EDUrain

EDUrain is a student focused off-campus housing platform and had an issue with converting visitors to account creators. They get about 500 visitors a month and 8 out of 400 visitors created an account.

With a 2-week deadline EDUrain Bryon Pierson, CEO of EDUrain, challenged my team to improve what they believe were their website's three weaknesses; directing the user to create an account, communicating to them what the benefits are to creating an account and to make it easier to navigate EDUrain’s website.

My key role was driving the re-architecture of the website, prioritization of key features and delivering a high-fidelity re-design of EDUrain.org.

Responsibilities:

Lead UX & UI Designer

Lead Researcher

Project Manager

Business & Content Strategist

Defining Our Users

We started by interviewing users who attended college away from home or were the decision makers for someone else's housing at college.

I created the affinity map to group similar statements and ideas together to get a better understanding of what the users were telling us. Below are the categories and descriptions of what user responses.

Trust: The users expressed a need for trust in the housing search process. They wanted to be able to verify sources with another trusted third party or to ask a local they could relate to.
Ease of use: The users wanted the website to be easy to use. They didn't want to have to think too hard about how to navigate the site.
Features: The users wanted the website to have features that would make the housing search process smooth and efficient. They wanted to see big pictures of the housing options, and they wanted to be able to find the information they needed quickly and easily.
Negative feelings: The users expressed some negative feelings about the housing search process. They didn't like having to wait or seeing ads. They also wanted to be able to contact the website's customer service team if they had any problems.
Positive feelings: The users also expressed some positive feelings about the housing search process. They were happy when they found a housing option that met their needs. They also appreciated the website's helpful customer service team.

This feedback was one source we used to develop a persona and journey map, which you will see below.

Delving Into The Data

I created an open ended questionnaire my team was able to find 45 people who were either students that lived off campus or were responsible for a students off campus housing. I had to go through their responses and categorize their responses and count everyone surveyed with that response. Below you can see the results and a description of each category to give context to the terms.

1) The most common features that students and people searching for students would like to see on an apartment search platform:

Location: Students want to live close to campus, it's important to have a map view of all apartments that are within a certain distance of campus. 16/45
Amenities: Students want apartments with amenities that make their lives easier, such as laundry facilities, parking, and a gym. (List must be compiled for site) 14/45
Roommate matching / Community: Students want to live in a community where they can connect with other students. It's important to have features that make it easy for students to find roommates 12/45
Price: Students have a variety of financial requirements and restrictions. 8/45
Clear Information: Students want the lease and unit details to be clearly displayed. 7/45
Flexible lease terms: Students often have unique needs, such as short-term housing. It's important to have a variety of options to meet these needs. 5/45
Safety: Students want to feel safe in their homes, it's important to have information about the safety of the neighborhood. 3/45
Virtual tours / Photos: Students who can't visit an apartment in person can use a virtual tour and photos to get a better sense of the space. 3/45
Reviews: Students want to read reviews from other students before they rent an apartment. 2/45
Pet-friendly: Many students have pets, so it's important to have apartments that are pet-friendly. 1/45

We were able to get similar responses using different types of surveys making it easier for us to determine what the target user really wanted. One response was about the roommate search, it was a top three issue in this survey. We saw this in our affinity map as well; we had a user say that this feature convinced them enough to want to use the site.

2) Have you ever encountered any difficulties or frustrations while searching for apartments as a student or for a student? If yes, please explain.

Price: Working out the details of obtaining housing off campus can be expensive. 12/45
Difficult to determine who is trustworthy: It can be difficult to determine who is a trustworthy landlord, real estate agent and Criagslist poster. 9/45
Finding roommates: It can be difficult to find roommates. 6/45
Lack of inventory: There may not be a lot of apartments available in your desired location. 6/45
Obscure or add-on fees/Requirements: Some landlords charge students for obscure add-on fees and mandate requirements like guarantors. 5/45
Lack of Photos: It is difficult to screen apartments from available photos. 5/45
Fake listings: There are too many fake listings, bait and switch. 4/45
Poor communication: Landlords may not communicate effectively, leading to confusion and frustration. 4/45
Subletting: Difficulty going through the process to complete. 2/45
Time-consuming process: The apartment search process can be time-consuming and stressful, especially for students who are also juggling classes and schoolwork. 1/45
Long leases: Some landlords require students to sign long leases, which can be a financial burden if you need to move early. 1/45

3) What are the key factors you consider when looking for an apartment as a student?

Location: Students want to be close to campus. 43/45
Price: Students want to find an affordable apartment. 35/45
Community & Safety: Students want to live in a community where they can feel safe and connected. 23/45
Amenities: Students want apartments with amenities: space, laundry facilities, parking, Wi-Fi, etc. 14/45
Condition: Students want apartments that are in good condition. 11/45
Roommates: Students want to find roommates who are compatible with them in terms of lifestyle, budget, and cleanliness. 7/45
Transportation: Students want to be close to public transportation. 3/45
Furniture: Some students may want furniture. 1/45
Flexibility: Students want flexible lease terms. 1/45

Who Uses EDUrain?

The user interviews above is what I used to create the persona. I was able to cross reference both surveys to determine what information was most accurate and was even able to get a direct quote from a target user that reflects a top issue.

A Retrospective Look

We wanted to take a look back at the journey our target user was taking. You can see how chaotic the rental process was on the graph.

EDUrain recognized an issue they had of retaining a user, they received high traffic but users would leave and EDUrain didn't know why or how to solve the issue.

Defining The Problem & Solutions

Problem Statement:

Alex needs a reliable, trustworthy, and simple way to find off campus housing because current approaches are unreliable, hard to trust, and very intimidating. As an inexperienced renter, Alex needs this streamlined service in order to have housing for school

HMW Statements:

How Might We build trust with users and make them feel confident in using our platform, so they create an account?

How Might We design a reliable and trustworthy off-campus housing platform that establishes a seamless connection with user's schools, ensuring a sense of security and familiarity?

Iterations of Design

We were able to gather excellent insight with the Affinity Map that I created from our usability test on the site you see on the left. This is what EDUrain came to my team with.

Users didn't not understanding what this website does initially and were not clear on what their options were on the page. We also found that there were some misalignments: e.g. "Testimonials" is in white on a white background rather than the intended blue background.

What we took away was mostly positive. After the user spent some time on the site they realized what great resources it offered: e.g. roommate connecter, videos on how to prepare to look for an apartment under the category "Student Renter's Guide", and an informative blog.

Below you can see my progress.

After our initial 2 week deadline my team and I presented our research, redesign and reasoning.

We mostly reorganized the website at this stage. The users were asking for what was already on the website. Navigation was most improved in this design.

Take a look at the prototype I created to show EDUrain the new user flows.

EDUrain was so impressed with my work that they asked me to expand to a high-fi design they can go live with.

This version of the homepage has some UI Designs that became the foundation of the final design.

At this stage I decided to go back and rework the spacing to allow me to iterate on each section of the design.

It became clear that this was a real estate website for users, what each section of information held and what resources were available.

In my final presentation to EDUrain I outlined the details of my proposed changes to the website, with a focus on improving the user experience.

I added a radial view to the top left of the page, which shows users what part of the website they are on based on their role. I also lowered the global navigation bar and added brief descriptions to help first-time users.

Below that, I created a three-point breakdown of the benefits of using the website, highlighting what users could gain.

Finally, I redesigned the testimonials section to highlight more user reviews, which would help to build trust with potential users.

I am proud to say that EDUrain implemented nearly all of my suggestions, even down to the images. You can see the changes I made on the website at EDUrain.org.