For roommates who don’t know each other that well, ROOM!E is an all-in-one support app that can help roommates plan a chore chart, split groceries, book rooms and schedule times.
This was a semester long project for my Interaction Design 1 class. We were asked to come up with an idea and design it to a finished, working prototype.
Dealing with roommates is hard, so I wanted to create an app that took the headache out of the process.
The main questions I addressed were: what kind of problems do people have with their roommates and how could they be solved?
This app is designed by a roommate, for roommates. It is the starting point for them to divide up chores, split money, figure out groceries and plan their schedules.
From interviewing four participants, I learned that there are two major communication issues that roommates have. Either they are friends, so its difficult to tell them to get things done or they are strangers so it's awkward to talk to each other.
During the initial drawing stage, I employed both wireframe drawing and group drawing sprints. During the group sprints, I would describe each screen to a team of three people, and they would draw what they thought it looks like. This process helped me expand my thoughts in terms of what is possible to create.
I then created a sitemap, where I laid out the user flow through the app. I decided on a top level nav bar where the users can move across screens, each having sub interactions underneath them.
From here, I started designing the screens. I looked at both mobile and desktop view and decided on a rough way to lay out all the content. The final product changed drastically, but this was a great starting point to thinking about the screens.
The next part of the process was to pick the colors and fonts and create the identity mark for the app. I wanted something that represented living together and the excitement of having roommates. I also picked fonts and colors that were more playful, since my primary audience is college students.
Finally, it was time to combine the wireframes and brand identity and create the hi-fidelity prototypes. You can access a clickable version of the prototypes here.