Easing the stress of moving with trusted, second-hand options
Helping international students build community and affordably and efficiently acquire furniture
View Prototype
Project Type
UX Design
App Design
Sustainable Design
Timeline
Oct. 2024-Dec. 2024
(10 weeks)
Team Project
2 UX Researcher
1 Project Manager
1 UX Designer (Me)
My Role
User Research
Prototyping
In the UniFurnish project, our team designed a platform that helps international students furnish their homes affordably and sustainably with verified second-hand furniture and shared delivery. We focused on reducing cost and waste while easing the stress of settling into a new country. My role focused on creating personas, wireframing, and prototyping to shape the product vision and bring the user journey to life.
Challenge
International students often struggle to furnish their homes when moving abroad. Buying new furniture is expensive, while second-hand options lack trust, convenience, and reliable delivery.
Design Solution
The final design emphasizes ease of navigation, community interaction, and sustainable reuse, helping students settle in with confidence and belonging.
Students can browse verified second-hand listings and easily compare prices, conditions, and pickup options
01 Acquire Used Furniture
Connect with others through moving sales and shared deliveries, creating opportunities to meet people while settling into their new homes.
02 Build Local Community
Research & Insights
📚 We conducted surveys and interviews with international students to understand their needs.
Our research revealed that international students struggle most with affordability, trust, and delivery when it comes to setting up their homes abroad, but face challenges with high costs, limited delivery access, and a lack of local connections when purchasing second-hand furniture.
Cost
Size
Weight
Transportability
Availability
Functionality
Cultural Consideration
Emotional value
Design
What are the main factors you consider when aquring furniture in the new country?
Cost 93.3%
Weight 73.3%
Transportability
60%
Size 66.7%
Key Insight #1
💰 Affordability Over Quality
Students prioritize low-cost furniture over durability since their stay is temporary.
“I don’t want to spend hundreds on furniture I’ll only use for two years.” -P2 interview
Key Insight #2
🤝 Trust Matters Most
Uncertainty about product quality makes students hesitant to buy second-hand.
“I never know if the furniture will look the same when I pick it up.” -P5 interview
Affinity mapping of 6 internviews & 30+ survey reponses
Key Insight #3
🚚 Delivery is the Biggest Hurdle
Without transportation, students struggle to move furniture affordably and conveniently.
“Even if I find a couch, I can’t get it home without paying a lot for delivery.” -P1 interview
Main Insight
International students want furnishing solutions that are affordable, reliable, and easy to access, but face barriers of high costs, low trust in second-hand options, and limited delivery support
Mapping Experience
To capture the diverse needs of international students, we developed two personas that highlight the tension between cost, convenience, and environmental responsibility.
Persona
Budget-Conscious Student – Needs affordable, ready-to-use furniture
Eco-Conscious Student – Cares about sustainability and prefers to reuse items but struggles with logistics.
Design Process
We started with rough sketches and open brainstorming sessions. Through conceptual exploration, we broke each idea down to its core need and reimagined them through different possibilities, from practical to speculative.
We brainstormed and sketched our ideas
After exploring multiple concepts, we translated our ideas into mid-fidelity wireframes to visualize how students would browse, compare, and connect through the platform.
Browse Categories
View Listings
Product Details
Join Moving Sale
Connect
Iterations after Testing
We tested our design with 6 international students and gathering usability feedback, we refined key interactions to enhance navigation, clarity, and trust across the platform.
Usability Testing
Final Design
Key features include:
Browse by Categories: Simplify exploration with clear organization and search filters.
Verified Listings: Build trust through transparent seller information and clear product details.
Moving Sales/Events: Help students discover local deals and shared delivery opportunities.
Direct Messaging: Enable smoother communication between buyers and sellers
✨Improving navigation, clarity, and trust, helping students easily browse, evaluate, and connect with sellers.
High-Fidelity Prototype
Reflection
🙇♀️ What I Learned
As an international student, I’ve personally experienced the challenges of moving abroad. Working with my team, I learned how assumptions can differ from real user insights. We initially expected language barriers to be the biggest challenge, but our research revealed that affordability, trust, and delivery were far more pressing. This experience taught me the value of staying open-minded, collaborating across perspectives, and grounding design decisions in evidence rather than assumptions.
🙋♀️ What I Would do Different