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dwell™
Shared living made easy.
Solo, Passion Project
Project Type
Role
UX/UI Researcher + Designer
Timeframe
Sep 2024 - Jan 2025
"A gamefied way to track shared spaces, avoid
conflicts, and keep housemates in sync"
Chapter 1 : Money, money, money
Not by the self-driving cars,
nor by the robot waiters…
But rather,
by how everyone was affording rent.
The answer?
42% of Bay Area adults live in
a 'doubled-up' household
Being the 2nd most expensive
U.S. region to live in,
*doubled-up (adj): adults living together for financial reasons
SOURCE: PORSH, DEC 2022
Roommates.
…yet over 1/4 people report to be dissatisfied
with their roommate situation
That's ~450,000 unhappy Bay Area locals!
How can I make the inevitable situation of living
with housemates a more enjoyable experience
for young adults in the Bay Area
THE GOALS THAT SHAPED MY DESIGN DECISIONS
Find out what Bay Area locals dislike about living with roommates
Hone in on one main issue with room for improvement
THE CHALLENGE
Chapter 2 : Here's what Dwell can do for you…
Peace-of-Mind Usage
With Dwell's timer function, you can set & forget.
Your housemates will stay well-informed of how
long you intend to use a room or appliance for.
This will reduce uncertainty & aid with time
management for all tenants.
Personable Characters
Choose a fun avatar that represents your user profile.
Between Berry, Starr, and PaperMan, these characters
remind us that our roommates are people just like us,
and to cut them some slack from time-to-time.
Privately review your usage statistics. Don't worry!
These are only for yourself to see. Just a good way
to remain considerate of your other housemates.
Soft Reflection
Intuitive, Speedy Setup
…and last but not least, give your
roomates a nudge in times of need…
Just like that,
you'll be best friends with your roommates in no time ;)
Chapter 3 : User Interview Time
In order to form the blueprint of my app design,
I took to the streets of Palo Alto to interview
some Stanford University students
Our target audience are early-career professionals/
college students, living in shared households
Stats
Interviewees: 6 (3 male, 3 female)
Average duration: ~11 mins
Ages: 21-29 years
Donuts handed out: ½ dozen
Meet Ashley
MS @
@
Age: 25
Salary: 29/h
👋
Marketing
Intern
"Not being able to live life in my own rhythm"
*hover to read more*
"Keep drama to a minimum"
*hover to read more*
"Reading people's minds"
*hover to read more*
What's the biggest struggle you face living with roommates?
How do you personally deal with this struggle?
If you could have a superpower to help with this, what would it be?
*My initial idea was to create an app that let's you give commands to housemates (i.e. take out trash),
but based on the outcome of the interviews, I learned this might lead to passive-aggression;
thus I adapted my idea to the following…
THE APP HELPS HOUSEMATES:
Know which amenities are in use
Stay mindful of their amenity usage
Encourage healthy interaction if need-be
Settle finances of co-living (i.e. rent, chores)
Punish or shame housemates for usage habits
Intend to replace housemate interaction
THE APP DOES NOT
Designing the Dwelling
I modelled Dwell after a TV remote
The inspiration of my app design for Dwell was the Roku TV remote.
For a generation that widely owns these user-friendly TVs, I wanted to
bring the comfort, functionality, and familiarity of the remote to their
fingertips…again.
whimsical theme
deep purple tone
colorful button variations
Complaints
Text color doesn't pop
User profile doesn't look clickable
Icons look too similar
User-Testing Stage
*swipe to compare*
Corrections
Found complementary text
color using color theory
Added user's name underneath avatar
Utilized more recognizable icons +
backgrounds
The final prototype
to navigate prototype
Ready to start livin' easy with Dwell?
R
to restart
Wrap-up: Would I change anything?
If I could do it again, I would host multiple rounds of user testing, because
it was the most influential on my later-stage design process. I would also
team up with a developer, create a beta version, and gather quantitative
data from room-sharers, such as: how much time does this save you
daily, or rate your perception of your roommates before/after.
The idea is still early, and I'm still young, so a lot can still happen to see
this form a full-baked app :)
Return to Camp!
Return to Camp!
Omar Tawil.
