Haven Bound
Timeline: 6 weeks
Role: Sole Product Designer
What Is Haven Bound?
Haven Bound is a projected digital solution that was created to educate home-seekers and current homeowners to find homes that better match their needs.
Why Haven Bound?
For my graduate thesis, I was prompted to create a solution that addresses a problem people experience in their life. I aspired to create a solution that addressed user challenges during the home buying process. These problems evolved around Americans struggling to qualify, find and understand all steps when embracing homeownership.
Problem Statement
Americans interested in buying home(s) lack the resources and guidance that assures confidence in their home purchase decisions. Due to the 2020 pandemic inflicting unprecedented financial and economical strains on the American housing market, people are encountering unique circumstances when in search of property to own and to call home .
How might I create a home purchase solution that allows Americans to confidently embrace and benefit from the home buying process?
Research
To better understand the challenges Americans face when approaching the home buying process, I performed the following research activities:
Competitive Analysis
Desktop Research
10 Virtual User Interviews
Google Survey
User Insights
After analyzing the user interviews and survey results, I curated two personas to represent targeted users for Haven Bound. These personas were characterized as Melissa: The Anticipating Home Buyer and Grace: The Experienced Homeowner.
These personas are symbolic of the personality traits, goals and motivations of home buyers that would benefit from Haven Bound.
Grace is a well established adult, who has over 5 years of home ownership experience. Due to Grace’s home ownership experiences she yearns for home investments that are predictable in terms of maintenance and costs while also desiring a home that supports the lifestyle she has established for herself.
The second persona, represents users with little to no home ownership experiences. Melissa is a young adult who yearns to buy a home that will serve as a stepping stone for the lifestyle she envisions for herself. Melissa primary home concerns are about being close to amenities she likes, finding an agent she can trust to help her make home decisions and being able to share her home buying journey with the people she cares about most.
Ideation
To better conceptualize ideas for the design and elements needed in The Haven Bound platform, sketches using a series of different methodologies including Crazy 8s and stand alone sketching. I collaborated with fellow classmates to determine which ideas and features should be transformed into wire frames.
