Project Overview

Role

UX / UI Researcher & Designer

Methods

Desk research, quantitative and qualitative research, Wireframing, Prototyping

Tools

Miro, Typeform, Figma

Duration

4 weeks (part of UX course)

Understanding the landscape

The context

Munich’s student housing crisis isn’t just about numbers—it’s about stress, scams, and survival. As a student who spent countless hours refreshing multiple platforms, attending fake apartment viewings, and watching better-paid working professionals takeaway apartments, I experienced firsthand the nightmare of finding a home in Germany’s most expensive university city

Rising costs outpacing student budgets

1

2

Core Problem Identification

Scam epidemic targeting desperate students

3

Competition from working professionals

To understand the depth of student housing challenges, I conducted mixed-method research combining quantitative breadth with qualitative depth :

Phase 1: key insights of anonymous survey of 47 students respondents (23 international + 24 national)

Research that revealed Hidden Emotions

Phase 2: critical emotional insights from semi-structured Interviews of 4 students with diverse backgrounds

74%

found themselves competing or loosing to working professional ready to pay higher rents

12+ hrs

average time spent weekly searching for housing across 4-6 different platforms simultaneously, impacting their studies and mental health

39%

42%

reported encountering scam listings, with 12% lost money to fraudulent landlords due to desperation

students all together thus find the entire house search process stressful

Anxiety and constant vigilance: “I set alarms every 2 hours to check if new listings appeared. I couldn’t focus on my thesis. It felt like a second full-time job.” — Julia

Loss of trust and safety: “After the scam, I questioned every listing. The landlord sent professional-looking contracts, keys were supposed to come after payment. I lost €900 and my confidence.” — Nicol

Feeling systemically disadvantaged: “Landlords see ‘student’ and immediately prefer working professionals. We’re seen as risky even though we just want to study. It’s demoralizing.” — Albert

Affinity Mapping: Synthesizing the Data

After collecting 47 survey responses and 4 in-depth interviews, I conducted affinity mapping to identify patterns and prioritize pain points.

Theme 1: Trust & Verification Gap

Clusters included: “Can’t tell real from fake,” “No way to verify landlords,” “Fear of losing money,” “Need proof listings are real,” “Want student-specific verification”

Theme 2: Information Overload & Time Pressure

Clusters included: “Checking 5+ platforms daily,” “Missing opportunities overnight,” “Can’t prioritize listings,” “Overwhelmed by options,” “Need centralized search”

Theme 3: Student-Specific Disadvantage

Clusters included: “Losing to working professionals,” “Can’t compete on price,” “Need student-friendly landlords,” “Want community support,” “Seeking peer recommendations”

Persona Building: Understanding Our Users

User Journey Mapping

Key Features & Design Rationale

Mobile-First / Desktop-First?

Before creating any screens, I addressed three strategic questions:

Decision: Mobile-first

Reasoning: 87% of students searched during gaps between classes using phones. They needed to respond to listings immediately—waiting to login on desktop meant losing opportunities.

What Features for MVP?

Decision: Core features only—verification system, search, filters, price transparency

Reasoning: With a 4-week timeline, I prioritized features directly addressing the top 3 pain points rather than building a comprehensive platform

How to Build Trust Immediately?

Decision: Verification & Transparency as the key feature, visible in all listings.

Reasoning: Research showed students suffered from hidden prices and scam encounters.

Site Map

Wireframe

Hi-fi Prototyping