M-Lease
Problem
University of Michigan students struggle with inefficient housing searches and difficulty finding roommates, making the process stressful, time-consuming, and costly.
Opportunity
Students want a secure, student-only platform that makes it easy to filter and search for housing while also connecting them with potential roommates.
Role - UX Designer
Timeline - January - March 2024
Tools - Figma, Miro, Google Forms, Google Docs
Background
This solo project was completed for an Interaction Design course over 12 weeks. The goal was to reimagine the housing experience for U-M students by addressing safety, usability, and social connection within one centralized platform.
Research
Before diving into design, I conducted a survey using Google Forms distributed across U-M communities.
From 25 responses:
95% of students found house hunting difficult.
66% relied on friends to find housing.
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed Zillow and Facebook Marketplace to identify strengths and gaps.
Zillow: offered strong filtering but lacked social connection.
Facebook: enabled communication but had no verification or reliable listings.
Both lacked a student verification system, leading to trust issues. This revealed an opportunity for a platform that integrates security, ease, and connection.
Ideation
I rapidly sketched over 30 concepts, exploring ways to blend search filters, roommate matching, and verification. Many ideas were too complex, but the process helped narrow down to a simple, student-centered solution.
Design
Over four weeks, I refined prototypes through constant critique with peers and my professor. Every iteration aimed to reduce friction and create a clear, intuitive experience for students.
Solution
01 Simplifying stock tracking
I designed a table view where users can quickly add, remove, and reorder stocks. This reduced the need to juggle external apps, giving traders a single, reliable space to track activity.
02 Balancing power with approachability
The layout emphasized clarity and focus, with essential information surfaced upfront (price, change, volume). Notes features and trend indicators were placed in expandable areas, ensuring the interface remained approachable without sacrificing depth.
03 Providing free value upfront
The Watchlist was made accessible without a paywall, giving traders immediate value while naturally introducing them to the broader Liquidstreams LLC ecosystem. This poses as both a user benefit and a growth driver for Liquidstreams’ mobile app.
Constraints
Since this was a class project, I was unable to conduct field usability testing. With more time, I would perform on-campus user testing to refine flows and validate assumptions. I also plan to develop the concept further into a real, functional app, one that I believe could meaningfully improve student life.
Reflection
This project taught me to design with intention, ensuring every phase of the process served a clear purpose before moving to the next.
I gained hands-on experience managing the end-to-end design process: from empathizing and researching to defining, ideating, prototyping, and iterating.
Ultimately, the project reinforced the value of research-driven design and the impact of aligning usability with real student needs.
Emily Jennett