A Traveled Path Homes:
Fostering User Connection Through Communication and Common Goals
UX Design Case Study
A Traveled Path Homes
A Traveled Path Homes is a website geared towards connecting traveling nurses with property owners looking to rent their homes. This project evaluated the usability of the site, conducted research with potential users, and designed improvements to respond to client and user goals.
The Team
Megan Bergstrom • Emma Broderick • Audrey Geipel
My Role
UX Designer • Researcher
Tools Used
Figma • Figjam • Google Suite • Squarespace • Zoom
Scope
February 2024 as part of UX design program at Prime Digital Academy.
Methodology
Cognitive Walkthrough • Contextual Inquiry • User Research • Low-Fidelity Prototyping • High-Fidelity Prototyping
The Background
Safe housing is important. Prioritizing safety and security, A Traveled Path Homes strives to simplify housing solutions for traveling healthcare professionals, by connecting them with safe and reliable property owners for short-term rental accommodations. The client has a broader goal of improving overall community healthcare by playing a valuable role in addressing national staffing shortages.
The Challenge
Usability and Confidence: The client asked our team to evaluate the overall usability of the website, aiming for a user-friendly interface and navigation. An additional client goal was to build added trust in the traveling medical community implementing clear communication and anti-fraud measures through the site.
Initial Project Goals:
• Improve overall usability with a user-friendly interface and navigation
• Build added trust in traveling medical community with clear communication and anti-fraud measures.
The Process
The Process for Improving A Traveled Path Homes Website
The process of improving the website for “A Traveled Path Homes” involved a three-step strategy: evaluate, research, and prototype. This approach allowed our team to identify pain points and areas of opportunity in the existing website, to gain feedback from potential users, and to integrate solutions into interactive prototypes.
Evaluate
Cognitive Walkthrough
In order to understand the functionality and usability of the existing website, our team conducted a cognitive walkthrough. We created a list of tasks indicative of typical site use and then examined the tasks step-by-step to determine how the site functioned. We found that on the whole the site did function as intended. However, there were several areas that could function better, namely, the information for property owners wishing to list properties was difficult to find, and the search functions for renters were limited and clunky.
Excerpts from “A Traveled Path Homes Cognitive Walkthrough
Research
Understanding Users:
Two Groups, Three Common Values
In order to better understand the users of the site, research was conducted through a contextual inquiry, in which we interviewed a healthcare professional and a property owner while they explored the “ A Traveled Path” website.
Two User Groups
We learned that there are two potential user groups for the site: the property owners and the traveling medical professionals.
During the Covid pandemic, many overworked and burned out nurses left their positions resulting in a national staffing crisis. Traveling nurses are skilled professionals who contract with facilities across the country to help fill temporary positions in high need areas. These nurses need high-quality, safe rental homes to feel safe and secure while they work long, difficult hospital shifts.
For property owners, offering short-term rentals to traveling medical professionals is a great opportunity to pair their properties with a steady stream of responsible, reliable tenants, since nurses often receive a housing stipend through their placements.
Three Common Values
From our research, we identified three primary values common to both user groups:
• Communication: Both user groups wanted clear communication and transparency in order to feel comfortable with the rental process, knowing that their expectations about the property were aligned.
• Safety and Reliability: Both user groups said feeling safe was important to them. Renters feel safe when the property has what they need and is well-maintained. Owners feel safe when renters know and follow the rules and pay on time.
• Time: Both user groups expressed being busy working long hours. Time and ease are important to them.
Expanding and Revising Goals
“I need to know what’s in walking distance, food, and if it’s a safe neighborhood.” -Tamona K., Nurse
Based on our findings, our project goals expanded from identifying areas for improvement on current functionality of the site, to identifying features we could introduce to afford usability and clear communications.
Revised Project Goals:
• To improve the usability of the site so qualified renters can easily connect with reliable owners and their accurately-represented properties.
• To help foster open and honest communication between the renters, the property owners, and “A Traveled Path Home,” by opening lines of communication and increasing visibility of properties, so that all three parties feel safe, comfortable, and informed.
Considering these revised goals, the prototyping phase followed…
Prototype
Keeping the revised goals in mind, proposed changes to the site included five main improvements:
• implementing the client-provided new design styles
• an advanced search feature as a means of communicating rules and amenities.
