Timeline
I designed Chorster - a mobile application, for people who share their house with roommates to create, view and manage chores.
6 Weeks , Independent project
My Role
Experience Strategy, Interaction and Visual design
Deliverables
High Fidelity Flows, Prototypes, Product Mockups, Process
31%
of the American Adult population lives with at least one roommate who isn't a spouse/partner or a relative.
Pew Research Center
75%
of the American college - going students lived in shared dorms and off campus housing.
robertkelchen.com
Living with roommates can definitely be fun and exciting but when it comes to chores, there can be uncomfortable scenarios especially when reminding that one person who always says they forgot to take their turn.
Oftentimes managing chores is the reason why living in a shared household can feel difficult. Added to it, is the factor of fear - of - conflict attached to having conversations about chores : these small, but necessary things.
PROBLEM
Being unable to smoothly manage chores is a common reason why living in a shared household feels difficult.
Living with roommates presents some difficulties when it comes to chores:
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It is a time-consuming and an energy-draining task to keep track of chores and who did or didn’t take their turn.
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It creates unnecessary social conflicts when it comes to reminding people to do their chores.
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Relying on a disorganized way of keeping record (notes on fridge, messages on different apps) causes frustration and brings about a lack of co-ordination leading to an untidy home.
OPPORTUNITY
How might we provide roommates with a better way to store and access information about chores?
Most college students and working adults nowadays, have smartphones which can be leveraged to provide a one-stop solution in the form of a mobile application.
SOLUTION
CHORSTER
A simple yet efficient mobile application that lets you create, view and manage chores. Check off your task from the list when done and Chorster will remind your roommate when it's their turn.
Diving Deeper. Create, view and manage your chores from anywhere.
Access your list from anywhere.
Sign in and find a simple list of chores that are upcoming for you and your roommates.
Easily manage your list.
View your chores separately and check off the chore when done. In addition, have a note about the chore you just did? Leave it right under the chore card so it's communicated to your roommates.
Create a chore and assign roommates.
Assign the roommates you want taking turns and set up how often you want a chore to be done. Enable reminders and let Chorster handle the rest!
Add or remove roommates with no hassle.
If a roommate had to leave or a new one joined, use the add and remove option to easily make changes.
If your chore is overdue, leave them a note.
When your chore has been overdue, take advantage of the 'Leave a note' feature to communicate with your roommates.
Manage your profile with ease.
Find important profile information in one place to edit or delete.
Building Chorster
" I just wish there was a better way to be on top of chores than to pin a post-it note on a fridge that nobody updates and text roommates over and over again to follow up ".
- Anonymous Roommate
Mentioned during an interview for User research.
My friends and I shared the experience of sharing a house with other college students. By talking through these shared experiences, I started to realize that difficulties keeping track of chores is a problem that a lot of people share and one that would be very useful to solve.
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This sparked an interest in me to start talking to more people in my college as well as other adults that lived in a shared household.
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PROBLEM STATEMENT
Roommates need a better way of keeping track of chores because the disorganization can lead to an untidy home and friction between roommates.
01.
Creating Personas
Based on the feedback I received from talking to people about their experiences of how they manage chores with their roommates, I crafted two personas whose behaviors, goals and needs aligned with the majority of the interviewees.
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02.
Brainstorming & Ideation
I utilized Affinity mapping, persona's journey and prioritization mapping in order to start putting together features of a mobile application that would become Chorster. Once the main features of the application were decided, I then created a User flow diagram to help guide me in the prototyping process.
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Prioritization mapping
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Hailey and Joshua's journey
User flow
03.
Visual Design & Prototyping
For Chorster, the general vibe was to create a brand that was simple, minimalistic, and calming since chores already has a sense of work and effort attached to it for the users. ​
I played around with various designs based on user habits and design critique before designing the final high fidelity experience for Chorster.
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I welcomed feedback from others as well and used that to inform my iterations.
Wireframes
Final design
Final reflections
This was a very valuable project to work on. I got to put design thinking into practice and wear multiple hats throughout the entire design process. I have learnt that it is crucial to continue testing and re-designing to improve and enhance the application's features.
