Roomie is a mobile application that provides roommate matching service to international students in United States. International students in the US have been increasing consistently but most of their 1st language is not English. Their major concerns about settling down in a new environment pertain to housing, such as paying expensive rental fees, finding roommates, and risking fraud when they sign contracts. So they tend to live with roommates from the same country to solve language problems and adapt easily to new environments. So, I and my team members decided to provide a reliable and user-friendly roommate matching service for international students to find rooms and roommates in NYC.

My Role: Team Leader, UI/UX Design, Demo Video
Team Members: Andrew Hua, Min Lee

DESIGN PROCESS

CHALLENGE

With my close friends Andrew, Min, I decided to team up for making an innovative interaction design when we took Strategic Innovation in Product and Service (Advisor: Roger Mader, Criswell Lappin)  one of the most famous course at SVA MFA Interaction Design. We had something in common, which is we are international students(Andrew: From China, Min and I: From Korea). And also, we were all facing challenges to fit in a new environment such as language, housing as a 1st-year graduate students came from other countries. These similar backgrounds lead us to draw following problem statement.

“International students feel difficult to fit in the new environment.” 

RESEARCH

As an Interaction Designer, it is important to think holistically about the problem and see all the possible solution that can be used to solve the problem or improve the situation. My team and I conducted desk research, mega trend research, and user research which included in-depth interview with actual international students who are currently enrolled in school in New York. Each research helped me better understand the context around the international students and get great insights.

1. Desk Research

The number of International students in the united states are growing consistently and now about 1 million people are studying in US. in 10 years, the number has increased in 85% and 76% of them are asian. It means that a lot of them has English as a second language and are struggling to settle down in the new environment.

2. Megatrend Research

Mega trend research can seem like it's not related to international student. However, looking at the change in this society in big picture actually helps us understand that everything is related. For instance, urbanization leads to growing rent and it makes international student to pay more money for housing. And eventually it makes them to find a roommate to save money.

3. User Research

First of all, my team conducted user research to better understand how international students feel when they are settling down in this new world. We recruited Asian students whose 1st languages are not English. And also, recruited Regina, International Student Office Staff at School of Visual Arts. Through in-depth interviews, we found out that there is a lack of reliable channels to use for settling down in a new environment. For example, Craigslist does not provide well-organized information. Getting information from friends or relatives living in the US are limited. 

"FRAUD HAPPENS WHEN CONTRACTING A ROOM."

SOLUTION

Prototyping

Prototyping is iterating ideas to make the best experience for users. In this step, I firstly made a journey map to orchestrate the comprehensive journey that can enhance value of its service and giving the thoughtful moment to people who are looking for roommate. Next, making a low level wireframe was practiced to make the final design.