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Home Storage App

Introduction 

A service that allows local property owners to rent out their empty space to others who need storage space near them. Our first target users will be geared towards students or individuals who find themselves moving back and forth frequently during the year, and often face the problem of needing storage space for their luggage or belongings. Our secondary users will be targeting local property owners who find that they have extra space and could rent it out to students or other temporary residents. We would like to create a relatively low-cost, long-term system that appeals to both parties.

UI/UX Spring 2023

Teammates

Jennifer Kim, Sarah Frix

Supervisor

Prof. Adam Smith

My Skills

Leadership

Research methodology

UI design

Research

Space Price

The average price per square foot was $1.19 per square foot in 2022.

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Self-storage audience information

More Gen Xers than any other generation turn to self-storage, with 54% of them keeping their items in a storage unit compared to 40% of millennials and 25% of Gen Zers who do so. Close to half of the women (48%) and 45% of the men among rent self storage for various purpose.

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Lease storage area

The most popular storage unit size is 10'x10', followed by 5'x10'.

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Popular self-storage cities in the US

Naturally, online interest in self-storage varies based on location. New York City, NY is the most popular city for self-storage searches, with an average monthly search volume of 21,570 searches, followed by San Diego, CA (9,520), and Las Vegas, NV (9,260).

High interest in self-storage searches in these cities is due to their status as places with very fluid populations. Streams of newcomers continue to arrive, and self-storage comes to their rescue, helping them to get settled into their new homes.

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Customer searching behavior

Interest in self-storage has been growing over the last decade, as Google Trends data shows. We've looked at the most popular keywords for self-storage-related searches – "storage units near me ", "storage near me" and "self-storage near me" – to see the latest trends in consumer search habits. June, July and August are generally the most popular months for self-storage searches.

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Competitor

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Design Matrix

User Experience

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Home-owned business, In a way, it's safer. But it lacks a security verification system and some monitoring feedback for customers to see.

Facebook is a chat app, so marketspace has the ability to chat and view merchants information. However, some way of security verification is missing, and the transaction is private without security guarantees.

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Neighbor has a comfortable interface, however, lacks some security verification and requires a request to rent space, making it somewhat unsuitable for people with urgent needs. There is a little guarantee of safety - that is, costumers can choose to buy insurance.

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Vertoe has a comfortable interface, however, lacks some security verification and requires a request to rent space, making it somewhat unsuitable for people with urgent needs.

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The whole transaction process is straightforward. Even though the cooperative storage space is commercial space, it still lacks some necessary security verification means.

Market Gap

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Feeling of security: Apart from the security control function of the App itself, in theory, the more customers communicate with the merchant, the better they know the merchant and the more secure they feel.
Spatial commerciality: Divided into privat
e property empty space and commercial space. Private Property space on private property can be divided into spaces for spare houses and spaces where the landlord lives but has spare rooms. The closer to the origin of the coordinate axis, the stronger the privacy.

Design opportunity: Since we are all students with a design background, we're going to focus on designing a good security verification system because trust and security are very important in this app. Furthermore, most current existing apps use commercial spaces for luggage storage. We will focus on building a community - people can share the empty space of their property and get the most out of them.

Mind Map

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Pro:

1. May have a physical product aspect (for security)
2. Business opportunity for homeowners
3. Convenient for the target audience
4. Convenient locations
5. Benefits for all parties
6. Alternative subleasing
7. Use of empty spaces
Airbnb, Lyft, Uber Eats, etc., have already set trust systems for this kind of service

Con:

1. Forces of Nature that may damage the customer’s property
2. Security
3. Liability
4. Insurance
5. Acquiring customer trust

Questionnaire survey

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We sent out questionnaires to people around us and received a total of 20 valid responses. From the survey results, it can be seen that 45% of the respondents would like to sublet their vacant houses. After subletting, 45% of them would choose to store their original luggage in commercial luggage storage, while 40% would choose to store their luggage at a friend's house. The items in their luggage are mainly clothes and electronic products. Since most of the surveyed individuals are students at RISD and RISD has a partnership with Jones Moving & Storage, 45% of them would look for this store as a commercial luggage storage place.

Persona

Stakeholder

Community Partner

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Government

About: Josh was born and raised in St. Louis, MO. He attended Murray State University, where he graduated with a B.S. in Business and an MBA.

Goals: He hopes to enhance the on-campus student experience while maintaining a solid and defined structure.

Name: Josh Jones

Age: 32

Occupation: Director of RISD Residence Life

Motivations:

1. A high-quality service to help students' problems.

2. Help the RISD Residence Life segment increase revenue.

3. Improve students' happiness index in RISD.

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Name: Adam Williams

Age: 48

Occupation: Municipal staff

About: He works in Social Security Administration. He has a strong sense of responsibility. He has access to the SSN data of people living in the state.

Goals: He expects to take care of his daily tasks and live each day with ease and joy.

Motivations:
1. Increase the financial revenue of the department.
2. Ensure the safety of property and personal information of the citizens of the state.

Student

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Name: Claire Wang

Age: 21

Occupation: Undergraduate

About: Claire is from Fort Lee, NJ. She majors in Textiles. She has an internship each summer and will sublet her own place.

Disappointment:
She has lots of school materials and large appliances like a heater to deal with when sublets her space.

Goals: She wants a place that is safe and close to the house to store her belongings. Also, she needs help with the luggage.

Motivations:

1. A high-quality service to help students' problems.

2. Help the RISD Residence Life segment increase revenue.

3. Improve students' happiness index in RISD.

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Name: Mark Henderson
Age: 19
Occupation: undergraduate

About: Mark is from Chicago, Illinois. He majors in Computer Science. He prefers to spend his summer with his family back home.

Disappointment:
He has lots of clothing and electronic appliances that he needs to store over the break since he lives in the school dormitories and his home is far.

Goals: He wants a place like a commercial storage space where it is close to his school. Also, he prefers a driver to pick up his belongings.

Motivations
1. Full service which includes transportation of heavy items.
2. Insured security for loss and damages.
3. The environment of storage space is not prone to theft.

Homeowner

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Name: Grace Lane

Age: 53

Occupation: Sales Assistant

About: Her oldest son has just moved out permanently so his room is now an empty space. Grace is not wanting to downsize anytime soon, but bills are not getting any cheaper.

Goals: Make some extra pocket money that doesn’t require her to have to take another job.

Motivations:

1. Something that makes money but doesn't require a lot of effort.

2. Meet different and interesting people.

Conclusions:

1. A high-quality service to help students' problems.

2. Help the RISD Residence Life segment increase revenue.

3. Improve students' happiness index in RISD.

Storyboard

School Logo

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