The Roomie mobile app
Role: UX/UI Designer responsible for research, concept development, flows, and visual design.
Netherlands
2025
Roomie is a mobile app designed to help users find a room or a compatible roommate through a simple, user-friendly matching experience. The platform uses lifestyle filters, interests, and personal preferences to surface better living matches. Built with a focus on comfort, fun, and trust, creating a sense of belonging and excitement rather than just listings.
Project overview.
The app is especially relevant for students and young adults moving away from home, who not only need a space to live, but a sense of belonging, shared values, and emotional comfort.
The goal was to design a matching experience that aligns expectations around lifestyle, communication style, habits, boundaries, and well-being (before moving in together).
Proplem space.
Finding housing is often stressful, rushed, and impersonal. Listings-based platforms focus on rooms, not people, leading to uncertainty, mismatch, and anxiety (especially for users starting a new phase of life away from their support network).
Users reported three core frustrations:
1. It’s difficult to judge compatibility beyond price and location.
2. The process feels cold, transactional, and time-pressured.
3. Expectations around lifestyle, privacy, and culture are not aligned early enough.
They are not only “looking for a room” - they are looking for a place where they feel at home, both emotionally and socially.
Problem statement.
How might we design a co-living experience that helps users feel safe, understood and emotionally supported by matching them not only to a space, but to people they genuinely connect with?
Research & insights.
Research focused on understanding what young adults need when relocating or starting student life. Interviews and early concept feedback highlighted:
Compatibility matters more than square meters
Users want flatmates whose values and routines feel compatible, not just a bed to sleep in.Emotional safety is a hidden priority
Feeling welcome, safe, and “not alone” significantly reduces relocation anxiety.
Personalisation builds comfort
Lifestyle filters (noise level, cleanliness, shared activities, visiting habits, etc.) gave users more confidence in who they would be living with.
Human connection before the contract
Talking early, bonding early, and clarifying expectations early creates trust before commitment.
Design goals.
Match users with people, not just rooms.
Reduce emotional stress during the search process.
Help users feel understood before relocation.
Align expectations upfront: lifestyle, boundaries, habits, timing.
Create belonging: not just a housing outcome.
Make the process feel fun, friendly, and human, not administrative.
Design process.
Competitor Benchmarking: Analysed housing and roommate platforms to identify experiences focused on listings over compatibility.
User Research & Testing: Gathered insight on emotional needs behind relocation, loneliness, trust, and shared values.
Information Architecture: Structured a guided onboarding flow focused on compatibility before logistics.
Wireframing: Explored layouts that feel warm, personal, and easy to navigate.
High-Fidelity Prototype: Brought the vision to life in Figma with soft UI, approachable language, and clear matching steps.
Outcome.
Roomie reframes co-living from “finding a room” to “finding a place to belong”.
The experience reduces stress and uncertainty by guiding users toward compatibility-based matches, helping them connect early and build trust before moving in.
The final prototype:
Humanises the housing search
Encourages emotional safety and social connection
Turns a stressful stage of life into a positive and community-building journey
Next steps + future iterations.
Future iterations would expand compatibility criteria and strengthen trust-building before move-in.
Planned enhancements include guided icebreakers, expectation-setting tools, and identity verification for safety.
Additional well-being features would support emotional comfort during relocation.
Long-term, Roomie can evolve from a housing tool into a small community platform for belonging.