Cozy Nest Rental
A web app for house hunting that simplifies finding a home and managing favourites in convenient folders.Overview
Cozy Nest Rentals is your go-to platform for renting homes in Australia. The platform is available as both a user-friendly website and a convenient mobile application to connect tenants with house agencies or homeowners. The target audience is anyone looking to rent a house in Australia.Role
I designed the User Experience and User Interface for this project during my Google UX Design course. From interviews to wireframing, prototyping, usability studies, accessibility, and iterative design.Duration
July to August 2023 (7 weeks)Problem
It is difficult to find the favourite houses that they booked.
Users get frustrated because they can't organise their favourite houses, wasting time searching for the one they want.Solution
Empower users to create and organise their folders for interesting houses.
Competitive analysis and the gap
None of the direct competitors provide both organised folders and flexible viewing options for house listings.
I analysed 4 rental housing companies and discovered none of the direct competitors offer a simple way to organise and flexibly display preferred houses on a map. This is where I step in to fill the gap.
User interviews
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand the users I was designing for and their needs. I've conducted interviews with 5 people who had rented an apartment in the last 6 months. I found that a primary user group identified through research was tenants who looking for a website or app to effortlessly manage and find their interested houses.Persona
Design
I started with paper wireframes to sketch out my ideas before transitioning to digital wireframes.
I've designed 5 different versions of each page, cherry-picked the best features for users, and blended them into the final version.
I design web app wireframes for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices to ensure a seamless experience across all screens.
Testing and improvements
I conducted two rounds of usability studies
Findings from the first study helped guide the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
I listened to user feedback and made 3 major improvements.
Final design
The final product
I designed a user experience by designing a web application for a desktop, tablet, and mobile version.
Design with Adobe XD
The design system
Visit the prototype here.
What I learned
Results
While designing the Cozy Nest Rentals website, I learned that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and peer feedback influenced each iteration of the app’s designs.
Takeaways
- Diving into usability tests and iterating based on user feedback is powerful for uncovering and addressing user needs and issues.
- I made a mistake that using many font sizes and types which made me confused and wasted time finding the right one for each.
Next steps
The project wrapped up after the second round of testing. If this trend continues, I might explore designing a feature to display the school's ranking for that living area.