Campus Mate, student housing platform with verified listings
Owned the end-to-end experience, from search to roommate matching to realtor handoff.
Role
Lead Designer
Timeline
8 months
Team
Design, Engineering, Leadership
Tools
Figma
PROBLEM
Finding a listing was only half the battle, students also needed to know what they could trust.
Finding off-campus housing involves more than browsing available properties. Students must evaluate listings, consider location, find compatible roommates, and determine how to move forward with a potential home. When these decisions are disconnected, the search can become difficult to navigate.
CampusMate aimed to bring key parts of the housing journey into one platform, helping students move from exploring options toward making informed housing decisions.
SOLUTION
How might we connect housing discovery, roommate matching, and realtor access into one cohesive experience?
Housing search wasn’t one decision—it was a series of decisions students had to connect. The experience needed to support students across multiple stages of their search, from discovering potential homes to exploring who they might live with and how to pursue a listing. Rather than treating each feature as a separate destination, I considered how listings, roommate matching, and realtor connections could support the broader housing journey.
CHALLENGE
Bringing listings, roommates, and realtors together without overwhelming the search.
With several distinct features within one platform, the challenge was to make the experience feel connected without competing for users’ attention.
I focused on the relationship between the platform’s core features and how the experience could help students find the information they needed at each stage of their search.
DESIGN ITERATION
Aiding housing discovery by saving a listing and keeping track of all the right options
As students explore housing options, they may come across multiple properties that meet different needs. Simply saving listings isn’t enough if users can’t easily revisit, compare, and organize what they’ve found.
I designed the discovery experience around more than bookmarking. By allowing students to save listings into collections organized around their preferences (such as 1 bed, 1 bath or 2 bed, 1 bath), the experience helps them build a more structured shortlist as they search. Turning saved listings into purposeful collections made it easier to organize potential homes, revisit relevant options, and keep the housing search manageable.
Replacing the uncertainty of living with strangers with a more intentional matching process.
Finding roommates can be just as challenging as finding a place to live. Students may need to connect with unfamiliar people, coordinate with friends they’ve already found, or figure out whether potential roommates are a good fit before committing to living together.
I designed a matching flow that considers multiple paths students might take. Students start by filling out a form about themselves and their living preferences, then browse suggested roommate groups they can choose to join. To help them make more informed decisions, I incorporated introductions and chat so potential roommates can get to know one another before moving in together. I also accounted for students who already have roommates outside the platform, allowing them to bring existing groups into the experience rather than forcing everyone through the same matching process.
Key interactions and edge cases considered:
Matching preferences: Collect information about students and their living preferences to inform suggested roommate groups.
Choosing a group: Let students browse potential groups and decide which they want to join, rather than assigning roommates automatically.
Connecting before committing: Provide introductions and chat so students can get to know potential roommates before deciding to live together.
Accommodating existing groups: Support students who have already found roommates outside CampusMate, instead of requiring them to find everyone through the platform.
FINAL DESIGN
One place to explore housing options and move forward with confidence.
CampusMate brings off-campus listings, roommate matching, and realtor connections into a unified student housing platform.
Verified listings provide a different level of safety and trustworthiness to new students through CampusMate's realtor partnerships.
Recommendations of most popular listings to connect users to properties that have been well-received in the past, to ensure comfortable living.
Save & sort listings so students can keep track of their favorite listings.
REFLECTION
Better design decisions turn a fragmented search into a clearer path forward.
Throughout the process, I focused on how design decisions could translate into a more manageable user experience. Organizing saved listings into customizable collections, for example, transformed saving from a passive action into a way to structure and revisit potential homes. Connecting the platform’s core features also helped frame each interaction as part of a larger housing journey.
These decisions shaped the experience around practical outcomes: less effort spent keeping track of options, a clearer way to compare potential homes, and a more direct path from discovery to the next step. The process reinforced that thoughtful information architecture and interaction design aren’t just about making interfaces easier to navigate—they help users make progress toward their goals.
