Docurents
For my RED UX capstone project I created Docurents; An app that will improve the Toronto rental process. Docurents would allow the user to provide landlords with all necessary information instantly apon deciding to apply for a rental, thus eliminating the risk of loosing a rental based on inhibitly to retrieve documentation quick enough.
Toronto is a diverse, thriving city who’s poised to become the next tech hub with new buisnesses setting up shop and a steadily increasing population. However, this increase has created an inflated and competitive rental market where renters must be at the ready when a potential home becomes available.
A couple months ago I was one of these renters on the hunt for a place to call my own and it was one of the most exasperating situations I have ever been in. It took me 3 weeks to find a place to rent, I called 15+ landlords, viewed 5 units, submitted 3 applications and from the moment I first began sifting through the many rental sites until the day I signed my lease it was a bumpy stess filled ride. Overall I found…..
A couple months ago I was one of these renters on the hunt for a place to call my own and it was one of the most exasperating situations I have ever been in. It took me 3 weeks to find a place to rent, I called 15+ landlords, viewed 5 units, submitted 3 applications and from the moment I first began sifting through the many rental sites until the day I signed my lease it was a bumpy stess filled ride. Overall I found…..
So even though there were many problems to be solved, I felt the application process was particularly frustrating because once I decided I was interested in applying to a unit I then had to scramble to collect all the neccassary documentation for the application before any other prospective renters decided they wanted the unit as well. Landlords would set up multiple viewings in one day and essentially it was first come first served.
The Problem
Renters do not know what documentation is needed before submitting an application. Required documentation also varies from place to place and because of the competitive nature of Toronto rentals, renters often have limited time to retrieve and deliver these documents which can be difficult and time consuming to retrieve.
The Research
I began my research by conducting 6 user interviews in order to gain more information about the Toronto rental process and understand if others had experienced any of the same issues I had faced. However, I did not want my questions to be leading and tried to keep them open ended, allowing the respondents to tell their stories organically and in a conversational manner.
Sample Interview Questions:
- When was the last time you rented a place in Toronto?
- Were there any must haves?
- What was the rental process like for you?
These were the questions I started out with but based on the respondents answers I’d ask them for more information and dig deeper to find out what their unique individual experiences and renters journey had been.
Each person interviewed had needed to find a place to rent within the last 2 years and all expressed frustrations with the Toronto rental process. I found that no one wanted to live in a basement (I don’t blame them) but I also that some of the interviewees had faced similar issues during the application process when it came to retrieving the required documentation. Interviewees felt the issue with some rental agencies was that they are still primarily paper based when the majority of renters use digital means for apartment hunting.
User Survey
Sample Survey Questions:
- Which sites did you use when looking for a place to rent?
- How many places did you contact before finding your current residence
- How many places did you view before finding your current residence?
- How long did it take you to find your current residence?
- How accurate do you find the information on rental sites?
- Any other thoughts about the rental process in Toronto?
Ultimately I found the qualitative data (taken from that last open ended question) much more insightful then the quantitative data, it was where people opened up, vented their personal frustrations and talked about the challenges they ecountered when trying to find a place to rent in Toronto. These quotes validated my problem and lead to the creation of my persona.
From both my user interviews and survey I was able to create the persona of my ideal user, a 27 year old content strategist named Sarah Ward. Sarah is social and enjoys nightlife, so amenities in the area and proximity to public transit are very important to her. Sarah has had a difficult time filtering through all the various rental sites, especially since many listings are stale and contain outdated information and she has also encountered issues when submitting applications due to lack of information. Sarah’s goal is to find an affordable rental in Toronto within the month and to have a stress free application process.
I then created a series of user stories based off Sarah’s persona and the responses in my user interviews and surveys,
- As a user I want the app to show me what Toronto rentals are availble basedon my must haves and budget.
- As a user I want to know more about the rental property and landlord.
- As a user I the app to allow me to book viewings for rentals in Toronto.
- As a user I want to app to confirm if my request to view a unit has been approved by the rental property/landlord.
- As a user I want to allow me to apply for a rental in Toronto and know how many others applications have been sent before mine.
- As a user I want to know whether or not my rental application has been approved.
- As a user I want to know what documentation is required for the application process.
The Solution
An app that will aggregate rentals and allow the user to fill out a generic application form, scan in renters documents and then share their information with an email address or secured link via phone number (either with a new contact or from a listing).
Users could provide landlords with all necessary information instantly apon deciding to apply and eliminate the risk of loosing a rental based on inhibitly to retrieve documentation quick enough.
User Flow
An app that will aggregate rentals and allow the user to fill out a generic application form, scan in renters documents and then share their information with an email address or secured link via phone number (either with a new contact or from a listing).
Users could provide landlords with all necessary information instantly apon deciding to apply and eliminate the risk of loosing a rental based on inhibitly to retrieve documentation quick enough.
Paper Wireframes V1
Conducted 2 user tests
User Story: You are a young working professional whos goal is to find a suitable place to rent (based on your preset parameters and renters score) in Toronto and request a viewing.
User Story: You are a young working professional whos goal is to find a suitable place to rent (based on your preset parameters and renters score) in Toronto and request a viewing.
These were my first set of wireframes before revisiting my MVP and stripping away the “nice to have” functionalities. Users were having great difficulty navigating through the app as I had not added labels and left out back buttons on some of the screens.
Paper Wireframes V2
Conducted 4 user tests
You are a young working professional whos goal is to find a suitable place to rent (based on your preset parameters and renters score) in Toronto and request a viewing.
Overall users felt like the app was trying to do too much and based on the feedback during my midterm presentation I needed to go back to my MVP.
Paper Wireframes V3
Conducted 2 user tests
You are a young working professional looking for a place to rent in Toronto. Your goal is to share your rental documents from your profile.
At this point I had scaled back the app to its core functions but realized users were confused about where the share info button was located and how to use it.
Paper Wireframes V4
Conducted 2 user tests
You are a young working professional looking for a place to rent in Toronto. Your goal is to upload a new rental document and share your renters information with a new contact.
During this round of user testing I was still trying to figure out which functions needed to be in the nav bar at all times and which could be specific to certain screen. I learned that the filter option was only relevent when the user was looking at rentals in list or map view. I also realized that the option to share renters information should be available at all times since it is the core functionality of the app.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes V5
Conducted 3 user tests
You are a young working professional looking for a place to rent in Toronto. Your goal is to upload a new rental document and share your renters information with a contact from a rental listing.
Users were able to complete the goal of uploading a document and sharing with ease, but user was still getting stuck on the share information button and suggested making all share buttons the same colour for consistancy. As well, another user found the amenities within the listings confusing and thought all options should be shown, with availble amenities in colour and those that are not greyed out.
High Fidelity Screens
Here’s a link to my working InVision prototype
Next Steps
- I would like continue further user testing on my high fidelity prototype.
- I would like to build out the user flow and screens for the on boarding process.
- I would like to implement some of the “nice to have” features, such as the renters score and pre approved listings.
- If the above “nice to have” features were implemented, I would like to build out user flows for both the renter and landlords optimal flows.
