MASSART
LIVING
ABOUT THE PROJECT
MassArt
Living
Revamp MassArt housing platform that protects international students from rental scams through secure communication channels, neighbourhood insights, and trusted listings, empowering confident housing decisions in an unfamiliar country.
ROLE
USER EXPERIENCE
VISUAL DESIGN
PROTOTYPING
BUSINESS MODEL
TYPE
RESEARCH ASSISTANT | MASSART
TOOLS USED
FIGMA
MURAL
GOOGLE SUITE
Uncovering Motivations
While I got an overarching sense of what the problem space looked like, there was a need to dive deeper into what our target audience’s current experience, what they really needed and what they were ultimately trying to achieve.
"JOBS TO BE DONE" framework would help us appropriately narrow down and define what the study should focus on solving for within the broader context we started off with.
Jobs To Be Done Framework
Problem Scoping
International graduate students coming to Boston face significant challenges when seeking off-campus housing. Without access to campus housing or reliable local connections, these students struggle to navigate an unfamiliar housing market from afar. Our research aimed to understand the deeper motivations and needs driving their housing search process.
STRATEGY
A user centric
design process
I began with semi-structured user intercepts to observe housing search behaviors firsthand, followed by targeted interviews that revealed key pain points and opportunities. Competitive analysis identified market gaps and differentiation potential.
Research insights drove the creation of comprehensive user flows, which informed the wireframing process. After developing a cohesive visual identity, we designed intuitive UI screens balancing aesthetics with functionality.
To ensure commercial viability, I developed market opportunity analysis, 4P marketing model, and business canvas framework, creating a foundation for both user satisfaction and sustainable implementation.
What did we find ?
1.
Students often lost out on the initial valuable time in their search for affordable housing listings due to their unfamiliarity with the platforms for effective housing discovery.
2.
The initial stage of the discovery process was the most confusing for first-time students living away from home as they lacked a clear understanding of what to prioritize.
3.
The absence of trusted college recommendations forces students to navigate a complex housing landscape through external platforms.
4.
Partnering up for house hunting eased the individual stress and expanded search possibilities, saving time and effort in finding both suitable accommodations and reliable housemates.
5.
Presence of a diverse and vibrant community in a neighborhood served as compelling social proof for safety.
6.
Sluggish communication and a passive approach by landlords/tenants in sharing real-time information about the property, breeds distrust, suggesting a potential fraud or faulty property.
7.
Instances of scams and fraud breed distrust, driving users away from the platform in search of a more trustworthy discovery experience elsewhere
Key insight collections
Ideation
After synthesizing the key insights, I employed "How Might We" questions to identify promising opportunity areas. This framework focused our ideation, allowing us to brainstorm diverse solutions for specific challenges. We clustered similar concepts, then collectively selected the highest-potential ideas through team voting.
The solution centered on redesigning MassArt's existing off-campus housing website, enhancing current features while adding new functionality to create a more intuitive user experience. I translated these improvements into functional prototypes in Figma, demonstrating how our design decisions addressed the pain points identified during research.
Ideation session on Miro
Dashboard: With clear and simplified layout presents upcoming tours of your chosen listings, messages and recent saved housing listing
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Saved Listings: List of the saved listing with your personal list and made with your friend
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Scheduling Proxy Tour:
Quick Communication:
Know your neighbourhood:
Let's work together
Reach out at manvisingh5995@gmail.com. I have an inbox zero rule so I’ll see your message for sure and, I’ll reply with at least one smiley.
Initial understanding board population on Miro
Opportunity
Area
How might we create a trustworthy housing platform that provides international students with community connections, security, and an optimistic house-hunting experience?
VALUE PROPOSITION
Empower international students to navigate the Boston housing market seamlessly and confidently with quick communication, easy organization, and trustworthy reviews.
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What I learned ?
Digging Below the Surface
Conducting thorough root cause analysis and investing time in understanding insights are essential for identifying the true source of issues and determining high-impact opportunity areas. This process helps realistically scope what can be achieved and focuses efforts where they'll be most effective.
Building Better Teams
Being attentive and accommodating to individual team members in group settings is crucial for success. Maintaining open communication creates an inclusive and friendly atmosphere where team members feel comfortable discussing challenges that may affect productivity, ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Asking the Right Questions
To avoid becoming overwhelmed by data and to concentrate on solutions with genuine impact, it's vital to develop clear "How Might We" (HMW) questions that specifically address the problem scope. This approach provides clarity for ideation and ensures efforts remain aligned with solving the core issues at hand.
Know What You're Looking For
Determining what a prototype needs to validate and what feedback to gather is a critical step in the design process. This understanding helps identify the appropriate level of fidelity and presentation methods for effectively engaging with the target audience, maximizing the value of the prototyping phase.
Massart living logo
TYPOGRAPHY
INTER
Aa123
INTER
Aa123
COLORS
#1C4835
#E5B440
#0D0D0D
#FFFFFF
Visual Identity
Learning that makes you want to read
I wanted to evoke humanistic qualities creating an approachable learning space, while having exceptional legibility across screens ensures content remains accessible. The font's subtle character variations allow our platform to feel warm and personalised without sacrificing the clarity essential for effective education.
The Website
Experience
Secure spaces, confident faces
Dive into the interactions
Problem Identification
Given that I not had worked in the housing space or designed for college students before, I decided to first get a sense of what the context looked like and where I could find potential gaps to intervene in.
I carried out quick, semi structured intercepts and observations of target audience by getting them to walk me through their experience of house hunting.
Shown below, are some of the initial findings I came across that helped set stage for the next research steps.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
MassArt's existing off-campus housing website fails to meet student needs
Due to poor awareness among incoming students, significant user experience deficiencies, and lack of comprehensive resources, forcing students to navigate multiple platforms while searching for housing in an unfamiliar environment.
SOLUTION
Our platform reimagines the
off-campus housing experience for MassArt students
A comprehensive digital solution addressing critical pain points. The redesigned interface features verified listings with built-in fraud protection, neighborhood insights from current students, secure communication channels with property owners, and interactive visualization tools.
By integrating with orientation materials and optimizing for mobile, we ensure universal accessibility while eliminating the need for students to navigate multiple platforms during their housing search.
User Research
Through 12 user interviews, I captured detailed insights on house-hunting behaviors and MassArt website usage patterns. Participants described their typical processes, pain points, and website interactions, allowing us to identify key frustrations and desired improvements for an ideal housing platform. These direct user perspectives informed our understanding of actual behaviors, challenges, and aspirations.
"When the landlord took days to respond about viewing the apartment, I immediately became suspicious."
Stephan
"After almost falling for a scam listing, I completely stopped using that website." -
Nick
"I wasted the first month just figuring out which websites to use for apartment hunting."
Jamie
SITE MAP
User flow
mapping
After finalizing product requirements, I developed a user flow that prioritized key functionalities for the website revamp, creating a logical pathway that addressed the most critical user needs first.
FEATURES DEVELOPED
High-Fidelity
Prototype
I conducted a round of user testing by observing fellow college students interact with the prototypes and collect their feedback afterward. The main focus was to make sure our redesigned website matched users’ mental model and was able to solve the desired purpose of house hunting.
