roomiebuying

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Happy voting = Happy roommates

An useful mobile app for reducing the conflict between roommates

Overview

Abstract

Statement of interest

Influences

01Table of Contents

41434445

Moodboard

Logo

Color

Typeface

Visual Design

123

AbstractStatement of interestInfluences

Overview

567

Best five ideas

Surveys

Competitive Analysis

Research

171819202325

Unique Point

User scenarios

Target Audience

Persona

Sitemaps

Sketches

Concept development

2729

Walkthrough

Technical specification

Proof of concept

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Abstract

The most common conflict among roommates is lack of communication. People like

to create a group on Facebook or on chatting on the app to create connections

amongst roommates. Despite the fact that creating groups on Facebook is effective

for chatting and makes roommates feel closer to each other, it is not an efficient way

to get consensus on basic household issues such as purchases.

The problem

Statement of interest

I never had any experiences regarding

living with roommates until I came to San

Francisco. Luckily, my roommates are

nice people and we sometimes grocery

items and snacks together to save the

cost. We have a Facebook group to com-

municate and decide what we can buy

together. Sometimes, it can easily be in-

terrupted by other conversations. It is also

hard to collect everyone’s opinions from

numerous chatting records. Thus, I am

thinking how can we make this process

simple, because what roommates should

answer is “Yes! Let’s buy it” or “No, I don’t

want this!” By giving the roommate an op-

portunity to vote, “Yes” or “No”, it simplifies

the problem and encourages a solution.

As a result, this idea inspired me to create

my thesis project.

The purpose of the general design is to

simplify the process of decision making

and reduce potential conflicts which may

occur in day to day living with roommates.

For my thesis project, I’d like to make a

mobile application which provides room-

mates an efficient way to decide whether

or not everyone wants to purchase this

product. The user can send a request to

roommates any time and anywhere, so

it saves the time of answering by typing

words and provokes communication by

presenting a “yes-no” question.

Becoming a UX designer is my future

goal. I would like to bring good experi-

ences to users and also work on front-end

design to improve the entire quality of my

app. Therefore, I will demonstrate my abil-

ity as a designer in the interaction, usabil-

ity, and visual aspects in this project and

those who would benefit from my future

career.

My app helps to reduce that conflict surrounding the purchases of shared grocery

items and tries to promote a simple communication regarding decisions about

which groceries can be purchases and shared. By creating this app, roommates are

given the opportunity to vote purchasing the item and sharing the cost.

Solution

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Influences

Research

Best 5 Ideas

Surveys

Competitive Analysis

02

“Grocery Shopping List” is a grocery list application

that lets users synchronize their shopping lists with

their family and makes everyday shopping easy

and smart. I use this app in my daily life and feel it

works really well. I like its UI design. It is elegant and

easy to use. Besides, the synchronized shopping list

inspires me to think how to improve the group shop-

ping experience.

Avinoam Noma Bar is an Israeli graphic designer known

for designing several magazine covers in his simple yet

compelling approach in graphic designing. His vivid col-

or choices influence me when I create my project.

CMB is a dating app which helps single person to meet

new people from his/her mutual friends. Its voting function

is interested and inspire me to use this idea to reduce the

argument between roommate. Also, the time limit feature

influences me to design the voting function in my project.

Coffee Meets Bagel

Grocery Shopping List

Avinoam Noma Bar

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Best 5 Ideas Surveys of roommates10%

10%

20%

20%

18%

16%

6%

Quote Maker

Book Exchange

Face Memory

My Make-up

A mobile app allows user edit the quote and makes it �t his/her situation (or mood).

Family WallThis is a website and mobile app help you understand your family and get closer with them.

This is a mobile app for people who love reading paper books and don’t want to spend too much money. The exchange should be free. User can post books which they have and they want, and search who wants to exchange.

Menu TranslationThis mobile app can help Chinese people understand the menu in the travel. Don’t worry about how to type special characters on the search bar, just scan the menu, and you can see the translations and pictures showing on the screen.It also shows popular dishes to help you order.

This mobile app game can help user who need to remember names, like journalists, event hosts or teachers. They can use this app to practice before events or classes begin.

