This was done as a design concept for a client who is an affordable housing advocate.
A design of Apartment A!erts website, with emphasis on a Minimum Viable Product focusing on design trends and great user experience for Apartment A!erts target users.
Seattle is the fastest growing city in the nation with more than 1,000 people moving here every week. As a result, rents rose 57% in King county in the past 6 years which led to more need for affordable housing.This very fact started & inspired the client in the conception of Apartment A!erts.
Apartment Alerts is an online tool that is all about matching affordable housing and qualifying tenants. It is going to have an SMS based system where prospective tenants can register online their interest in a building or buildings, along with essential information, primarily income.Then when a unit becomes available, everyone who has registered and qualifies gets a text. Less work for the building managers, a slightly more sane process for the applicants.
For this volunteer project, I worked on a design & tech team of eleven & helped mainly in interviewing users, research and a little bit of interaction design.This was part of the Seattle Social Good Series action-based interdisciplinary project organized by IxDA Seattle & Open Seattle. The event aimed at producing actionable solutions to support the needs of local community organizations.
This project was completed over a 2.5 month period.
Apartment A!erts is working to build an online tool that has an SMS based system, & geared toward matching affordable housing and qualifying tenants.
The goals of creating this online tool were:
We will create a platform that tenants and landlords can utilize to register, sign in, and get notification of the current status of housing qualification in a time-efficient manner.
Learning about the Qualification for Low Income Housing was a critical part of the process. In order to come up and ask the appropriate questions, I had to understand the basics of Affordable Housing.
Affordable Housing is a type of housing which is deemed affordable to those with a median household income as rated by the national or local government by a recognized housing affordability index. A commonly accepted guideline for housing affordability in the US is a housing cost that does not exceed 30% of a household's gross income.Seattle Housing Authority for instance, prioritizes in serving applicants to be on the waitlist for Low-Income Public Housing if they earn 30% or less of Area Median Income (AMI) or who are homeless but households earning 80% or less of AMI are eligible to apply.
I prepared a competitive research spreadsheet to enhance my undertanding of the industry. I found that most housing and tenant matching online tools are great in their own way but can vary in terms of reliability of services, ease of use, and presence of simple to advanced features.
With regards to interviewing, I was able to interview 4 tenants who are currently living in affordable homes, ages varying from 40's- 80's. I asked about 30 questions related to demographic, housing ecosystem, etc..The goal of the interview was to learn about them and their experiences in finding subsidized housing.
I wish there was an easier way for people to get a roof over their heads. Vince, Downtown Seattle Association Ambassador
How tenants feel about the qualification process:
Personas provide a "face" to the user story, creating more empathy and understanding about the person using the product. It also helps to guide the designs.
Sofia is a single mother of 2. Her rent has increased. She can no longer afford it. Her lease will be up in 5 months, and she needs to find an affordable home for her and her 2 children quickly.She learns about Apartment A!erts from her case worker or ad somewhere, and may be through a friend. She signs up to receive Apartment text alerts to phone. She then answers preapplication questions. She gets notified of next steps if there is one. She'll also get notification if she's not approved for subsidized housing and other alternative options she can do. Otherwise, she'll get another alert when there's an opening. Later on, she is able to begin her application process thanks to Apartment A!erts.
We were put into small groups when it was time to brainstorm for screen designs.I worked with Lauren & Torrey on certain interaction design elements of the online tool, including participating in a design studio workshop for the 3 of us. Doing the design studio workshop helped us come up with numerous ideas for the Property Manager's Sign up and Log in screens.
Alison and Emily the lead interaction and visual designers helped create the moodboard, UI elements, color, and typography choices. Green was the primary color of choice as it is also the real power color. Study shows that we associate the color green with happiness, comfort, hope, excitement, and a sense of peace. And is it any wonder? Symbolically, green embodies the rite of spring when everything is flourishing and new. Just like how we wanted Sofia to feel going through the process feeling happy & refreshed instead of being more stressed.
Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is pointless task. Tim Brown, CEO of the innovation & design firm IDEO
Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told “make it look good”. That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs, US computer engineer & industrialist.
The stakeholder mentioned that the project is in development as of the moment. So stay tuned!
Are you working on something great and need assistance? I would love to help make it happen! Drop me a message and let's get started on your project!
Email maryann.n.denman@gmail.com
Address Seattle, WA, United States
LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/maryanndenman/
