PERSONAL

INDIVIDUAL

5 STEP DESIGN

SCHOOL

BRIEF OVERVIEW

ROLE: UX Researcher & Designer

TOOLS: Figma

PLATFORM: Mobile App

TIMELINE: 2 Months

PROBLEM

Rutgers off-campus housing has major problems. First, there are too many listings across too many apps. Second, there are too many people competing for the same places, and no way to see this competition. Third, many sites, like Facebook Marketplace, are oversaturated with scams, making it hard to find real listings. Lastly, the roommate pool is so large, but there is currently no central hub to find or coordinate with them.

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

Build an app that solves all of these issues.

  • Feature 1: Consolidated listings from across the web into one place (and make that clear to the user)

  • Feature 2: Avoid scams and fraud by requiring users to log in with their NetID

  • Feature 3: Give users the ability to see their competition. Include metrics and analytics to allow users to see

  • Feature 4: Facilitate roommate discovery by integrating it with the housing search. Include profile creation in a way that prioritizes the housing search (living habits, housing preferences)

Build an app that solves all of these issues.

  • Feature 1: Consolidated listings from across the web into one place (and make that clear to the user)

  • Feature 2: Avoid scams and fraud by requiring users to log in with their NetID

  • Feature 3: Give users the ability to see their competition. Include metrics and analytics to allow users to see

  • Feature 4: Facilitate roommate discovery by integrating it with the housing search. Include profile creation in a way that prioritizes the housing search (living habits, housing preferences)

THE PROCESS

Emphathize

Define

Ideate

Prototype

Test

Methods: Competitive analysis, user survey (n=5), structured interviews


I began by auditing the six platforms Rutgers students currently use for housing: Places4Students, RentCollegePads (which powers offcampushousing.rutgers.edu, now part of StarRez), Facebook Marketplace and Groups, Zillow, and Apartments.com. I then distributed a survey to Rutgers students covering platform usage, pain points, scam exposure, and feature preferences.

Key findings:

  • No two respondents used the same platform as their primary housing tool, confirming fragmentation as the core problem

  • 100% of respondents said they would trust a platform more if it required NetID login

  • 0 out of 4 felt confident they had never encountered a scam — 2 said yes, 2 said not sure

  • The ability to see who else is interested in a listing scored a perfect 5.00 — the highest rated feature of any tested

  • Students described the search as "super competitive," with urgency and lack of transparency as the dominant frustrations

  • The sublease and lease takeover market was identified as almost entirely unserved by official platforms, forcing urgent transactions onto Facebook and Snapchat

INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

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