Recipe TranslationThis mobile app helps user to read foreign recipes easily and to season properly. This app can translate ingredients to your language and also include common cooking conversions. Additional, this app is able to adjust recipes to your taste.

This mobile app helps women collect the makeup tutorial videos or articles which they watched.

17% of people have at one point moved out of a rental unit due to roommate issues.

Survey by Rent.com of 1,000 Americans ages 18 and older

Analysis provided by RentMetrics.com in 2013

By Mint.com

BUT

In San Francisco, if people live in 3-bedroom with 3 people, each roommate will save $5,320 per year.

One of the best money saving tips is to live roommates“ ”

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Competitive Analysis of App for roommates

Splitwise

Overview

Splitwise is a mobile application that allow users share bills and IOUs and make sure that everyone gets paid back. Users can split household bills with roommates, to figure out costs for group activities. On the mobile device, users can view your balances, track spending trends, set up email reminders for bills.

System: IOS / AndroidPlatform: Smart phone / Desktop

Strengths

The interface is simple and user friendly.

Users can sent the notification to other through email so that the other is not necessary to have this app on his/her smart phone.

Users can edit friend info and resend invites to friends who have not yet logged in

Facebook Connect to make things easier.

A “Whiteboard” for group communication.

Easy categorization of expenses and sweet spending breakdown according to these categories.

Very easy to add people & groups.

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Weakness

Cannot upload profile picture on iphone

After saving account settings (on web version), it takes me to the home page rather than keeping me on the settings page

I couldn’t figure out how to make payments using their iPhone app. I’m sure the answer must be there somewhere, but it’s not obvious.

You can’t connect your utility & cable accounts to automatically import your monthly bills, something I was definitely looking for in a product.

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Buy Me a Pie! Grocery List

Overview

“Buy Me a Pie!” is a grocery list application that lets users synchronize their lists with their family and makes everyday shopping easy and smart. With shopping lists always handy in the phone, synchronized in real time, users can know exactly what they are in the shop to get.

System: IOS / AndroidPlatform: Smart phone / Tablet

Strengths

Quick and easy to use

Account can be linked with more than one user and changes are instantly updated.

Word prompter: The app will automatically suggest a word upon entering a few letters so you can quickly add items to a list Smart Grouping.

Simply assign a color to the items belonging to the same group (eg store aisle) and the app will then group the items in the list automatically.

Built-in self-learning dictionary: Entered items are automatically stored in the dictionary for future fast entry through word prompter.

Sharing shopping lists via e-mail, SMS, and other apps, duplicating the lists. (Pro version)

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Weakness

Pro version is expensive for just list app.

No landscape view. Only portrait.

Can’t find a way to change the language.

The small number of colors can’t be labeled so you’d have to remember what each stands for.

Syncing over devices is irrelevant if what you’re syncing is just one long unsorted list.

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Grocery Gadget Shopping List

Overview

Grocery Gadget has a host of features that make it easy to manage multiple grocery and shopping lists.

System: IOS / AndroidPlatform: Smart phone

Strengths

Instead of typing item’s name, user can use barcode scanner to catch the data fast.

User can create multiple shopping lists organized by store, import data from other apps, and sync the list with other members of his/her group.

It provides variety of store coupons.

The group syncing feature is good for multi users, such as roommates or family.

History shopping analysis helps users build a regular shopping list, so they don’t need to add the same in the list item every time.

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Weakness

When setting quantities, there is no support for decimal amounts or specifying units.

The function is too complicated and difficult to use.

The interface desing is not good.

The search bar is missing in the Android version.

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Grocery IQ

Overview

Grocery iQ is an online grocery list that syncs across popular mobile devices. Make shop-ping easier. Create and organize grocery lists quickly and easily.

System: IOS / AndroidPlatform: Smart phone / Desktop

Strengths

Build grocery lists quickly from our database of millions of items. Easy and intuitive.

Create custom aisles and reorder aisles for any list.

Easily add frequently purchased items to new lists, search and filter favorites to build lists quickly.

Keep track of what you’ve checked out and filter history by list. Easily create lists from history items.

