I designed an application that helps users evaluate the quality of a rental apartment before they sign a lease.

The NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development would make business decisions. However, this is a personal project.

Problems were defined based on the experience of viewing apartments and data collected by the NYC Department of Housing.

I worked on this project for three months.

Figma, Sketch, Invision, Photoshop, Illustrator.

User flows, information architecture diagrams,  wireframes, mockups, a clickable prototype, visual designs.

I was in charge of and executed research, information architecture,  flow diagrams, wireframes, usability testing, and final designs for this digital product.

Michael Walker, Product Designer

How might we help users evaluate the quality of a rental apartment before signing a lease?

How might we leverage data collected by the NYC Department of Housing Preservation to reduce housing complaints, and resulting city operations costs?

I drafted a research plan that included interviewing NYC representatives, brokers, landlords, and renters. The plan incorporated quantitative data from public housing records databases and polls posted in housing groups on Facebook and other social platforms. I also completed a usability audit of a portal the NYC Department of Housing uses to share building and unit information.

I identified resources and platforms people could use to evaluate apartment quality. I evaluated the pros and cons of these platforms and how they might be used to meet user needs. You can read a summary of the top resources I discovered in this article I wrote for the benefit of people moving to New York City for the first time.

I quickly evaluated the problem at hand and possible solutions by diagramming information on a whiteboard.

I used my whiteboard exploration as a starting point for drafting very quick sketches of interfaces that would help users accomplish their goals.

I designed user flow diagrams based on my sketches. You can see a first flow draft and second flow draft. I used these flow diagrams to establish the underlying architecture of the housing app.

I referenced flow diagrams and sketches to create wireframes that describe the process of (1) looking up violations for an apartment unit and (2) finding a building and accessing saved listings.

I tested mid-fidelity designs with members of my target audience.

I created high-fidelity designs that reflected branding used by the NYC Department of Housing.

It is difficult to evaluate the condition, location, and history of an apartment.

NYC Housing department data is useful but difficult to access because of the way it is presented.

Landlords are penalized if tenants complain about building conditions, but nothing encourages landlords to take action before conditions arise.

It is difficult to evaluate the condition, location, and history of an apartment.

I created a research plan to better understand the problem. It includes: interviews with renters, landlords, brokers, and housing authority personnel; competitive analysis of housing apps; polls posted in online housing groups; and observational studies of apartment viewings.

I created an application that can be used to access information about apartment quality quickly during an apartment viewing.  The information architecture reflects the way users would search for and evaluate units.

NYC Housing department data is useful but difficult to access because of the way it is presented.

I conducted a usability audit of the current database and completed a competitor analysis. I created a research plan that involved observing users navigate the site and reviewing site usage analytics.

I redesigned the database from the perspective of a user who is viewing an apartment. I paired data with images and features that provide users with more context about a unit.

Landlords are penalized if tenants complain about building conditions, but nothing encourages landlords to take action proactively before building issues occur.

I created a research plan that includes interviews with landlords and a review of housing database analytics (in order to identify action taken on claims.)

I proposed creating features for the database that reinforce positive results, such as an empty state that frames a lack of violations as something to be desired. I framed this as a way to evaluate the return on investment of further work, such as management tools that let landlords and building staff monitor monitor violations and participate in social activity surrounding units.

This is a personal project. It is complete, but I occasionally revise and add to it in order to better illustrate my design process.

This project allowed me to explore different ways that task-focused interfaces can be used to distill complex data into insights that are sensible and actionable for end users.

Because this is a personal project, I made an extensive research plan but did not get to execute it; I read existing research on housing instead. I would like to have worked with landlords, renters, and housing officials to learn more about the complexities of the problem. I would have also liked to test the product on-site to better understand the context a user is operating in.

I have finished this project. I am sharing results and a prototype of the database with others.

To further incentivize change I conceptualized a product promotion campaign that would leverage location data to advertise the status of buildings without violations. Advertisements would run on digital billboards used by the city to showcase public service announcements. Advertisements would be personalized to show the building in question and would run on the same block as the building. This level of personalization would drive resident awareness of the product and would encourage New Yorkers to look up buildings and log complaints. The visibility of such a campaign, if run often, would elevate lack of violations as a measure of quality that landlords could use to promote properties in their portfolio.