Accommodation Website UI/UX Project
Designing a centralised digital home base for student living
Role: UI/UX Designer
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Duration: 5 Weeks
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Tools: Figma
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Context: University Project
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Role: UI/UX Designer | Duration: 5 Weeks | Tools: Figma | Context: University Project |
Project Overview: Gaft.ie
The housing crisis has made finding student accommodation a difficult, stressful process characterised by high rents and long commutes. This project involved designing a website, Gaft.ie, to serve as a one-stop shop for finding different types of student accommodation and housemates. The core goal was to transition the student housing experience from a fragmented search engine into a single digital platform that also acts as a management companion for the duration of a lease.
Exploration/Discovery
I benchmarked two existing platforms, Daft.ie and the UL Student Accommodation portal. Through user testing, I identified several shared friction points. Both sites utilised sign-in walls at critical moments, such as when a user wanted to contact a landlord or access help. Pricing consistency was poor, with listings mixing per-week and per-month rates. Users found the UL portal visually cluttered with an overwhelming number of filters, while Daft.ie lacked student-specific filters and obscured results with large advertisement banners
Design Process
Using the research outcomes, I developed affinity diagrams and need statements to establish a "search-first" architecture. I removed mandatory account creation for browsing and mapped out a user flow using low-fidelity sketched wireframes. The design prioritised information hierarchy, moving essential data like total cost and distance to campus to the forefront of the UI. I structured the platform around three pillars: transparent discovery, financial clarity, and formalised communication.
Final Design
The final Figma prototype features a clean, scannable layout. The discovery phase includes standardised per-month pricing, clear academic-year availability, and an integrated map view. Beyond discovery, the "MyStay" dashboard acts as a central hub for tenants. It includes a payment portal for rent, a utility splitter that divides and tracks bills among housemates, and a problem reporting system that allows users to log maintenance issues directly with landlords to maintain a digital paper trail.
Impact & Reflection
Building this project was a steep learning curve in Figma (which I had never used before), struggling with layouts and element sizing initially forced me to pay much closer attention to component consistency across the UI. User testing the prototype was eye-opening, as it highlighted that users prioritise high volumes of practical information, like available properties, over extra features. The process also demonstrated the importance of visual communication, showing me I need to balance technical design execution with stronger presentation materials for my final work