Relocate App
The Product
This app is designed for those who relocate frequently and have difficulty transporting all of their belongings to their new location. They also face difficulties in finding an ideal room for themselves.
By using this app, users can easily buy and sell their belongings. They can also find the ideal room based on preferences.
The problem
When people have to relocate to a new place:
They either sell their goods in haste at a low price or leave them there.
They face a lot of trouble finding an ideal room for themselves, especially if they are bachelors.
The Goal
Design an app where users can sell their household items at desired price and buy them all at the new place. They can also find suitable accommodation for themselves in their preferred location and at their preferred price.
My Role
UX Designer designing the app
Responsibilities
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.
Understanding the user
User research
Personas
Problem statements
User Research
Summary
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was students and working professionals who have to frequently relocate to a new place. This user group confirmed initial assumptions about Relocate App customers, but research also revealed that not only students and working professionals are facing this issue but families also facing the same problem.
Personas
Problem Statement:
Deepak is an IAS aspirant who needs a platform where he can find desired room to stay and can sell his household items at a good price and buy those items again at the place where he is relocating.
Pain Points
1
People face difficulties in selling their household items and find it expensive to buy new set of all those things
2
They also face a lot of difficulties in finding perfect room for them especially if they are bachelor/student
Starting the design
Paper wireframes
Digital Wireframes
Sitemap
Low-fidelity prototype
Planning the app
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well suited to address pain points.
Stars were used to mark the elements of each sketch that would be used in the initial digital wireframes
Digital Wireframes
Moving from paper to digital wireframes made it easy to understand how the redesign could help address user pain points and improve the user experience.
Prioritizing useful visual element placement on the home page was a key part of my strategy.
Information Architecture
Low-fi Prototype
Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low fidelity prototype. The primary user flow I connected was browsing the desired items, sending messages to the seller regarding the product and creating an advertisement to sell products.
Refining the design
Design system
Mockups with usability study findings
High-fidelity prototype
Accessibility consideration
Mockups
Optimizing the app:
During the first round of usability study, it was found that the users were facing difficulties in finding the option to "Sell your product", and wanted it to be somewhere at the homepage. So, the shortcut for "Sell your product" i.e. create advertisement was added on homepage for the ease of users.
Key Mockups
Logging In & Home Screen
Sending message to the seller
Creating Ad to sell
High Fidelity Prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for sending message to the seller and creating advertisement to sell
View Relocate App here:
Accessibility Consideration
Contrast Ratio
The contrast ratio of text vs background is 11.53:1 which is perfect according to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for large-scale text that makes the content accessible to people with visual disabilities
Alternative text
Provided access to users who are vision impaired through adding alternative text to icons and images for screen readers.
Going forward
Takeaways
Future scope
What I learned
Next steps
Takeaways
Impact: The app makes users feel like the Relocate app really thinks about how to meet their needs.
One quote from peer feedback:
"Being a bachelor, I have a hard time finding a room for myself, but with this app, finding the room I want will be an ease." - Akshay
Future Scope
Add a feature where users can read blogs about how to reach there, famous spots, and other details about the place where they are relocating or wish to visit.
What I learned
As a designer, we are often lured by attractive, trendy and out of the box designs. But, We must always remember the ‘why’. The primary goal is to understand the user, their problems and then come up with a design that solves it.
Next Steps
Conduct another round of usability study to validate whether the pain points user experienced have been effectively addressed.
Conduct a competitive audit to improve the app and find how this app can stand out in the crowd
Thank you for your time reviewing my work on Relocate app! 🤗