SharedHomes Wireframes - Key Pages

SharedHomes homepage. Allows you to begin browsing for roommates, rooms, or both. Added content based on usability feedback includes a "how it works" module, and a section on privacy to alleviate fears around personal data sharing.

An early browse page, giving the new customer a 'taste' of the site and what it can offer. Recommendations for homes and prospective roommates are based on a very short initial survey they fill out, which then expands into filling out a full profile should they want to proceed further. 

A sample of the survey a customer fills out to generate their profile. (Click to enlarge)

Sample profile - notice that you can toggle between house and roommate.

Filtering to refine your search results as you browse for roommates / homes.

Sample dashboard for signed in, repeat customers, showing top roommate matches.

Alternative version of the dashboard showing homes for rent.

View all wireframe pages (clickable prototype) >

Key Findings / Notes on Next Steps

After listening to feedback and critique, I came up with a short list of high-level changes to make in revision.

  1. SHARED HOMES SHOULD BE ITS OWN WEB PROPERTY. In the wireframes illustrated above, I had not yet distinguished the Shared Homes website I was building from Homes.com itself. Later, listening to feedback from others, I realized that my service should not replace Homes.com, but rather add to it. Homes.com had its own separate purpose - representing the home sales market and providing traditional home listings. I needed my Shared Homes site to be a distinct product.
  2. THE PRODUCT NEEDS TO SOLVE BETTER FOR HOMES + ROOMMATES. The initial surveying / profile creation flow accounted for home searches and roommate searches. But the dashboard and browsing flows didn't solve for the use case of people who were searching for BOTH a home AND a mate, not just one or the other.
  3. THE DASHBOARD SHOULD BE MORE USEFUL. In testing and presentation, several people noted that the dashboard was taken up almost entirely with recommendations for prospective homes or roommates. But what about local events / room showings? How would a user refine their profile and matches? Why no map showing nearby prospects and apartments? 
  4. THE PROFILE CREATION SHOULD BE QUICKER AND CLEANER. The product aimed to distinguish itself from Craigslist by being very thoughtful about what questions to ask people in order to provide them with smart roommate results. But had we gone too far / become over-ambitious in the questions asked and the burden of pre-search surveying? 
  5. THE SEARCH RESULTS ALSO NEED TO BE EASIER TO USE. Filtering seemed a little wonky in the original prototype. It was hard to find the right filters and the right profiles when refining search results. 

These findings were use to revise the final prototype:

  • Pages were rebranded with a new logo and reference back to "classic" Homes.com;
  • The dashboard was recreated to show both homes and roommates;
  • It was also rearranged, adding more creative ways to find people and homes besides a laundry list of profiles;
  • The survey and profile creation process was simplified; and
  • Search / filtering was cleaned up and simplified as well.