ApnaHome — Home finding App

find your new dream home for rent

Note:- This is a personal project and the problem which has been solved through this App was personally experienced by me.

What is “ApnaHome”?

It is a home-finding app that helps Users (bachelors/family members) to find flats/apartments for rent intracity or intercity where they are planning to relocate.

This App solves the major problems that people are facing during relocation, whether it was:-

1. Locality Review, (how the locality would be in terms of cleanliness, peacefulness, safety, and so on).
2. Commutation Description (ease of transportation from the locality)
3. Sensible Roommate their personalities & priorities (This feature is for bachelors)
4. Landlord predefined Terms & Conditions (for bachelors)

This app covers all these features and helps its users in finding a home for rent in a good locality.

Detailed Mockups of “ApnaHome”:-

Pain Points of the Users?

Bachelors:- Many bachelors find it difficult to find a budget house in metro cities especially when they move to college or in the early stage of their professional career. In such a scenario, they are looking for a Roommate but it becomes difficult to find someone having almost the same personality/priorities as a former has.

Similarly, in the case of houses available along with Landlords (For eg:- Pg’s) if the Landlord is a strict or toxic one it becomes quite difficult to cope up with which results in stress and pressure among the bachelors.

Family Members:- The big question for the families before moving to a new city is “How would be the Locality”? “Whether it would be the safe place or not” for their loved ones? “ApnaHome” provides them with a detailed review of the locality in which they are planning to relocate.

Insights of Pain Points:-

1. Bachelor’s facing difficulties in finding a sensible Roommate.
2. Bachelor’s facing difficulties in finding a cooperative Landlord with friendly & supportive nature.
3. Families find difficulties in getting a detailed Locality review before relocating.

User Persona:-

User type:- 1) Bachelor and 2) Families

User Research:-

I. Primary Research:- Competitive Analysis

Competitive Analysis has been done of “ApnaHome” by comparing it with other house renting Apps like Magicbricks, 99Acres, Housing.com, and so on.

Factors on which this comparison has been done are the features these Apps are providing to solve Users' problems.

Insights of Primary Research (Competitive Analysis):-

The Competitors of “ApnaHome” fails to solve basic User problems which Users are facing while searching for a home, the problems include:-

1. Detailed genuine review about the Locality.
2. Correct information about price, location, etc of the flat/Apartment.
3. Competitors App also doesn’t include features that are beneficial for bachelors like Roommate details and Landlord Terms & Conditions.

II. Secondary Research:- This research includes Screenshots of User reviews related to Competitors App posted on Google PlayStore and also Users' comments on the Youtube comment section and different blogs about the problem they are facing while moving out to a new city or shifting to a new home, whether it was a Roommate issue or something else.

Insights of Secondary Research:-

1. When moving out to a new city bachelor’s finds it extremely difficult to find a budget house along with a suitable Roommate.
2. Users (including both bachelor’s & family members) are concerned about the safety of the locality in which they are planning to relocate. They need a detailed review of the locality.
3. Competitors App fail to provide basic accurate details of price, location, etc to their Users.

How does “ApnaHome” solve Users’ problems?

Problem 1:- Bachelor’s facing difficulties in finding a sensible Roommate.

Solution:-

The Users (bachelors in this scenario) who are searching for a flat along with Roommate (to split the house rent & other expenses) can select this feature (flats with a Roommate) in the filter section in the initial stages of their interaction with the App.

Thereafter, results of flats/apartments consisting of this combination are presented to the Users which includes the following details about Roommate along with the flat/apartment detailed description:-

1. Roommate's basic details along with their short Introduction video.
2. Call/Text option to communicate with them.
3. Top priorities which the existing Roommate is expecting from the future Roommate.
4. Personalities/habits of the existing Roommate are mentioned to avoid any future discomfort.

After covering information on all these aspects Users can get a rough idea about the personality/habits of their future Roommate and can now choose a better Roommate whose personality/habits are closely matching to them and finally settles down with them.

Problem 2:- Bachelor’s facing difficulties in finding a cooperative Landlord with friendly & supportive nature.

Solution:-

Similarly, if the User (bachelor’s in this scenario) selects a house along with Landlord (for eg:- Pg’s) in the filter section, along with the available houses for rent, they will also get a detailed description of the Landlord’s Terms & Conditions to stay in that house.

This would help both the parties (Landlord & Renter) to communicate well, related to the staying formalities in that house beforehand only, which would help to avoid any future rifts among them.

Problem 3:- Finding difficulties in getting a detailed Locality review before relocating.

Solution:-

To solve the Locality review issue, the research was conducted among the residents of the particular locality (having an experience of 10 years+ of staying in that locality) and based on the research, Overall Rating and Individual rating has been allotted to the locality (on different parameters like peacefulness, safety, traffic issues, and so on).

Moreover, there is a list of reviews posted by the residents which give us the detailed pros & cons of that locality (in which the User is looking for a relocation). These reviews will give a brief idea about the locality to the people who are planning to move out there.

Prototype of “ApnaHome”:-

Iterations:-

These are the initial Mockups of the “ApnaHome” which on further iterations improved to a certain extent to provide a delightful experience to its Users.

Reasons for the rejection of these Screens are mentioned in detail below:-

1. Homescreen:- Properties listing section on this screen looks crowded due to view details & call owner buttons. Therefore view detail button is replaced by making the whole section of listing properties clickable & the call owner button is placed in the Room details Screen.
2. Room Details Screen:- Core features includes in the tab section which results in frequent vertical & horizontal scrolling to view each tab content. Iteration helps to upfront the descriptions and amenities to provide easy view access of the contents to the Users. The addition of images also enhances the experience of the Users.
3. Roommate Details Screen:- The addition of an introduction video, better visuals to represent the top priorities & personalities section helps a lot to know more about the roommate.
4. Locality Review Screen:- Initially, there was only an overall rating of the locality due to which it becomes difficult to get the information about individual aspects of that locality (For eg:- Safety rating, Cleanliness, etc). After iteration individual rating has been allotted to individual aspects of that locality along with a separate screen of detail review posted by the residents.

Conclusion:-

I have tried my best to explain the purpose of this project (Mobile App:- “ApnaHome”) which aims to help bachelors/families to find houses for rent. My main focus is on the UX part and enhancing the functionality of the product.

I hope this Case study is understandable and Recruiters would get an idea about the type of real-life problems I could solve.

In the end, I would say Thank you so much for giving your valuable time to read the content of this Case study.