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Weakness

Coupons only supported for a few select locations.

Savings cards only supported for a few select locations.

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Competitive matrix

Concept development

Unique Point

User scenarios

Target Audience

Personas

Sitemap

Sketches

03

Interactivity

Visual

Usability

Splitwise Grocery ListGrocery Gadget

Shopping List Grocery IQ

Consistency

Layout

Quality

Readability

Ease of Use

Efficiency

Sync Data

Barcode Scanner

Shopping List

Decision making

User Group

RoomieBuying

Good Average Poor

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Unique Point User scenarios

The current application on the market can assist roommates in splitting bills

or creating a synced shopping list to handle their shared items. But before

this step, how do we decide what we can share? Determining the final

answer to this question is actually the most crucial and challenging part of this

component. According to research surrounding how roommates interact with

each other, the ways that people frequently use to communicate with their

roommates, such as texting, calling and a face-to-face discussions, are limited

and also inefficient. It might work when we only have one roommate, but

generally there is more than one roommate in the house. Currently, there isn’t

an existing and effective tool with assisting roommates to shorten the time

applied to making a decision and finally getting a consensus on the group

purchase. Therefore, I have created a mobile application to address this issue.

Should we get?

Jihye is living with three roommates.

Jihye thinks her roommatesmay like to have this. If they share this product, they can save more money.

Jihye got the feedback. Jihye makes sure everyone wants this product, so she purchases this product as a group item. All people save the money and happy to have this product.

So Jihye use RoomieBuyingto send a request to herroommates.

Her roommates got Jihye’srequest and vote on this product.

Oneday, Jihye go to Safeway. Jihye see a product is on sale.

Roommate A

Roommate CRoommate B

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Target Audience Personas

Age: 21Ethnicity: KoreanOccupation: InternshipEquipment: Android phoneHousing : ApartmentNumber of roommates: 3Time of living with them: Half year

“I want to get roommates’ feedback as soon as possible so that I can buy the food on my way!”

Pain Point

Lisa and her roommates have a chatting group on the Facebook. And they like to decide whether the product can be shared or not, but Lisa feels the feedback is always slow because her request is shown as a normal comment on Facebook’s group-chatting room, no high light, so it is easy to be ignore. Also, if they are talking many products in the same time, it is easy to make her get confuse.

Lisa

AgeGenderOccupationEquipmentIncomeRoommates

21 ~ 29 years oldAll gendersCollege students and fresh graduates Smart phone userFrom parents contribution or part time jobsMore than two roommates

General Demographic Characteristics

The general demographic characteristics consist of young

people from 21-29 years old, who is living with more than 2

roommates. They consequently shard food, grocery together

for saving money.

Primary Audience

The primary audience are college students who are living

with more than 2 roommates and they get along with each

other. Also, they like to share grocery for saving money.

Secondary Audience

The secondary audience is family. They want to get family

member’s feedbacks to decide what they should purchase.

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Age: 28Ethnicity: Arabia Occupation: Graduate studentEquipment: iPhoneHousing : 2 bedroom apartmentNumber of roommates: 3Time of living with them: one month

“I hope my roommates ask me before they buy food as group purchase.”

Pain Point

Jumanah is living with three young girls. One thing which bothers her, is her roommates like to buy a lot of food from Costco for sharing and then ask her to pay. The group purchase indeed saves the cost of household and daily food, but Jumanah cannot eat some food because of her allergies. She wants her roommate ask her before they go shopping at Costco.

Jumanah

Age: 24Ethnicity: AmericanOccupation: Undergraduate student Equipment: iPhoneHousing : School dormitoryNumber of roommates: 3Time of living with them: two years

“I hate wasting time on typing or reading other person’s opinion. Give me the conclusion!”

Pain Point

Mark is a busy student, so he is seldom home. He shares household and food with roommates and sometimes his roommates want to buy something special, like a Xbox 360 game, to share, and they will discus on their group page, which is on a chatting app. He doesn’t have time to follow up with everyone’s conversation. He just wants to leave his opinion and quickly to know whether they decide to purchase this game or not.

