Roominate
An application for empathetically defining and maintaining roommate behaviour
Challenge
Only 66% of roommates are satisfied with their current living arrangement. With a sharp increase in the cost of living world over, people are being forced into increasingly less-suitable situations. Due to an eclectic mix of temperaments and personal values - as well as highly individual hopes and dreams - roommates are struggling to realise their expectations. This is leading to ever-growing resentment in homes all around us.
Approach
After thorough research with psychologists and roommates, I realised it was essential for me to create with users. Because of this, I conducted a number of co-creation sessions. During this time, I was continuously experimented with various interaction possibilities and formats, from physical card games to retro multiplayer games.
Trialing rapid experience prototypes allowed me to understand what these conversations meant and how I could not only facilitate them, but enhance them at every turn. Starting with an engaging card game framework, I began to understand the complexity of conversation and create the final iteration of Roominate.
Solution
Roominate is a mobile application that supports roommates through group play in the continued, empathetic definition of boundaries and expectations, allowing them to deeply contemplate how they wish their home to be. It aims to facilitate the focused, democratic discussion of individual and group thoughts, forming crucial context and gathering data to be further ruminated on into the future through daily prompts and notifications.
Roominate allows roommates to work together through empathy and boundary definition to create their virtual tree. Using metaphor, it guides them through understanding their role in each other’s lives as well as forming democratic behaviours. Roominate continues to provide support through daily check-ins, archetype analysis and supplementary resources.
Context & Brief
Major Project NCAD
Timeline
15 Weeks
Year
2024
Skills
Research, Co-Creations, Sketching, Wireframing, UI, testing, Videography
You don't even know leaving home that you have expectations set” - Jack, 26
Why is early intervention & discussion important?
Resentment rapidly grows between roommates when boundaries and expectations are not discussed prior to entering a new dynamic.
Greatly reduces feelings of wrongdoing when behaviour is discussed prior.
Roommates are more likely to stay together when there are defined expectations.
Mapping/Co-Creation
I wanted to gauge the full extent of the roommate experience, from move in to the dreaded move out. I drafted floor plans and got roommates to gather and pinpoint problem areas, from which I was able to pull concrete data to inform concepts going forward.
Blank Williamsburg apartment floor-plan
Average (4 participants) Williamsburg apartment sentiments rated 1-10
Average (3 Participants) Bushwick apartment sentiments rated 1-10
Interviews
I knew that with a deeply personal topic such as this, I needed to hear individual stories. Experiences, blow-ups, when it worked, when it didn’t, and most importantly…why it didn’t work.
I interviewed a variety of users, specialists and those who had done projects in a similar space.
"boundaries are a spectrum, on one side of either is bad”
- Eve, 23
"she didn't know how to express the things she wanted so it festered”
- Olivia, 23
"I’m all for having our boundaries and being respectful - I’d love a way to casually bring it up again after a few months of living with people”
- Aoife, 23
There is no way for roommates to casually and productively discuss boundaries.
Insights
Roommates are unable to step outside of their context to form the empathy needed for productive conflict resolution or relationships.
Boundaries are forgotten about after roommates get complacent living together and when routines change.
Development
Sketching & Concepting
I started my process of concepting by rapidly sketching 30 concepts, before blending and merging ideas.
After filling up my notebook I chose to focus on 3 concepts to focus on.
Conflate - a messaging app that helped to reduce conflict by tailoring discussion to individual roommate types with AI.
Uproom - tackling the issue of roommate disputes before deciding to live together. Connecting roommates by type, temperament and values to find the perfect apartment.
Roominate - an engaging card game that allowed roommates to connect with each other and discuss how they want the dynamic to be.
Roominate was the concept I saw as having the most potential, tackling all three insights in a simple yet effective way. This would be the base I built everything off.
Experience Prototyping
I brought forward my concept ‘Roominate’. Initially, this was an engaging card game, but I knew from my insights and from my other concepts that there were elements and opportunities I could build on.
Prototyping the experience was essential in my understanding of how roommates wanted to/felt comfortable engaging and what information/output was most helpful to be used as a tool to define expectations in an empathetic way.
The initital thought process of Roominate
I was consistently trying to understand intelligent ways of synthesising feelings and desires, looking at communication styles and role play - to help expedite maturity and allow potential problems to be caught early on.
This prototype was
Fun, engaging and absolutely getting people talking
Complicated
Undefined output
I knew what it needed to do… but how was it going to do it?
Co-Creation
Taking forward my learnings, I organised co-creation sessions to understand
What information might be desirable when defining boundaries?
What boundaries need defining?
What ways can this information be obtained in an engaging but still detailed and useful way?
I knew from this point that my concept had for more opportunities for connection and definition as an app. This is what I did.
Low to Mid-Fi Prototyping
I knew that I had to start piecing the framework together and so I tested various versions, trying to enhance connection at each turn. Some versions used humour, some far more serious - these allowed me to understand how to make something that was loose enough so as to allow for highly specific needs and feelings.
Learnings
The framework was coming together. It was providing useful information and a real output, but had lost the fun and engaging aspect it once had. So, I went back to work, trying to figure out metaphors to carry the roommates through this journey - trying to gameify the concept of a roommate agreement. I started sketching out ideas for a more mindful approach, looking at the apartment as an ecosystem with different types (animals) and different behaviours and values (tree).
Usability testing
Throughout my various iterations I was conducting usability testing to ensure states were consistent and that users knew instinctively what to do. I wanted the interface to be intuitive and to delight.
Improvements
Ensuring who has the cloud is clear.
Keeping consistent colour palette.
Giving better overview/details to prep participants for game.
Final Designs
Roommates sit down together, inputting their hopes for not only their living space, but also their life overall. They work together to catch clouds (the bigger the cloud, the bigger hope) and discuss this in depth, voting on values and actionable behaviours to help support this hope. Having built up enough rain, they’ll release it as a group to
Catching Hopes & Worries
Roommates sit down together to discuss their hopes and worries. They input their hopes as clouds, working together to catch them in the sky as they drift screen to screen. They take turns discussing this hope, passing the cloud back and forth, mimicking techniques of conversational receptiveness through intelligible prompts.
Forming Values & Behaviours
Roommates sit down together to discuss their hopes and worries, democratically voting on values and corresponding behaviours
Roommates sit down together to discuss their hopes and worries. They input their hopes as clouds, working together to catch them in the sky as they drift screen to screen. They take
Growing tree
Upon deciding on a value and actionable behaviour, roommates can complete their discussion and bring the rain, beginning to grow their unique group tree. This tree will continue to act as a dynamic roommate agreement, each leaf group representative of values and behaviours to reference.
Another round?
Upon discussing their hopes and defining the space moving forward, the roommates can choose to discuss their worries to form their full tree. Catching the worry worm as it moves from screen to screen, roommates follow the familiar template used in the hopes portion to bring about healthy growth for their tree.
Maintenance over time
Daily Log
Daily log allows for roommates to consistently update what’s working and what’s not, passively sharing their feelings and satisfaction. They can record what values and behaviours are being adhered to.
Dynamic Group Tree
The group tree sitting on the home page responds dynamically to group sentiment and value/behaviour adherence. The more the tree shows decay, the worse sentiment is over time, helping to hold roommates accountable for their behaviour.
Viewing Behaviours
Roommates are able to engage with their tree, understanding points of contention and where things are slipping. What’s working and what’s not? This allows roommates to have their voice heard without the risk of argument.