HoodScout

HoodScout is a user-driven neighborhood database that provides a platform to exchange information, gain insight and better envision life’s next move.

Timeline: 14 Weeks (Aug-Nov 2022)

Discover your dream neighborhood

My Role

I worked as the Lead UX Researcher & Designer. My responsibilities included user research, concept ideation, designing user flows, visual design, prototyping, user testing, and incorporating feedback from users into iterations.

About This Project

Many of us will move or relocate almost twelve times within our lifetimes, often to a place or area that we are unfamiliar with or know little about. HoodScout aims to alleviate the guesswork of relocating, providing a platform to explore, learn, and interact. Nowadays, everything from restaurants to laundromats are user-reviewed. As an important part of our daily lives and a place we spend much of our time, we believe neighborhoods should be given the same attention.

The Solution

HoodScout encourages users to gain more knowledge on a prospective relocation by providing users with the ability to browse and learn about different neighborhoods. Users can find out more about the neighborhoods they are interested in from user reviews and recommendations, nearby events and attractions, and the cost of living in a particular location. While this information can be found from numerous sources and other apps, HoodScout aims to be a unifying tool. With this combination of different resources, a user can make an informed decision on their relocation, alleviating the pressure and effort of all the different aspects of the move.

Design Process

Research

Secondary Research

I began this project with the assumed hypothesis that individuals relocating and moving were experiencing significant stress and difficulty doing so. However, I needed to validate that hypothesis before thinking about any proposed solution. To do this, I developed a set of key questions that I was hoping would be answered through my research:

  1. Who is struggling with relocating?

  2. What are the main stressors and difficulties being experienced? 

  3. How are they currently managing?

  4. What alternatives or solutions are already available?

Findings: 

  • More people are relocating than ever before, largely due to the pandemic and the vast number of companies operating under a work from home model. 

  • The challenges of relocating fall into a few categories: economic, regulatory, occupational, & psychological. 

  • People who can establish new social networks after relocating will recover more quickly, while those who don’t, are at higher risk of experiencing depression, sadness and loneliness.

  • A small number of apps exist that are marketed towards people relocating and moving.

Understanding User Needs

After doing some secondary research, I wanted to learn more about this topic on the struggles of relocating. I sent out a Google screener survey and utilized my network of friends, family and acquaintances in order to get responses. A total of 21 surveys were completed and provided me with valuable feedback. My survey findings helped quantifiably measure users’ frustrations while relocating, aspects they found most difficult and what tools or solutions they utilized during the process.

Survey Insight #1

Social integration was widely seen as the most difficult aspect of relocating (41.2%)

User Interviews

I conducted interviews of 5 participants who fit the demographics I was looking for. The focus was on their struggles of relocating and how they got through those struggles.

What I Discovered

From the survey and interview responses, I concluded that the experience one has relocating can vary depending on a variety of factors. Distance of move, cost, and preparedness can all greatly impact the roadblocks one might encounter. My research participants expressed struggling with everything from keeping necessary documents organized to transferring an automobile title. While services like MoveAdvisor, Sortly and Nextdoor are marketed to those moving, the majority of my interview participants either weren’t familiar with them or didn’t utilize them.

Survey Insight #3

69.3% of participants indicated that they experienced at least one significant roadblock during their relocation. 

Survey Insight #2

Participants are only neutral in satisfaction with current online relocation assistance services and tools (3.2 / 5.0)

Define

Affinity Map: The next step of my research was to gather all of the data and make sense of it by creating an affinity map. I looked through all of my notes and re-listened to the audio recordings of my interviewees. I wrote out on sticky notes, user insights, user quotes, user needs, user demographics and more. I then organized the data according to key themes: pre-relocation, emotional stressors, logistical stressors, financial concerns, anti-stressors and needs + wants.

Personas: Moving forward, I created two personas to better capture an idea of my target audience. These fictional individuals share a lot of my user’s same problems, motivations and fears.

Asking the Right Questions

After developing a persona, I wanted to come up with statements that clearly articulate what problems I am going to solve for in the design process. During this exercise I took the challenges noted during the research phase and turned them into opportunities to design.

How Might We…

  • Alleviate feelings of homesickness and loneliness for a newly relocated individual?

  • Deepen someone’s sense of belonging in a new place?

  • Assist in fostering relationships and social connections for someone in a new place?

  • Encourage a new resident to learn more about…..

  • Contribute to someone's long term happiness in a new place?

Ideation

After developing my persona and problem statements I went through the process of creating a set of user stories to capture what features and ideas need to be present in the solution. Once I had decided what user stories to prioritize for my MVP, I then created a site map to ensure the app would be well-structured for a user to navigate. All of these deliverables enabled me to generate and test sketches for key user flows, which ultimately influenced my approach to building out app design.

User stories: In the first stage of ideation, I wrote a set of user stories which allowed me to lay out all the features I felt would be most valuable to the user. I was able to assign a priority to each one depending on importance.

Sitemap: After developing user stories, I created a sitemap for my product. This process allowed me to think through and better plan the app’s organization and information architecture. I was able to identify where content should sit and show the relationship between different pages. Ultimately, this would ensure the user had an easier and more intuitive experience navigating through the product.

