Apartmentor

Research Into Existing Systems

These issues that we’ve seen resolved in other apps and websites include teaching accommodations for new renters and budgeting tools. In our similar app comparison, we mostly observed accommodations for new renters. We looked to these tutorials as potential models for our app’s Mentorship feature.

App Interface

The application begins with a series of 4 questions. Our app is heavily focused on the educational aspect of renting an apartment for the first time. Because of this, instead of introducing the user to a tutorial of the user interface on initially opening the app, we give them approachable questions that ask about the user themself. We felt that this would give our app a small bit of personality and connection with the user, while still allowing us to gather information to cater the ApartMentor experience to what each user needs.

We felt these four questions would get us the critical information we need to make the application useful to the user without overbearing them with too much on startup.

Filtering

From the map, the user can search for listings that fit within their criteria. Under the “Filters” tab, the user can adjust their budget, change their central location, and add or remove filters to search for. We included adjusting the budget on the top of the filters section for the cases where the user did not enter a budget on the app yet, and for when the user wants to search for apartments that are outside of their current budget. Next is central location. This is one of the most important filters because if people are searching for apartments near different colleges or job opportunities, they need this information to be easily findable and changeable. From here, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and features are available.

Features may not always be complete necessities for the user, but they’re aspects the user wants prioritized when the application organizes listings. This can include things such as if an apartment is pet-friendly or if it has nearby public parks. Through the features, apartments won’t be added or removed from the Listings tab, but the order in which they’re displayed is changed to reflect the user’s preferences. The features are typically things we thought of as luxuries for the user, and while these do hold importance to the user, the most important thing for the user is to find an affordable apartment, so we don’t want to limit their results.

Listings

By tapping on a single listing, the user can view all the details about the apartment. This includes the available features, a description, a map with nearby public transition options and amenities, a budget pie chart, apartment requirements, and a form to contact the realtor. The pie chart displays how well the apartment fits in with the user’s predefined budget, and can be used as a visual aide to determine if any given apartment is a viable option. Considering factors that change per apartment, such as utility costs, can affect this pie chart, and thus an apartment’s viability. Because signing a lease is very important, but also very stressful, we included all necessary documents for signing any given apartment at the bottom of the page. Having this information easily accessible will allow the user to understand the leasing process and the terms they’re agreeing to when signing an apartment. The user can contact the realtor from this page, which can be used to question about the apartment or schedule a showing. Finally, the user can report a listing, which helps deter against fake and suspicious listings.

Lessons

From the main navigation button, which is the ApartMentor logo on the top of the app, the user can view the Lessons page. Our lessons are separated into 4 Stages: the app introduction, Looking, Renting, and Maintaining an Apartment. We chronologically organized the lessons so people won’t have to jump back and forth between them throughout the apartment finding process. Users can track their progress in each Stage from the Lessons screen, as the next lesson in each stage they must complete is the initial card facing them.

Budgeting

The final task flow the user can access on our app is Budgeting. By tapping on the Budgeting section from the navigation, the user is brought to the Budgeting page. Their monthly budget is displayed, and can be manually edited. There is a pie chart displaying all spending done by the user, color coded and separated by category. Available budgeting categories include: Rent, Utilities (separated individually), and Secondary Expenses (such as groceries and school fees). This information is useful for initially finding an apartment, but also keeps the user in the app because it becomes a lightweight money management application for handling their spending habits. Users can choose to connect it to a bank account in the Edit page, at which point it will gather information about personal spending and use that to understand what the user is overspending on and where they could afford to spend more. This is shown as a notification at the top of the page, stating “You need to cut down on _!”. The user can then use this information to change personal spending habits.