RESEARCH & REDESIGN PROJECT, 2023

Rent.ie

UX Research | Brand Research & design | UI REDesign | User testing & Feedback

Introduction

Rent.ie is a rental website that aims to provide the fastest and most up-to-date rental options to its users. The website offers rental options for a diverse target market including student rooms, shared houses & holiday homes.

The current rent.ie website had multiple interaction flaws. I improved the user journey, user interface interactions and user efficiency after a thorough research, rebranding and website redesign process while integrating design principles, and consideration of various cognitive biases, heuristics and affordances.
Use Website Redesign PrototypeView Brand Redesign

Initial Assessment

For the purpose of this research and design project, only the overall design and user journey for students will be considered. One of the first steps was to assess the overall website design and user journey.

1. Unusual Search Bar

The search bar has an information overload with too many options (an example of analysis paralysis cognitive bias), no proper filter to search a specific category and it also covers half of the page. There are no proper constraints which is that the availability of too many options is confusing.

2. Information Overload

The homepage has endless scrolling and lists of text with makes a user take a lot of time to takea decision. This reduces the efficiency of user and the closely packed list is also prone to error clicks which is a poor example ofFitt’s Law.

3. No Profile Login

There is no personalised profile option which isan external inconsistency whereby such a loginoption is common to save personal preferences,data and options for improved autonomy.

4. Inefficient User Journey

There are too many steps from the point a user lands on the website till the end point of finalising a rental place.

There is no visibility of rental ads on the landing page which is a bad interaction as they should be visible upfront instead of the 5th step in user journey.

5. Branding & Website UI

The overall branding and layout in terms of font, icon and colour selection looks very childish and gives an unreliable feel. This compromises the readability of the website.

Project Timeline

Phase 1: Discover

1.1 Literature Review

Students in Ireland face an accommodation crisis and it is found that restricted living situation is one of the main problems faced by numerous students in the country. A huge majority of these students reported the housing crisis having an impact on their mental health. The government is planning to invest in providing more housing options for students to tackle the issue and therefore there will eventually be greater availability of these housing options that can be looked up by students.
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Students often have to defer or withdraw as they struggle with finding proper accommodation. Students often end up finding accommodations far away from their universities or look to rent whole apartments with a group of friends. Recent schemes have allowed homeowners to rent rooms as well. With these rooms, students face the problem of finding an accommodation with affordable pricing, good quality living conditions and sufficient facilities.

1.2 Competitor Analysis - Daft.ie

I conducted a competitive analysis to understand how the competitors are offering similar services and what are their major strengths.

1. Branding and Website UI

There are too many steps from the point a user lands on the website till the end point of finalising a rental place.

There is no visibility of rental ads on the landing page which is a bad interaction as they should be visible upfront instead of the 5th step in user journey.

2. Familiar Seach Bar

The search bar is clear with categories and filters. Fitt’s Law is properly employed with different search categories and section browsing options close to each other hence minimum time is taken to navigate between these options.

3. Sufficient Filter Options

The filter options cover a wide range of options such as radius, price, beds, type of property, baths,facilities etc.

4. Efficient User Journey

You reach the room ads within 1-2 steps and can immediately start viewing accommodation options.

5. No Information Overload

The overall design is clean with information groupedappropriately. Affordances in the form of buttonsare clear to contact agent/owner and to icons are used for further actions like saving, printing or sharing the ad.

1.3 Problem Statement

Initial Draft: Notion Writeup

Further Statement Iterations: Miro Board Group Activity

A group activity was conducted where inputs from different participants were taking to create several versions of the problem statement. The structure was refined to reach a final iteration of the problem statement after taking into consideration different point of views and approaches towards the problem.

Final Problem Statement:

" How might we improve the user experience for students using rent.ie who currently experience frustration and waste of time leading to website drop off and dissastisfaction? "

1.4 Research Process

Phase 2: Define

2.1 Research Design - Methodology

To obtain the answer to the problem statement and to gain deeper insight into the problem of student accommodation, different research and definition methods were incorporated as part of the process.

