Zillow: Hey Roomie!
Designing the first-ever rental integration for finding co-leasers
Project
Hey Roomie!
A Zillow Rentals integration that utilizes machine learning to enable users to find potential co-leasers based on their preferences and apply for rentals with their matches within the app.
I participated in the Zillow Housing Hackathon in the Fall semester of 2022 and served as the team lead and product designer. In collaboration with my teammates (software engineers), we created Hey Roomie! - A Zillow Rentals integration that utilizes machine learning to enable users to find potential co-leasers based on their preferences and apply for rentals with their matches within the Zillow app.
🎖️ Our solution led to us emerging 2nd out of 65 participating teams and winning $12,000 for the team and Macbook M2s
Problem Statement
Buying, selling, and renting a home can be a complicated and confusing process. Zillow has launched products like the Zestimate, Zillow 3D Home tours, and Zillow Offers to simplify and streamline various real estate transactions, but more can be done.
What next-generation real-estate tool can your team build for millennial or Gen Z renters or homeowners?
Info
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
1 Week
Design Tool
Figma
Teammates (2)
Software Engineer
Solution
Safe & Secure Onboarding
Users can be sure that whoever their potential co-leaser is has undergone a background check to verify their identity and criminal records.
This increases platform safety and reduces the risk of scams. Zillow is also protected from liabilities through a compulsory terms and conditions form that users need to agree to.
Streamlined Results Through Preferences
Users can select housing and lifestyle preferences to streamline their search results to make finding their perfect match easier.
They can send requests to be matched with potential co-applicants and see their sent and received request status.
Send Applications with Usernames
Users can follow the same application process that they normally would with the option to apply with their matches through usernames
Thanks to Hey Roomies! seamless integration into the Zillow Rentals app
The Process
Hi, you may be wondering how I got here…
Brainstorming
Finding A Focal Point
Zillow has a plethora of applications and resources which cater to the housing market and serve different users. Therefore, it became necessary to streamline my solution to one problem.
I chose to focus on the rental market because this was a space close to home for me (no pun intended).
I had gone through the struggles of apartment hunting and have had countless conversations with my peers who also had. It is a space I have a kin interest in and this drove my passion in wanting to create a solution for it.
Finding A Gap/Opportunity for Improvement
I outlined what the process currently look like for rental hunting and leasing to find gaps and opportunities for improvement.
Solo Hunting
Shared Space Hunting
The Zillow Rentals app currently facilitates the last parts of the rental process.
However, there is a gap in roommate hunting that Zillow Rentals doesn't cater to, which means that
Zillow Rentals users are utilizing external resources to find roommates before coming to the app to lease an apartment.
Research
Leveraging Existing Research
Given the time constraint, I decided to leverage existing research to see if this was a problem that existed.
I wanted to know the population of Americans who live in shared housing and why.
According to Pew Research, as of 2017
79 Million Adults in America Live in Shared Housing
That is, a household with at least one “extra adult” who is not the household head, the spouse or unmarried partner of the head, or an 18- to 24-year-old student
According to Smart Asset
Living in Shared Housing Can Save a Renter Up to $1,148 Monthly
User Interviews
What factors do people care about when finding roommates?
I wanted to understand what people cared about when searching for roommates and use these factors
to create a list of preferences that users can select to streamline their search results.
From my interviews, it became clear that dealbreakers such as cleanliness, smoking, etc. were more important to people when finding roommates than other preferences like personality traits.
Competitor Analysis
What tools do people currently use for roommate search?
Zillow Rentals Could Be The Next Renter’s Hub
I wanted to create a solution integrated within the current user flow for rental hunting on the Zillow Rentals app.
Zillow Rentals already caters to all the steps in the apartment hunting process except finding cosigners. Apartment hunters who use external tools end up coming to rental applications like Zillow rentals to search and apply for listings.
Integrating this into the Zillow Rental’s app will mean that it could become the one-stop shop for rental hunting - covering the end-to-end process for users.
Target Users
Putting It All Together
How can I create the best experience for Zillow Rentals users to Find, Match and Apply with potential co-leasers?
Ideation
01
Discarded
Streamlined results
Prioritizes housing preferences over roommate preferences
Requires users to put in work - add houses to favorites, before seeing potential co-leasers
02
Final
Results prioritize both Housing and roommate preferences.
User’s can multi-task i.e Find potential co-leasers and apartments simultaneously, without actions blocked.
Displaying Roommate Results
01
Swipe
Places heavy emphasis on the user’s appearance instead of living and housing compatibility
02
Lists - Final
Comprehensive list of results
Places more emphasis on living and housing compatibility
Option to sort and filter results.
Information Architecture
User Flow
Major Takeaway
Leveraging Existing Platforms
My internship last summer opened me up to the opportunities present in leveraging existing platforms when creating solutions. Prior to that, I had always designed from the ground up (which is very rare in real-world projects). I am really pleased that I was able to utilize my past experience in this project to see how I can incorporate my solution into Zillow’s existing platform and user flow.
If I Had More Time
An experience for Students
I would have loved to create an experience specific to students looking for apartments. It would have been interesting to explore and ideate on apartment hunting tailored to a specific campus and surrounding campuses in an area.
Conduct Usability Testing
I would have loved to conduct usability testing to see if my design gave users an easy and seamless experience.
