First-time dorm experience students living on U.S. campuses often experience conflicts with roommates due to differences in living habits and personality. This leads to increased stress, feelings of isolation, and challenges in building positive relationships, which can negatively impact their academic performance and overall well-being.
Dormbo
A dorm task management app that streamlines shared responsibilities—making dorm life more organized and enjoyable.
MY ROLE
UX Lead
User Research
Interface Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
User Research
Interface Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
TEAM
1 UI Lead
1 Prototype Lead
1 Project Manager
1 Research Lead
1 Prototype Lead
1 Project Manager
1 Research Lead
TIMELINE
Sep - Dec 2024
TOOL
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Effects
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Effects
Overview
Problem
Solution Preview
We developed Dormbo—a dorm task management app designed to streamline shared responsibilities within dorms. By offering clear task statuses and fostering collaboration through rewards, Dormbo aims to cultivate a supportive dorm culture, enhancing students' overall well-being and community engagement.
Result
We conducted 2 rounds of usability testing with 40+ participants, we saw our design evolve into something clearer, more collaborative, and better aligned with real dorm life.
64%
Fostered a stronger sense of belonging in the community
94%
Students feel fairly treated while using the app
82%
Improvement in building positive roommate relationships
Why it matters? For students and schools.
DormBo was designed for students, but its impact goes beyond. With nearly half of freshmen living in dorms, improving roommate experiences can directly support student retention, mental health, and housing revenue. For universities, even small gains in dorm retention can mean millions in additional revenue and a more connected, long-term campus community.
Here’s the opportunity DormBo could unlock
Vision Video
Would like to know how it all comes together?
Let’s explore a short teaser of the key features.
Teaser 1
Set Up Dorm Rules & Track Roomate's Status
A step-by-step tour of set up shared rules that with roomates. Easily track each other’s status to maintain a respectful and organized living space.
Teaser 2
Task Management: To Do
Easily track personal and shared tasks. Mark assigned tasks as done upon completion, and wait for roommate confirmation to ensure accountability.
Task Management: Completed
Review all confirmed tasks and claim points, which can be saved for future help requests or rewards—making teamwork in the dorm both productive and fun!
Teaser 3
Rankings & Rewards
View your dorm’s ranking, track personal progress, and earn points for completing chores. Redeem rewards to stay motivated and make dorm life more engaging!
Now, let me walk you through how we uncovered the real challenges students face before shaping our solutions!
Research
Why does finding a suitable roommate is important for freshman students?
Living with a 'bad' roommate can lead to a lot of negative outcomes....
Uncovering problems through stakeholder interviews
To gain a comprehensive understanding of the freshman dorm experience in the U.S., including both challenges and contributions, we conducted a survey and interviewed 3 RAs and 12 students who currently live or have lived in dorms.
Key User Quotes
Emotional mapping
To better understand their dorm experience, we analyzed key touchpoints and mapped out their emotional highs and lows throughout the journey. We identified three major low points: roommate conflict, open discussion, and seeking help.
These journey map guided our design decisions in fostering proactive roommate communication.
Insights
Students living in dormitory for the first time often feel disconnected from their roommates, and this disconnection can lead to conflicts.
What cause roommate conflicts?
From on our previous research, we summarized insights into 3 categories.
We decided to focus on how students navigate interpersonal relationships. In the long run, these interpersonal skills will not only improve their dorm experience but also contribute to their personal growth and future success.
We decided to focus on how students navigate interpersonal relationships. In the long run, these interpersonal skills will not only improve their dorm experience but also contribute to their personal growth and future success.
Problem statement
1. How might we help international students ensure their efforts in shared responsibilities are recognized by their roommates to promote fair treatment?
2. How might we help students learn to live with roommate who have different lifestyles to reduce conflict?
Competitor Analysis
How can we stand out?
We analyzed existing dorm life services, which primarily focus on campus safety, housing management, and personal well-being. Our goal was to identify gaps and uncover unique opportunities that set our concept apart.
Competitive chart
Current services like LiveSafe, StarRez, they are good at providing supportive resources. But they don’t really focus on relationship building. While RA and RD help with that to some extent, they just don't do enough to really guide students through the complexities of coexisting with roommates.
Our solution are gonna fill the gap. Focuses on both areas, we’re all about creating a great dorm environment while also helping students build positive relationships with their roommates.
Our solution are gonna fill the gap. Focuses on both areas, we’re all about creating a great dorm environment while also helping students build positive relationships with their roommates.
Feature Comparison Chart
Seeing the gaps in existing solutions,
we started brainstorming...
Ideation
From our research insights, we want to explored students' needs further to understand their ideal dorm experience through Sensory Cues.
User goals
We categorized and summarized the insights into user needs using Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Since lower-level needs are more essential, we selected three critical needs as user goals.
Making design decisions
By understanding what students associate with supportive and harmonious dorm life, we translated user goals into tangible design features.
Evaluation
Wireframing & Usability testing
We created low-fi wireframes and iterated to mid-fi for evaluation. For our evaluation, there are 10 participants with our first round user test, with post test survey and interview.
Since we’re evaluating qualitative data—specifically, users’ sense of belonging, fairness, and well-being. We combined all task flows to provide testers with a comprehensive dormitory task management experience.
Iteration
1. UX writing audit
Users struggle with wording and they need guidance.
2. Usability enhancement
Users find navigation unclear and want more personalization.
3. Boost motivation
Users need clearer feedback and stronger incentives.
4. A/B testing: Refining task completion flow
To enhance the dorm task completion experience, we conducted an A/B test to evaluate two different flows.
Ecosystem
How does our service works?
We partner with universities, which pay a service fee for our solution.
Students get a task management and rewards system to improve roommate collaboration.
Residence halls benefit from stronger student communities through organized events.
These improvements encourage students to stay on campus longer and recommend the school to future applicants—boosting enrollment and revenue.
Final Design
Getting Started
A Simple welcoming guide to help students go through the app features and get started!
Task Management: Need Help
Need a favor? Just post a task! Whether it's grabbing something on the way back or finishing a shared chore, Dormbo makes asking for help easy.
Stay on track
Get real-time reminders for new and confirmed tasks, plus handy widgets for a quick glance at your roommate’s status!
Reflection
Takeaways
Aligning design with user expectations
Initially, We believed playful animations would enhance engagement, but students found them distracting and misaligned with dorm life. This experience reinforced the importance of user testing and iteration. So we simplified the design while keeping subtle playfulness to support intuitive task management.
Balancing business goals with real-life impact
At first, we focused on how DormBo could create value for universities, but we realized that a successful product isn’t just about business benefits, it’s about improving real lives. This shift helped us build a platform that not only supports universities but also empowers students to develop adaptability and collaboration skills that extend beyond dorm life.
If we had more time
We would explore accessibility-focused design, refine advanced features, and strengthen university partnerships. Our long-term goal is to grow DormBo into a platform that fosters personal growth, cultural exchange, and stronger communities—preparing students with life skills beyond the dorm.
Thank you! :)
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