Timeline: 6 weeks

Role: end-to-end UX/UI designer

Unlock is a platform that provides the user with anything needed to make the move to Spain easier.

This includes making friends, legal assistance, and helping with flat searches.

Clickable Prototype

The problem

More and more people want to experience life in a different place, either for adventure or for work reasons.

However, moving to a new country comes with a period of uncertainty, extreme spending, and loneliness.

For this project, I focused on people who are moving to Spain from other parts of the world.

The solution

Create a platform where people can find everything they need regarding their move to Spain.

This would include help with housing, moving, making friends, and legal procedures.

It will be a user-focused platform where users will be helping and offering support to each other.

Understand how they choose neighborhoods
Understand how they choose/book a flat/house
Understand the process they follow to make new connections
Understand their feelings and what stresses them out

Goals

Target Group

Gender: Women/Men/Other

Age: 18 - 40

First, I did a Competitor Analysis

This helped me understand what is a good practice and what is missing from the market at the moment

These are the main competitors:

SWOT

Strengths

More safety for female users

Possibility to talk with users of close distance

Connections through interests

Possibility to make friends & network

Weaknesses

Mainly a dating app

Stressful for shy women who need to make the first move

Text within 24h otherwise the connection disappears

Opportunities

Industry insights

People become accustomed to using apps to meet others

More awareness

Threats

Too much exposure to this kind of connections

People become more sceptical about meeting apps

Strengths

Widely used

Big variety of interests & locations

Mainly free to use

Possibility to practice a language

Weaknesses

In practice, people use it mainly for sports

Used mostly by young people

Opportunities

It creates the space for older people to search for another app

The tandems are in groups, not one-to-one

Threats

Since it’s so popular, people might stop searching for alternatives even if they don’t find what they’re looking for

Strengths

Safe space for women

Offers support for concepts that are taboos

Users can join a live audio conversation

Users can talk one-to-one

Weaknesses

Very niche

It can be difficult to open up to a stranger about tricky subjects

Not widely used & not available in many countries

Opportunities

This opens the path for apps only used by women

Easier to seek help online

Threats

The fact of being too niche could discourage some to try something similar

Strengths

Possibility to check & join events

The groups can be used for multiple reasons

Big community

Weaknesses

Too many options available that you could get lost

It can feel like spamming

All the personal info is available on the platform

You can easily receive unwanted messages

Opportunities

People become more active in communicating online

It can help to create communities

Threats

It could discourage some by being always too busy

People don’t get the quality they’re looking for and could get discouraged overall

The research

For the research, I used 2 methods: Interviews & Survey

Interviews

5 people were interviewed, some of them through online platforms and some in-person.

All the interviewees are people who moved to Spain at some point in their lives and could explain the process they went through.

Survey

26 people out of 30 answered the survey.

They all had experience moving to another country.

Insights

They changed the first stay in less than 4 months.
They didn’t speak the language, or at least, not well.
They had help with the paperwork from someone who already lived there.
In the beginning, they were only hanging out with other expats.
Common interests helped to meet people.
They found it hard to connect with the locals.
They found it hard to find a flat/room at a good price.
Not speaking the language made things difficult for them.

Personas

John Maverick, male, marketing manager

John is a freelance marketing manager who uses apps to explore the city and meet people

Frustrations & Pain Points:

He likes living alone but it’s hard to find a flat by himself
In the coworking space, he only gets to speak with ex-pats, so he doesn’t meet any locals
He can’t practice his Spanish often

Needs & Goals:

Find a flat on his own at a price he can afford
Connect with locals who can help him practice his Spanish and experience the local culture
Make meaningful friendships based on common interests

Mary Matidis, female, dance teacher

Mary is a single parent and a dance teacher.

Frustrations & Pain Points:

Between parenting and working, it’s very difficult to make friends
She doesn’t know anyone in the city, so she can’t ask for help
She can’t find a 2-bedroom flat at a price she can afford
The fact that she is a single mom doesn’t inspire trust in the flat owners, who ask her to pay many months in advance

Needs & Goals:

Create friendships
Enter a circle of connections where people help each other out
Find a flat at a reasonable price
Not be discriminated against by flat owners because of her status as a single mother