Roomi

The Problem

The current methods of finding a suitable roommate requires a certain degree of hassle. Apartment seekers needs a more reliable way to determine the culture and lifestyle fit of their potential roommates.

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Identifying the users

The main target users are young millennials living in cities. These individuals often lack financial freedom to afford an apartment by themselves.

The target users will also expand to any individuals looking for an apartment in general.

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Working with assumptions

There are few assumptions we had in mind.

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• Transit plays a big role on the popularity of the apartment.
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• Not knowing the roommates' personalities and lifestyles is a major roadblock.
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• Users often hesitate to meet a complete stranger without knowing anything about them.
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• People are hesitant to use Craigslist for safety reasons.

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Research and validation

We knew we had to speak with our potential users to understand their needs and frustrations. The team split up and conducted a series of qualitative and quantitative research with users and SMEs.

After synthesizing our findings, we were able to validate a few assumptions.

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• 75% of participants indicated that they rather live with a close friend or whoever they know.
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• Majority of participants indicated that they are not fully comfortable with meeting strangers.
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• Being close to public transit increases the property's popularity.

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Compatibility benchmarks

In order to better personalize the experience of the users, we needed to define the list of criteria that would be used to measure compatibility. The team sent out surveys to gather some data and captured them on a spreadsheet.

While 94% of participants determined that "Smoker" should be a top criteria to determine compatibility; the team felt that showing this would result in bias and exclusivity. "Cleanliness" and "Bills and responsibilities" can also potentially shed a negative light on an individual. At the end of the day, who would want to live with someone who isn't "clean" or takes less "responsibilities"?

After careful consideration, the team decided to start with 6 top criteria for the MVP and expand for future states. The users can chat about the finer details in their private chats.

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Features

From our research, we drafted a list of features.

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• Visual profile of the users for others to determine compatibility.
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• Allowing safe contact between interested parties.
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• Show distance between apartment and public transit options.

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Browse by neighborhoods

We want to keep the options open for our users when it comes to neighborhoods. Our plan is to make discovery a little easier by listing them out in a swim-lane.

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Transit information

Giving users transit information would ease their process of apartment hunting. This eliminates the need for them to enter the address into Google maps and trying to figure out how far they are from the nearest transit option.

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Visualized roommate profile

Having a graph that depicts the lifestyle of a user can quickly help others determine their compatibility.

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Browse by users

Sometimes, a user might just be looking for a roommate to join them. We allow these users to browse by a list of other individuals looking for an apartment and/or roommates.

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Filter options

Like any apartment and home finder apps, a relevant filter options are needed to aid the users on their search.

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Future recommendations

• Extending the profile creation criteria to better aid roommate compatibility check.
• In app analysis of profiles for to help speed up the matching process.
• Expanding transit options to include buses, lyft, uber, and taxis.
• A well thought out apartment listing service.