PROBLEM

Without proper preparation and expectations, living with others can be toxic and volatile to any relationship. Whether the housemates are family, friends, or strangers, each household has a different learning curve for living together. At the beginning of most situations, there is a lack of communication and mismatched living styles, which leads to poor interactions and cold relationships.

PROCESS

For our last student project at General Assembly, our group of 3 UX designers took 2.5 weeks to develop a concept into a mobile solution that our clients could take to their business investors and advisors.

IDEATION

We began our kickoff meeting by learning about types of problems co-living situations encounter. Our client shared their personal experiences as well as additional user research they had conducted. We found that only was organization and facilitation of a new lifestyle difficult, but the core issue came with a lack of empathy or understanding between roommates.

SURVEY

We conducted a survey in order to find the top challenges that co-livers face. Moreover, we wanted to find out how they currently solved conflict and if the solution was continuing to work for them.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

From the information we collected,  our user research guided us to analyze the current market of project management tools and team organizational apps. Solutions for most household were very surface level and required a tool to evenly distribute tasks or responsibilities, but did not address emotional conflict that comes with interacting with other people.

Analysis of other gamified educational apps, informed us on how to retain an audience with an emotional factor. We took elements of functionality and empathy to build our solution.

INTERVIEWS & RESEARCH

After compiling our data and research, we began the process of addressing the problem with a solution. We formed concept models, performed interviews, and utilized personas that would help us identify what features would benefit the users of the Co.Live app.

WIREFRAMES & TESTING

After interviews and research, we went to the whiteboard and started to form the information architecture, navigation, and combining features that would address both the functionality of a home, as well as the relationships between co-livers.

Our team created multiple iterations of splash pages, the on-boarding process, task management system, and the empathy element. The solution was centric around creating a community in a home environment, and we wanted to make sure each page conveyed an element of emotion and ultimately, self-reflection.

Usability testing assisted feature prioritization and we continually worked on navigational issues. We continued in the direction where the mobile app would be interactive and fun for users to engage with.

SOLUTION

Co.Live is an app that not only manages your household tasks and schedules, but it also incorporates a crucial emotional factor that comes along with living with others. The app learns about each individual in the household, then builds profiles, advice, and reminders on how to approach each housemate. Custom house meeting agendas are created for regular get togethers, thus building stronger and more open relationships. The intention of Co.Live is to create a harmonious community within a house to create a home.

DELIVERABLES

RESULTS & REFLECTION

Co.Live is an app that incorporates fun quizzes and educational features that help an individual grow within a community. Testing our wireframes with users gave us great feedback on ways to continue in future steps with Co.Live. With continued communication with our clients, the presentation of our final product showed our resourcefulness and ability to adapt to change. What started off as a simple organizational mobile app, flourished into an innovative approach to solving the core issue: relationships.