Mark

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SitemapLanding Page

Sign up

Sign in

Create a group

Join a group

Invite roommates

Send Purchased

Should we get Our PurchaseVote Status

Add Items I voted Ready to buy Purchase HistoryMy request

Waiting for your vote

Vote

Vote ResultsGroup member

Main Page

If vote results reach the minimum number of vote, this item will show on “Ready to buy” page. Otherwise, this item will be eliminated automatically after the end of vote.

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Proof of concept

04Sketches

Walkthrough

Timeline

Technical specification

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Your Email

Log in

AT&T 11:56 AM

Your Email

Log in

AT&T 11:56 AM

Sing up

Sing in

Create a group Sent invitationto roommates

Find your group

Sent request

Access App

Enter main page

Do you havean account?

Do you wantto join a group?

Is the request approved?

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

1/7 2/7

Your Email

Log in

AT&T 11:56 AM

Add members

Name Lisa Name

Mona Emily Name

Name Name Celina

Type a name, phone or email

Next

AT&T 11:56 AM

Group members

Lisa

Mona

EmilyCelina

Done

AT&T 11:56 AM

Your Email

Log in

AT&T 11:56 AM

Group Name

Vote status Our PurchaseWating for your vote

0

Should we get?

AT&T 11:56 AM

Create a group

3/7

4/7 5/7 6/7 7/7

Walkthrough 1

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Sing up

Sing in

Create a group Sent invitationto roommates

Find your group

Sent request

Access App

Enter main page

Do you havean account?

Do you wantto join a group?

Is the request approved?

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Walkthrough 2Submit request for group purchase

1/8 2/8

Group Name


0

Should we get?

AT&T 11:56 AM

Should we get?

$ 0.00

End of Vote Time

Minimum number of vote: 3

Item and quantity

AT&T 11:56 AM

Group Name


0

Should we get?

Place a barcode inside the view�nder rectangle

AT&T 11:56 AM

3/8

Tap “Should we get?“ to send roommate your request.

Click the barcode icon to get the item name by scanning the barcode. The user also can manually type the item name.

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$ 0.00

Paper Towels 24ct

End of Vote Time

Minimum number of vote:

Should we get?

3

AT&T 11:56 AM

Should we get?

$ 10.65

Paper Towels 24ct

End of Vote Time


AT&T 11:56 AM

24

0

1

25

30

35

MinHr

Should we get?

$ 10.65

Paper Towels 24ct

End of Vote Time


AT&T 11:56 AM

4/8 5/8 6/8 7/8 8/8

MoreSend to group

$ 10.65

Paper Towels 24ct

30 mins


Should we get?

AT&T 11:56 AM

Group Name


0

Should we get?

Paper Towels 24ct

Pizza 12 slices

MoreSend to group

Should we get?

$ 0.00

30 mins


Item and quantity

AT&T 11:56 AMAT&T 11:56 AMAT&T

RoomieBuying now

You have 2 vote requests (from Lisa)

Send request

Roommate’s phone

Enter the amount. Here, user need to select Minimum number of vote, which means this item only purchase when there is more than this number of people agree to buy it.

For example, if the user selects 2. It must be at least 2 people agree to purchase this item, otherwise, they won’t purchase this it.

Set “End of Vote Time” which is to set a time limit on the vote. Roommates need to decide whether or not to buy the item in this time limit.

User can add more items as much as he/she wants by tapping the plus icon.

When it’s done, go to tap “Send to Group” to sent requests to roommates.

Once the request sent, roommates will get the notification like this.

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Main menu

Access App

Search menu

Roommates’ voterequests

To vote

Tap “Wating for my vote”

Yes

No

1/4 2/4 3/4

AT&T 11:56 AMAT&T

RoomieBuying now

You have 2 vote requests (from Lisa)

Waiting for vote

Lisa wants to get

Mona wants to get

Egg12 $0.9each person

$4.5each person

Tortilla Chips 5ct $1.0each person


3

AT&T 11:56 AM

Waiting for vote

Lisa wants to get

Mona wants to get


$4.5each person



3

AT&T 11:56 AM

Vote on requestWalkthrough 3

Waiting for vote

Lisa wants to get

Mona wants to get




2

Let’s buy it!