User flows: Once the sitemap was developed, I spent time thinking about the most important actions a user would want to be able to complete in the app. After identifying those critical paths, I developed user flow diagrams to help think through a user’s path toward completing each action. This process also allowed me to evaluate my sitemap structure and address any potential obstacles.

Sketching: Based on my user flows and stories, I began to sketch out screens for each user flow. This process allowed me to think through different ways to represent each flow. During this time, I continued to refer back to my research findings and persona as a way to stay mindful of who this product was aimed towards

I conducted a series of guerilla usability tests to get some initial feedback and gauge what users liked about the design and what aspects were less intuitive. This also allowed me to quickly validate if my sketches were intuitive and easy to navigate. Based on the test participants' feedback, I felt I had a good foundation to start developing each screen.

Design

Applying the insights from the ideation phase, I developed wireframes to start mapping out content and elements within each screen. In addition, I created a style guide consisting of typography, iconography and a color palette to match the app’s brand platform.

Wireframing: Utilizing the guerilla usability test results, I created wireframes for each user flow. This enabled me to to start arranging elements in each screen and implement features that would enhance usability and overall navigation of the app.

Brand Platform & Style Guide: One of the most exciting parts about building an end-to-end mobile app is the creative freedom to design a brand that embodies the product and entices the user. Resourceful, trustworthy, and insightful were key brand attributes included in the style guide development. I chose the name “HoodScout” to further reflect these attributes and evoke a playful and intriguing brand.

High-Fidelity Mockups: Moving forward with the process, I turned my wireframes into high-fidelity mockups. The goal was to create a recognizable and trustworthy UI with type and color choices that embody a clean, minimal and approachable tone. I developed the first few screens and audited each one for color contrast and accessibility issues. Once all screens were designed, I created a clickable prototype with animations to enhance the product’s interactivity. This would allow my testing participants to better vet the navigation and functionality of the app. 

Testing & Iteration

In the last phase of the project, I turned my attention toward conducting usability tests and iterating on my prototype based on the results. This is a critical step and a final opportunity to enhance the user experience.

Usability Test Plan: Following the completion of the clickable prototype, I went about conducting usability testing to gather data about the overall effectiveness of the app. Before conducting, I devised a usability test plan to ensure each session would go smoothly and I would receive results that would enable me to make adequate improvements. I was also hoping to ensure users could complete the assigned tasks successfully and without any error and determine the user’s overall perception of the quality and ease of use of the app.

Usability Test #1: After weeks of research, analysis and design, I was finally able to test the product and validate the assumptions I had made. For this initial round, I conducted 5 moderated usability tests via Zoom. The tests were extremely helpful in identifying a number of issues I did not foresee. The most critical issues found were: 

  • Participants expressed confusion navigating through the app and knowing exactly what screen they were on

  • Participants did not fully understand how the “Save” feature worked and were confused if they were saving something or adding it to a list

  • A few participants were confused about the app’s purpose and what tasks they could perform with it

  • When answering another user’s question or writing a review, participants could not correctly identify these items on the screen

In addition, participants pointed out minor inconsistencies between screens in the app and voiced suggestions they felt would enhance the user experience. Particularly, including more information on the neighborhood page to improve readability and incorporating more images in the app. 

Ch-Ch-Changes: To address the critical issues that were identified, I made a number of changes. Firstly, I removed the “Save” icon from the Q&A’s screen and changed it to a thumbs up icon. I also added different states to the “Save” icon on the tab bar; unfilled indicated not selected and filled indicated selected. In addition, I included a short onboarding tutorial conveying the general purpose of the app and some of its features. I also better highlighted which question or review was the user’s own by changing the background color, border and username to “you.” Finally, I revamped the neighborhood page by including an image carousel and rearranging some of the elements for a more refined look.

Usability Test #2

After iterating on the prototype, I conducted another round of usability tests (5) to gather feedback on the new version of the prototype. Overall, the second round went much better than the first and there were no critical issues identified. Most of the feedback related to personal preferences and small design details. Quite a few test participants were complementary and seemed intrigued by the app. I walked away from this final round of testing feeling positive and proud of what I had created.

Testing Insights

The importance of validating our assumptions through testing cannot be emphasized enough. I made the mistake of assuming the product was self-explanatory and enough convention was incorporated into the design. That was proved incorrect during the first round of testing. As I’ve since learned, you can never be too obvious about how a product works or what its purpose is. If a user is confused or lost to start, their experience will only worsen from there.   

Check out the prototype below!

Final Thoughts

This project taught me a great deal about the end-to-end design process and UX as a whole. Initially, I was eager to jump right into designing and developing screens but I quickly learned the importance of all the stages involved in the design thinking process. Research, synthesis and ideation are crucial to understanding and defining the problem accurately. If you jump the gun too early on, the final product could be jeopardized. I also learned the importance of not chasing perfection. Trying to perfect every little thing will only lead to frustration and can make you lose sight of the bigger picture. If your work is presentable and serving the purpose, then you’ve done your job. And lastly, this project served as a reminder that as designers, making small changes can yield big impacts and create a great experience for users.

Thank you for your time!