• a property owner information page with direct links to become a listing owner.
• increased depth, content, and usability to the renter and owner dashboards, so that both parties can view all of the important information about a property through linked pages.
• a system for rating and reviewing property owners and renters
A New Home Page
The client provided a new package of design styles, so the first change involved implementing these new styles to the home page.
Original Homepage
New Homepage
An Advanced Search Feature
By introducing an advanced search feature to the home page, users are able to really dig into the details of a property, so no one is surprised.
For nurses, the advanced search feature improves usability, so they can better filter search results and match with an appropriate property. Research showed traveling nurses liked accurate communication of property rules and amenities, since they likely won’t see the property in advance. This includes things like the vibe of the neighborhood, pet policy, utilities, and amenities. Filtering for the features most important to them also saves time searching through long listings, which they also said was important to them.
For property owners, the advanced search feature increases usability by allowing them to easily add accurate descriptions of amenities and policies.
Both user groups valued their time. A lot of time could be wasted if both parties have to deal with dissatisfaction due to unclear expectations.
Advanced search option addresses the project goals by making it easy for users to filter results, and by increasing communication about property amenities and expectations, which ultimately saves both groups time and energy.
A Property Owner Information Page
A new property owner information page on the main home page direct links to list properties. Usability for property owners on the original site was not very good. It was difficult to find information and owner expectations, and it was not immediately clear how to add a listing. Introducing this page allows for all parties to read the expectations and benefits for owners, and to understand the agreement between “A Traveled Path,” which fosters transparency and clear communication between all three parties. Plus, it saves the users time having to search through pages in order to locate this information.This supports the project goals of usability, time, and safe, clear communication.
Expanded User Dashboards
By adding depth, content, and usability to the renter and owner dashboards, both parties can view all of the important information about a property through shared pages. Dashboards will contain all important information about the property for both parties including: the lease dates and agreement, important home information such as garbage pick-up and lock codes, floor plans, photos, maintenance dates and requests, contact information and direct message links.
Based on our research, home owners would feel more organized and secure if the dashboard also included property tracking information, such as the types and models of appliances, dates of installation and scheduled maintenance, and a rental history.
The dashboards function as an all-in-one landing place where both parties could view relevant information at their convenience and can easily connect with each other when needed. This supports the goal of open communication, since all parties can see all of the information about the property ensuring transparency across the board.
“Right now, I use a spreadsheet to track properties. It would be nice to have everything in one place.” -Property Owner
A Rating System
Research showed that nurses would like to be able to read reviews and see ratings for properties. This would help them feel more safe and comfortable renting a property sight-unseen. Property owners want to feel assured that the property is in responsible hands. Ratings and reviews would help both user groups feel more secure. Reviews and ratings would also facilitate a better connection between the parties, which is a primary function of the site.
Key Client Deliverables
Video Walkthrough
A key client deliverable for this project was an interactive prototype with the proposed improvements. A video was produced in order to communicate to the client how the improvements functioned, and the thoughts and insights behind them. Watch the video below to see the presentation.
Interactive Prototype
Click below to explore the interactive prototype for yourself.
Read Me Document
Links to the video and interactive prototype were delivered to the client in a Read Me document. The document also included an executive summary of the project. Click below to enlarge and read the document.
Next Steps
In Retrospect
If I were to proceed with this project, I would…
• continue to implement the new design styles
• revisit the architectural flow of the site to make sure it is intuitive to both user groups
• conduct another round of usability testing with a larger group of actual targeted users
• add additional qualitative and quantitative research
A Few Surprises Along the Way
When our team began this project, we expected to be evaluating an active website currently in use by traveling nurses and property owners. Instead, we discovered that the site was in beta, meaning it was ready for use but not yet fully functioning. This meant we had to slightly shift our protocol to usability and hypothetical contextual inquiry.
We also had to pivot last minute when our two client-provided participant users turned out to be different than expected: the healthcare professional was not a traveling nurse, and the property owner provided by the client was not available to conduct the interview. Luckily, we were able to interview another property owner but one who had never rented specifically to traveling healthcare professionals. We were still able to glean important information from both our users, however, and in the end, we gained valuable insights and a learning experience along the way..