Recent Work
Recent Work
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PairGap: A new kind of Property Ownership
This case study covers the MVP rollout my team created for PairGap's pairing process between prospective co-owners.
UX / Research / Web Design
PairGap makes homeownership more affordable by pairing like-minded strangers together who have a desire to own property but can't own by themsevels
My Role
Workshop Facilitator | UX Researcher | UX Designer (Team of 4)
Challenge
Design a comprehensive matching process aimed to foster highly compatible partnerships & normalize co-ownership. The team had to establish a user flow & produce a clickable prototype to help the client generate funding.
Project Time
2 1/2 weeks
Tools
Figma | Miro | Zoom | Keynote | Google Forms
Methodologies
Screener Survey | User Interviews | Affinity Mapping | User Persona | Journey Mapping | Competitive Feature Analysis | Design Studio | Wireframes | Rapid Prototyping | Usability testing | Iterative design |
Key Takeaway
Advocating for users' pain is the key to an intuitive design. When a stakeholder's perspective stands in opposition, a designer must balance the two worlds. In order to convey the value of research while managing stakeholder expectations leaning on client-facing skills is necessary.
Big Picture Problem
Homeownership in general can be a very daunting experience; throw in the concept of co-owning with a stranger and anxieties are heightened several notches.
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It's challenging to find a trustworthy partner, that shares your home goals, to embark on this risky long-term investment. This sparked a need to further understand how users could feel more assured about the process of co-ownership & PairGap itself.
It's Risky Business
Co-ownership carries the chance of instability
There's more assurance when values, goals, & thinking are similar
Share My Values
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We Must Build Turst
A commitment like homeownership
trust is required
Open Communication
Frequent & open conversations are vital to determining match compatibility
Research Insights
Entering the research stage, the team conducted 11 user interviews with a myriad of current and prospective homeowners. To paint a clear picture of the issue, it seemed vital to receive the perspective of current property co-owners, prospective co-owners working the PairGap, & prospective homeowners opposed to co-ownership.
Our Primary Goals:
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1. Truly grasp the user’s pain points during the homeownership process.
2. Uncover any reservations about co-owning with strangers.
After listening to our participants, valuable insights were gleaned becoming the anchor of our research & the foundation for our design solution:
Meet Arielle
These high-level insights helped construct a persona, a constant reminder of the users our team was empathizing with & designing a solution for.
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30-year-old Arielle represents a community of people who wish to start building wealth through property ownership, but lack the means to buy alone. Co-ownership is an option but she has reservations regarding security that need to be addressed.
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Visualize Her Journey
Through a journey map, we visually explored Arielle’s current co-ownership experience with PairGap, highlighting the emotional ebbs & flows while identifying the areas of opportunity to improve the service.
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Key Journey Points
Arielle’s overwhelmed by the process’s length & she’s still uncertain about whether she’ll mesh with or trust any of the matches she receives.
After receiving her first match, Arielle’s hopeful but realizes finding the perfect match is tiring and requires vetting several prospects for compatibility.
However, once she finds that perfect match, she experiences a sense of relief as both can now fully commit
Define the Missing Puzzle Piece
Synthesizing all data points and narrowing the scope, the root of the
problem was identified and became the primary focus of design planning:
How might we provide relevant information to Arielle to help ease the co-owner search and match process?
A workshop was conducted, following a competitive & comparative feature analysis, to generate a that captured the MVP & sketch ideas that addressed the uncovered user frustrations.
Design Goal
Design Feature
Design Purpose
VIA
Build a Trusted
Match Process
Compatibility
Questionnaire
WHY?
Communicates that PairGap believes matching should be based on substantive criteria.
User Matching
Autonomy
VIA
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Co-Owners Explore Page
WHY?
Users want & deserve the freedom to explore potential coowners & determine what's perfect for them
VIA
Provide Match Transparency
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Detailed
Co-owner Profile
WHY?
Offers users key information necessary to make an informed decision for a long term, high-risk commitment
Foster Flourishing
Relationships
VIA
Instant Chat Section & Suggested Messages
WHY?
