Huddle
Timeline:
May - Aug 2023
the Problemthe SOLUTIONTeam:
Chinmayee Channuri - UX Designer + Researcher
Sreehana Mandava - UX Designer + Researcher
Tools:
Figma, FigJam. Procreate
Young adults have varied interests and hobbies, but alas cannot find new people who may share these with them.
Extroverted or introverted, chess or football, active or lazy—there are many traits for a person, and they want to find someone to “vibe” with. Even if any event they could possibly be interested in was happening around them, there is a lack of a reliable source of information. Moreover, as a young adult myself, it’s just plain awkward to meet new people alone.
An app that allows young adults to find like-minded friends—solo or as a group—and make long-lasting friendships based on interests, hobbies, and events.
Role:
UI/UX Design, UX Research, Branding, Prototyping
the final product
Presenting CribCritiq
pitch deckDESIGN SYSTEM
COMPETITIVE AUDIT To understand the industry space, I analyzed 3 popular websites which cater to the housing space using Nielsen’s Heuristic Principles.
The competition does not have a direct Comparison feature that allows users to compare listings.
Airbnb was analyzed even though it is not catered towards a college student since it is one of the most formidable websites for users to find temporary housing in the market today. The next two are UT Specific.
I found that the two websites catered to UT do not offer the option for users to review housing listings. Moreover, the filtration systems they offer were too complicated for a young college student user.
USER RESEARCHMain insightsuser personasThe PM and I interviewed 15 UT students who lived or were planning to live off-campus
Research Questions:
Which type of residence did you live in / are you looking for?
Walk us through your process of deciding upon this residence location
What resources did you mainly rely on to find out information about this residence?
What do you prioritize when looking for housing?
If you already know where you’re staying next year, did your process change at all from when you picked a place last year?
What were your impressions of your house-hunting process overall?
How would you make your house-hunting process easier?
None of the previous resources my interviewees used integrated the save listings and comparison features. They did not provide a reliable system for reviewing either.
From there, we developed 3 personas based on the user research conducted.
JUMPING INTO DESIGNBased on feedback from mentors, users, and my PM and engineers, I continually iterated my design from low-fidelity to high-fidelity. We conducted Usability Testing at each fidelity stage.
LOW FIDELITYI started off with sketching rough drafts of the low-fidelity ideas for the Search Page and the Apartment Landing Page.
For Usability Testing, these sketches have been transferred onto my iPad for clarity. Here are the results:
TESTING & IMPROVING — MID & HIGH FIDELITYHere are three major features I integrated in CribCritiq after multiple phases of Usability Testing:
LOOKING BACK — lessons learnedThis was my first full-stack design project working alongside a team of product manager engineers, and we were able to create real-time impact.
User insights must be accounted for throughout the process ▷
As we prioritized user research by conducting usability testing at multiple fidelity stages, this project was heavily user-insight-driven. I referred to these ideas during the design process, which allowed for smooth iteration.
The Gravity of User Personas in Product ▷
Classifying our User Research findings into Personas allowed for cohesive storytelling, which we weaved throughout all stages of product ideation, design, and development.
Optimization of UI Design ▷
Since this project was a full-stack collaboration, it was important to consider all Web Design UI layout and accessibility guidelines. This included focusing on spacing, margins, padding, addition of negative space, color theory, etc.