Apartment

Own/Rent: Rent

Motivations/Needs/Goals

  • Cost Tracking

    Katie would like to track housing cost monthly to stay in budget.

  • Document Reference

    Katie lives with others and needs to reference housing documents from time to time.

  • Sustainability

    Katie would like to live as sustainably as possible, she would like to track and compare energy/water use.

  • Home Improvements

    Katie is always excited about improving her living experience and would like to purchase trendy home products that suit her needs.

Constraints/Barriers

  • Tight Budget

    Katie has a tight budget for housing and related spending.

  • Modern Taste

    Katie has experience with various digital apps and keeps a modern taste for visuals and overall experience.

Scenario - Track Utility Bill

Katie is quickly reviewing the housing payment this month. She takes out the phone and starts the app. The app shows that there’s attention icon for utility bill. She clicks on the utility bill and it takes her to the city utility bill website. She made a payment and updated the utility cost in the app. Then the app notifies that the utility bill of $36 has been paid, and the interface shows checked icon next to utility bill.

Storyboard

storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch

storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch

storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch
storyboard sketch
0. Intro 1. Overview 2. Exploration 3. Design 4. Evaluation 5. Reflections

3. Design

Wireframing

wireframe overview

Pay & Track Utility Bill

Check House Rules

Mid-fi Prototype

Moving on with higher fidelity and adding more core tasks:

mid-fi prototype overview

Pay & Track Utility Bill

Check House Rules

Order Service

Check Return Policy

0. Intro 1. Overview 2. Exploration 3. Design 4. Evaluation 5. Reflections

4. Evaluation

Heuristic Evaluation

Issue

Users cannot edit the bill amount after tracking the bill.

issue explanation

Iteration

Add "Edit" icon (pencil icon) next to the bill amount to allow editing.

design iteration

Issue

The cloud icon in the navigation bar is not a common way to indicate ordering products or services.

issue explanation

Iteration

Change the cloud icon to shopping cart icon.

design iteration

Issue

The homepage requires one extra step to select housing before accessing major functions.

issue explanation

Iteration

Change the homepage to display housing management directly.

design iteration

Issue

There's no error prevention to stop users from clicking "Track" button before making payment.

issue explanation

Iteration

Hide "Track" button before users make payment.

design iteration

Issue

"Order" and "Book" are not consistent through the app.

issue explanation

Iteration

Change "Book" to "Order" through the app.

design iteration

UI Improvements

Issue

Task areas could be enlarged for more screen real estate.

Iteration

Remove top navigation bars on certain screens.

UI Improvment

Issue

The images on the shopping pages are not as clear as icons.

Iteration

Develop app-specific icon families.

UI Improvment

Issue

The UI elements need further development with modern touch.

Iteration

Adopt modern UI elements.

UI Improvment

Issue

The app could incorporate fun illustration for users.

Iteration

Design fun illustrations for certain pages.

UI Improvment

Hi-fi Prototype

Moving on to high fidelity design with the improvements above:

hi-fi prototype overview

Sign In

Pay & Track Utility Bill

Check House Rules

Order Service

Check Return Policy

Usability Test

🎯

Goals

  • Can experienced mobile phone users use MyHousing to manage housing information and order service?
  • What usability issues do users encounter when they try to perform the basic tasks?
👥

Participants

  • 3 participants (1 male + 2 females)
  • Live in Washington State, USA (no participants available at the time of study)
  • Single status (no married participants available at the time of study)
  • 22 ~ 35 years old (on the younger side of user population)
  • rent housing (1 participant ) vs. own housing (2 participants)
  • use mobile apps over 1 hour per day on average
🔄

Process

  • The tests were conducted in person at participants’ places with researcher providing smart phone that had interactive prototype to the test participants.
  • The test sessions were recorded through film camera to capture vocal and visual contents.
  • The test sessions were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to understand what usability issues were and how good was the usability of the app.
  • The test materials include user test script, user test plan, consent form, logging sheet, task instructions.
☑️

Activities

  • Introduction
  • Pre-test Interview
  • Perform Task 01
  • Perform Task 02
  • Perform Task 03
  • Perform Task 04
  • Perform Task 05
  • Post-test Questionnaire (SUS Survey)
  • Debriefing
  • Thank Participants
🎞

Task Sequence

  • Task 01 - Sign In
    Use “MyHousing” to sign in
  • Task 02 - Pay & Track Utility Bill
    Use “MyHousing” to sign in
  • Task 03 - Check House Rules
    Use “MyHousing” to review house rules and see if there’s anything about knocking doors
  • Task 04 - Order Maintenance
    Order a plumbing service to unclog kitchen sink for tomorrow morning using “MyHousing”
  • Task 05 - Check Return Policy
    Use “MyHousing” to find return policy for the products
📋

Interview Topics

  • Tell me about the last time you managed housing information.
  • Tell me about the last time you made payment to housing bills.
  • What information is the most important for housing information?
  • Tell me about the last time you ordered a housing maintenance.
  • Tell me about the last time you checked the return policy on mobile app.

Usability Test Findings

task success rate

Task 01 - Sign In

All participants were able to sign in to the app within 10s.

participant's quote
task success rate

Task 02 - Pay & Track Utility Bill

2 participants were able to track the utility bill within 23s, but Participant P2 failed the task because she got frustrated when tracking the bill amount and decided not to continue.

participant's quote
task success rate

Task 03 - Check House Rules

All participants were able to check house rules within 10s.

participant's quote
task success rate

Task 04 - Order Maintenance

All participants were able to order maintenance within 35s.

participant's quote
task success rate

Task 05 - Check Return Policy

All participants were able to find the return policy within 15s.

participant's quote
task success rate

SUS Score

  • System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire indicates a usability score of 88.
  • The interviews with the test participants indicate that users generally felt confident using the app, but certain functions could be improved or further developed.
participant's quote
0. Intro 1. Overview 2. Exploration 3. Design 4. Evaluation 5. Reflections

5. Reflections

Reflections

Engage Engineers

Some functions may be challenging to engineers, and it would be helpful to know the technical constraints. It would be also good to work with engineers to ensure proper data security level can be achieved and certain functions are included into the UX design.

Optimize Navigation

While most navigation flows are working up to standard, paying bills and tracking should be further studied and improved for efficiency and ease-of-use.

More User Interviews

Limited user interviews in the study do not cover users with multiple housing or special needs, such as vacation homes. It would be good to conduct more user interviews with diverse background and understand better what users need.

More Testing

Additional full-scale usability testing is encouraged to study the usability of the app, both in-person testing and remote testing would be helpful to better understand how well the users enjoy using the app and what problems do they encounter during the process.

Motion Design

The UI design is good for the current being, but there are more development to done, such as motion design and animations for smooth user experience.

Security and Privacy

Adding in trendy security and privacy measures can be helpful. One suggestion is to add Face ID for quick login for housing management.