AT&T 11:56 AM

4/4

Tap the notification to enter the vote page.

It shows a list of request from roommates.

Drag the item to the right means you agree to share this item, and drag to the left means you don’t agree.

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Change your mind

Main menu

Access App

Search menu

Change your vote

Shows options

Vote status page

Enter “Vote status”

Tap your vote

Yes

Yes

No

No

Group Name


0

Should we get?

AT&T 11:56 AM

1/4

I’ve voted on

My request

Vote Status

10min Left

Olive Oil$ 8.90

Voted this item

2hr Left

Milk 1.7oz$ 1.20 / person

Voted this item

5hr Left

Flower$ 4.3 / person

Voted this item

5hr Left

Chicken Soup$ 2.5 / person

Voted this item

AT&T 11:56 AM

I’ve voted on

My request10min Left

Olive Oil$ 8.90

Voted this item

2hr Left


5hr Left


Voted this item

5hr Left


Voted this item

Vote Status

AT&T 11:56 AM

2hr Left


Voted this item

5hr Left


Voted this item

10min Left

Olive Oil$ 8.90

Voted this item

5hr Left


Voted this item

2hr Left


Voted this item

5hr Left


Voted this item

10min Left

Olive Oil$ 8.90

Voted this item

5hr Left


Voted this item

Vote Status

I’ve voted on

My request

AT&T 11:56 AM

2/4 3/4 4/4

Walkthrough 4

Tap “Vote status“ to check ongoing votes.

Find “I voted” section and tap the green check mark.

It provides two options.Tap cross mark to change your choice.

Now, you’ve edited your vote.

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Track the purchase

Group Name

Vote status Track PurchaseWating for your vote

0

Should we get?

2

AT&T 11:56 AM

Milk 2.5oz$ 4.80

M&M's White Chocolate 24ct$ 15.99

$ 41.97Not yet purchased

Starbucks Ca�e Verona 54ct

Olive Oil 500ml$ 9.54

Not yet purchased

Donats 12ct$ 4.8

Not yet purchased

Decide to buy

Purchase History

2

Bought

Bought

new

new

Roommates are going to buy

I am going to buy

AT&T 11:56 AM

Access App

Tap vote notification

Search menu

Ready to buy List

Track the purchase

Enter“Our Purchase”

Find “Purchasehistory”

Yes

Yes

No

No


Buy


I am going to buy




Not yet purchased

Donats 12ct$ 4.80

Not yet purchased

Bought

Purchase History

3

Decide to buyPurchase History

Baking Soda 2lb $ 0.41 / person

Trash Bags 45ct$ 1.93 / person


Purchase with

Purchase date: 2013/10/25

Toilet Paper$ 1.47 / person

Hand Soup$ 1.97 / person

Roommates have purchased

I’ve purchased

Search

Purchase with


Purchase with


Purchase with


Purchase with


new

AT&T 11:56 AM


Buy


I am going to buy




Not yet purchased

Donats 12ct$ 4.80

Not yet purchased

Bought

Purchase History

3

Decide to buy

AT&T 11:56 AM

1/4 2/4 3/4 4/4

Walkthrough 5

After the end of vote, if all people agree to purchase this item, it will go to “Track Purchase“

Once user has bought the item, then go to tap “Bought.” And this item will be recorded and moved to the purchase history.

Tap “Purchase History” to check purchase records.

User can check purchase date, buyer, people who share with and the cost in this page. It will help roommates split the bill later.

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VisualDesign

Moodboard

Logo

Color

Typeface

06Technical specification

CSS

Javascript,jQuery,

jQuery Mobile

HTML

JSONData

AT&T 11:56 AM

PlatformSmartphone

Programing

Visual

DataJSON

Mobile first website

PHP

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Moodboard

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Logo Color

R:G:B:

R:G:B:

R:G:B:

21218336

454241

234232218

Group Name


0

Should we get?

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Typeface

Helvetica NeueABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

Fjalla OneABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789

Thank you.

roomiebuying

Design

happy roommates

grocery shopping list

grocery list application

useful mobile app

overview abstract statement

influences research

frontend design

influences overview