HOUSING BY STUDENTS
HOUSING BY STUDENTS
November 2022
Role: UX designer & researcher
Duration: 4 weeks
Tools: Wix
Team: Jordan Dong, Jeslyn Lieu, Amy Rodriguez, Jess Wang
Link to Slide Deck
Overview
Problem
Finding off-campus student housing at the University of Michigan can be especially confusing for freshmen and transfer students. The current website for off-campus housing does not provide enough accessible information about affordable housing.
Challenge
How can we create an aggregate website with verified housing locations that is accessible to all students?
UX Design
My teammate and I designed our website using Wix. We incorporated Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design in order to create a centralized website that provides direct and accessible housing information. In addition to the current off-campus housing website, we designed an additional feature on our website to find roommates as well as a section for reviews from previous tenants.
After logging in with your umich uniqname, you are able to access resources regarding housing, a roommate compatibility assessment, view or write reviews, and add a rental unit listing.
Home Page
With this feature, students can take a roommate compatibility assessment to determine compatible roommates. Users have an avatar or a visible profile picture. Some features include personality type, messaging, invites, social media links, and additional background checks.
Roommate Compatibility
Information Analysis
We collected data for this project through historical statistics and surveys conducted in the Ann Arbor community. Our focus was on undergraduate students at the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor campus. As of 2021, there are 32,282 undergraduate students, 24,992 of which are sophomores, juniors, or seniors. 39% of undergraduate students qualify for need-based financial aid (about 9,747 sophomores, juniors, and seniors).
Total Housing Units (2020): 51,010
Total Renter Units (2020): 27,851
Number of Undergraduate Students Looking for Housing (2021): 24,992
89.735% of renter units
Median Rent (2020): $1,299