2.2 Survey

The participants were introduced to the survey and requested to navigate through rent.ie as a pre-requisite to filling out the survey. The participants were informed of the estimated time to complete the survey and that the participation was voluntary. The survey is designed with the principles of ethical research such as virtue, empathy and duty so that no harm was caused to the participants in any way through the survey process. It was aimed to collect quantitative data on the functionality of rent.ie website.

The survey incorporates a combination of different types of survey questions such as demographic, open-ended, closed-ended, rating, Likert Scale and multiple choice questions. The questions are aimed at understanding user needs while navigating accommodation websites and the problems they face while using rent.ie.
View Survey Questionnaire

2.3 User Personas

User Persona 1

User Persona 2

2.4 User Scenario

Scenario 1: Ahmed's User Journey

This scenario displays where Ahmed abandoned the website mid user-journey and visits a different website.

Scenario 2: Aoife's User Journey

This scenario displays where Aoife goes through the whole user experience due to her nature of completing a task she has started, even though she is frustrated by the website experience.

2.5 User Flow

Initial Hand Drawn Sketch

Updated Digital User Flow

2.6 Empathy Map

2.7 SWOT Analysis

Phase 3: Develop

The ideation phase involved developing ideas and inital drafts for the brand and website redesign. A mixed-method approach was taken to apply solutions through different means.  

3.1 Crazy 8's

3.2 Brand/Logo Redesign

Initial Sketches

Refined Logo Ideas

3.3 Screen Sketches

3.4 Mindmap

Initial Draft

Detailed Mindmap

3.5 Finalised Hypothesis

Finalised Hypothesis

" We believe that redesigning rent.ie branding and website with principles of interaction design will result in  better service to customers and higher customer retention. We will know we are right when results show an improved website rating and referral rate. "

Phase 4: Deliver

The ideation phase concluded with the development of a final hypothesis and basic design drafts for the website/brand design. The prototyping phase finalised the designs along with user feedback.

4.1 Brand Redesign

Logo Redesign

The final logo is a minimalistic logo with a simple and clean design. Logos of this category are modern and professional which can be easily used on multiple mediums. For the case of a website, this logo can easily fit in the header area while the icon will easily be visible as a favicon. The icon can be used on its own on social media profile pictures and the logo as a whole can be used on print materials.

Typography & Colour Palette

4.2 Functional Module

4.3 Site Map

4.4 Mid-Fidelity Prototype - Wireframes

Figma Interactive Design

Use Figma Prototype

User Feedback - Questions

A user feedback exercise was conducted which included wireframe prototype testing and collecting feedback from users. The learning was applied to update the wireframes to produce the final design. The questions asked were:
  1. Were you able to quickly find student accommodation ads?
  2. Is the homepage easy to use? Was there an information overload on the home screen? If there are any missing pieces of information please suggest those.
  3. Do the filters cover everything important for an accommodation search, especially from the perspective of a student?
  4. Does the page that displays ads have sufficient information?
  5. Once you have opened the ad, is the layout easy to understand and can you find relevant information and contact button easily?

User Feedback - Results

  1. Homepage Ads Section: It was indicated that displaying 5 top ads was too much as it would make it difficult to see the room images and other details. This was incorporated by only including 3 ads upfront with the option to scroll horizontally.
  2. Header: Adding student accomodation to header was suggested to add another user path which is updated in the final design.
  3. Homepage categories: Rearranging categories in terms of priority was suggested with rent being the first option which is not included due to the redesign being primarily targeted for students, but they are otherwise rearranged to a more appropriate order.
  4. Toggle Display: The option to view listings as lists or grid was suggested which is added to the final design.
  5. Filter Options: Additional filter options were suggested such as sharing roomates, single gender accommodation, shared kitchen, wheelchair access, pet friendly and smoking/non smoking options which were incorporated in the filters tab.
  6. Homepage - How it Works section : A section to guide users was added through a feedback pointer so that new users can watch an onboarding video to understand all about rent.ie.
  7. Landlord Ad posting: Based on feedback, a section to post ads as a landlord was added on the homepage.

4.5 High-Fidelity Prototype: Light Mode

4.5 High-Fidelity Prototype: Dark Mode

Use Rent.ie Final Website Design

4.6 Brand Graphics

Abdul Raffay
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