To start building trust, users have to have conversations & its on PairGap to help start them
Define Design Vision
We identified key design goals, its correlating design feature, & its purpose:
Design
Aesthetically, the team's elected for simpler, clean UI with injections of fun to offset the complex subject matter. It's worth noting, the team designed in conjunction with existing wireframes for PairGap's education services.
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The MVP underwent multiple iterations in which usability testing was conducted following each project milestone to uncover any possible opportunities areas. Taking these insights, the team was able to apply research-based enhancements to improve the prototype's form & function.
Dashboard
Grants access to all phases of PairGap's service, but in a specific order based on phase completion.
Implemented active states only for phases users are completing or have completed.
While all phases are visible, limiting access focuses the user on their current phase.
Questionnaire
Designed to prove PairGap's credibility & diligence during its matching process & uncover:
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1) a user's personality
2) a user's home goals
3) user's ideal co-owner
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Key UI Choices
1) Question tracker & percentage indicator showcases progression through a section & offers transparency about section length.
2)“Back” button differentiated from the “Next” button to steer Arielle forward rather than going back.
3) Selected a bold color for the “Save & Continue Later” button to ensure Arielle understood she could leave and resume the questionnaire at any point.
of tested users succeeded in creating a co-owner profile
100%
of users revealed they felt the breadth of questions covered all necessary bases
100%
Matching
Designed to allow organized browsing of profiles & access key information quickly.
Aimed to inform Arielle's decisions on whether to inquire further - it's ALL about the QUICK SNAPSHOT
Key UI Choices
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1) Prospective matches are organized into sections based on the category they share with Arielle.
2) Implemented a hover state providing Arielle the option to quick view profiles, reducing the amount of time wasted on profiles she’ll end up disliking.
3) Highlighted the shared criteria so Arielle quickly spots the relevant similarities with others.
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4) The ‘My Needs’ feature offers Arielle a reminder of her criteria so she can make informed decisions about potential co-owners when browsing.
of tested users failed to locate the prospective co-owner sharing the most similarities with Arielle
50%
Users struggled to use the "My Needs" section to identify what they were looking for in a co-owner.
Co-owner Profile
Designed to provide a surface-level idea of co-owner without being overloaded with information
Offers an easy way to contact a prospective co-owner to personally vet the match & begin building rapport & trust.
Key UI Choices
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1) Profile information is organized for Arielle to toggle through & digest easily.
2) Provided an additional chat button to guide users to the pop-up chat feature & stress the importance of building rapport.
3) Suggested messages are provided in the chat feature to ensure new relationships start off on the right foot.
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4) Compatibility charts are color-coordinated to dictate the level of compatibility between the potential match & make a dynamic visual statement.
of tested users succeed in effectively initiating a chat with a prospective co-owner
100%
The process was deemed
intuitive and easy by users;
receiving an average rating of
1.5
What's Next!
If the team were to take our designs to another level, here are the next steps we’d focus on to get us there:
1) Adjust the placement/layout of the “My Needs” feature on the browse co-owners page to make it more noticeable for users.
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2) Build out the side by side comparisons between the user and a prospective co-owner to provide a visual breakdown of compatibility.
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3) Further, build out the compatibility graphs on the individual profile pages. The green/yellow/red grades will be dependent on the final quiz questions & built algorithm.
Takeaways
Throughout the process, I discovered the power of being a true advocate for user's needs & research results. I learned how to effectively communicate the data's importance to stakeholders when their perspective stands in direct opposition. Balancing all perspectives in order to create a great product is a valuable skill.
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Overall, the client was more than impressed with our team’s deliverables and overall presentation. We managed to simplify a complex subject matter and inject fun into a process that can be overwhelming to some.
It was very inspiring to watch the design team grow as designers and grow in our understanding of PairGap’s service. Co-ownership was a foreign topic for all team members, but through our hard work and openness, not only did we produce an intuitive product, but we walked away as more knowledgeable individuals.
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