In our Product Design Course, Kanisha and her team seized the opportunity to develop Abodely, a home-sharing app.

About Kanisha

I am a User Experience Designer with extensive knowledge of analysing user requirements and problems. This allows me to design creative solutions that deliver a good experience for the user. I completed my master’s in Interior Design in India. When I moved to the UK, I was exposed to digital design where I utilised my skills to design digital spaces. I am self-taught and gained my knowledge by executing various client projects. After doing this for a few years, I wanted to receive formal training. Therefore, I decided to sign-up for the Product Design Course with UX Academy.

abodely home screen

Product Design Project: Abodely

Abodely App is a home-sharing network which connects young renters to elderly homeowners. This concept enhances the affordability for younger people but also offers elderly homeowners the opportunity to earn extra income. Through shared spaces and responsibilities, this would lead to an improved quality of life for both generations.

Project Problem

The problem that Abodely is facing is twofold. Firstly, there is a lack of affordable housing for young Londoners. Secondly, there is an increase in social isolation and loneliness amongst aging Londoners.

Next, we discovered that people aged 50 and over are more likely to be a homeowner. However, they are more likely to feel lonely if they are widowed, in poor health, or live alone. This is an amazing opportunity to connect young renters with elderly homeowners to solve these problems.

Project Challenges

We encountered a few challenges with this product design project. Several assumptions were made about the user were made, but no research could validate it.

For example, some elderly homeowners are not comfortable with a mobile app or advertising their property. Secondly, the expectations from both generation was not matched. Finally, accessibility is key for the older generation.

In order to validate our assumptions and to collect data from users, we created user personas. Thus, our persona focused on elderly homeowners aged 50-75 and young renters aged 18-34 from London. 

360 Review

In the competitive market research phase, I gathered ideas for the app’s look (interface) and style. These ideas helped in creating the design language for the whole app.

I sketched various solutions and received feedback from the instructors. This helped me to find the best way to integrate the new features. The next stage involved user testing.

Next, I turned my sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes. I defined the UI elements, design patterns, and styling. I tried to make it as neutral as possible and to look more like a finished product. 

Then, I converted the wireframes into an interactive prototype using Figma. This prototype was used to run remote user tests to provide feedback and allow us to eliminate any user pain points.

abodely screens figma

The final step of this project was to iterate previous steps based on the users’ feedback. Our final design involved several iterations and user testing sessions. Also, the design concept had neutral colours, modern illustrations, and easy-to-read fonts. We achieved a seamless design and a user-friendly app through research, testing, and design iterations.

Whether you want to start a career in UX, or just diversify your skillset in general, UX Academy has several courses available to suit your needs. Also, our courses allow you to work on real projects and build your UX portfolio.