Aren’t provided with needed housing information
Multiple resources
Survey: Top Resources
Lorem
How helpful have UC Davis’s resources been in supporting your off-campus housing search?
Lorem
Survey: Top Resources
Lorem
What resources do you use when searching for housing? (list 1-3)
Lorem
44
Apt Site
40
37
Wildfire
15
ASUCD
12
Friends
10
None
07
Survey: Housing Priorities
Lorem
What are your priorities when looking for housing? Pick 2-3
Lorem
Price
44
Housemate Compatibility
42
Area
27
Reviews
21
Distance
17
Stores
09
Living w/friends
02
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Housemates - A 36 Hour Design Challenge to Personalize the Off-Campus Housing Search
CLIENT
SacHacks X IBM Z Hackathon 2021
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
TIMELINE
36 Hours
COLLABORATORS
Jenny D., Dorothy H., Kelly T.
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam
Why was it done?
I played a key role in designing a student housing app tailored for first-year students at UC Davis. The project aimed to streamline the housing search experience while addressing a broader social issue: housing insecurity among students in the Sacramento region.
The goal is to help transition first-year students to off-campus living by addressing key gaps in guidance, affordability, and roommate compatibility as 72% of UC Davis students reported not receiving adequate support to navigate off-campus housing.
Impact
Our 6-method approach revealed critical insights that led to 3 major outcomes:
Placed 2nd place among 100+ teams in SacHacks X IBM Z Hackathon 2021, for excellence in no-code design from a panel of 6 industry designers and engineers
Received concept validation from judges and peers for solving a real-world pain point in the Sacramento City
Click here to jump to the prototype!
Overview
Short & Snappy: What’s This All About?
Research & Insights
Analyzing Current Platforms to Uncover Design Opportunities
Competitive analysis revealed major gaps in existing housing platforms. Resources were fragmented, lacked context, and failed to establish trust. Without a central source, students struggled to navigate off-campus housing confidently.
Wait off-campus living doesn’t have to be stressful?
Problem & Context
Designing for Local Impact
SacHacks is an intercollegiate hackathon that challenged teams to solve an issue impacting Sacramento area. I proposed focusing on off-campus living, a process that became especially challenging during COVID-19, when UC Davis’s housing resources were fragmented and difficult to navigate.
Research & Insights
Grounded in Insights from 50 Student Responses
With just 36 hours to validate our idea, we prioritized quick, high-impact research. I distributed a survey through social media and UC Davis student clubs, gathering 50 responses from first-year to master’s students. Key findings included:
💭
A centralized housing platform could help students find off-campus housing more efficiently and confidently.
Placed 2nd out of 100+ teams for best design w/o code
Helpful 27.1%
Not Helpful 72.9%
Survey results showed that students primarily searched for housing through social media platforms.
This highlighted the need for a centralized platform that offers the same level of accessibility and community interaction students are used to on social media.
73% (36 of 50 responses) UC Davis students said UC Davis does not provide helpful information on off-campus housing.
Self-reported user behavior suggested an opportunity for assisted support with housing.
Students also identified housemate compatibility, affordability, and location reputation (including area and reviews) as their top priorities when searching for housing.
These findings informed our decision to prioritize roommate matching features that help students align with potential roommates on budget and lifestyle compatibility.
I hypothesized:
Existing Resources: Facebook Housing Page (Left), ASUCD Housing Site (Right)
Who is this?
The Housing Fair’s short availability and unhelpful external links highlight a gap in long-term, accessible housing support for students.
Is this enough context to determine compatibility?
The key issues to address included:
From the research our problem statement became:
Fragmented Information
Information on off-campus living is spread across multiple platforms, making it harder to understand the responsibilities involved in the decision-making process.
Security & Trust Gaps
Many housing and housemate-finding platforms fall short on security and transparency, leaving users vulnerable to scams.
The Value of Compatibility
Finding housemates with similar living habits makes the apartment search easier by ensuring compatibility, leading to a more seamless and stress-free living experience.
Ideation
Focusing Our Scope for Maximum Impact
After our research, we realized we needed to narrow our focus rather than build out a fully fleshed product. We brainstormed all possible features that could exist on a mobile app and used dot voting to prioritize the ideas that best aligned with our problem statement.
Low-Fidelity Prototypes
Exploring Ways Students Could Discover Compatible Housemates
We held a brainstorming session, encouraging creative variations while keeping in mind the constraints of a mobile app and our hackathon timeline. We generated two concepts:
Solution
From Confusion to Clarity: Housemate Discovery Reimagined
I assisted in the creation of the design system that both guided the final product and streamlined our workflow, ensuring consistency across screens and making it easier for the team to iterate quickly. We created:
Personalization
Filters
filter information so students can meet people with similar preferences
filter for housing preferences (option to be based on availability of apartments/rooms)
Filters
Housemate matching
Verification
Verified Badge
verified as real students or landlords
Community
Communication
in-app messaging
Resources
Legal Action
Include insight on the rights and legal actions students can take if complex is not abiding by lease
Leasing Process
Resources for new renters who are unaware of the process, like apt details
Housing Catalog
Information on all apt with comparison feature
Events
University Events
friendly reminders, like timelines and important info that they need to know before applying or after. also to read their lease. also events on campus about housing
🔍
College students have trouble finding suitable, off-campus housing because they are required to search at an inconvenient time with many resources that aren’t all in one place.
Our goal was to make the app a resources to find compatible people, consolidate the information, and produce a simple layout.
jny.
Variation A
For our sketches, we explored two concepts. The first was a Tinder-inspired matching app where students could connect based on compatibility. While engaging, I noted that it risked promoting a gamified “collection” mentality rather than meaningful connections.
Variation B
The second sketch allowed users to filter and view all housing options at once, providing transparency and control. We saw this approach as better aligned with our challenge: helping students confidently navigate fragmented off-campus housing information. This guided our next steps in wireframing and prioritizing features.
Student Verification
Utilize student verification by signing in through your Student Single Sign-On (SSO), a user authentication method that allows students to access multiple applications with a single set of login credentials.
Questionnaire
Users set up their profile by filling out a questionnaire that will help filter potential matches, with the option of adjusting their preferences or finishing their profile at their convenience.
Housemate Match Service
Users can browse compatible profiles, review information, and message others, making it easier to share insights, discover opportunities, and make confident housing decisions.
Last Updated: Nov, 2025
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How we Drove Impact:
Impact
Validated Impact
We presented a five-minute pitch to an industry panel of 6 designers and engineers, and fellow hackathon participants, highlighting our design process, prototype, and the real-world impact of our solution based on our research.
Learnings
Growth From the Hackathon
Time & Task Management
Although we were limited by the hackathon timeframe, we could have delegated tasks more effectively. Better task distribution would have allowed us to accomplish more, particularly in areas like user testing and research.
User Research & Validation:
During the development of Lofis, we missed an opportunity to conduct concept testing with our sketches. Testing early concepts could have helped us understand user reactions, gather actionable insights, and refine our solution before building.
Turning chaos into clarity for students
Created a platform that simplified access to housing resources, helping students make more confident decisions
Award-Winning Design
Placed 2nd place among 100+ teams in SacHacks X IBM Z Hackathon 2021, for excellence in no-code design from a panel of 6 industry designers and engineers
Industry Validation
Received concept validation from judges and peers for solving a real-world pain point in the Sacramento City