Bertilla

Easy Nest

Connect, Share, and Save - Your student life simplified

My Role

Uncovered real student challenges through interviews and observations, synthesized them into clear opportunities, and designed an end-to-end prototype

Impact

Helped reduce newcomer reliance on peers by 40% and improved task confidence by 30% in usability testing.

Timeline

Sep 2024 - December 2024

What is Nest, and why did we design it❓

Starting life in a new country is exciting, but it also comes with endless challenges from finding affordable housing to managing finances and building a community. This project began with a simple question:

How might we make those first months easier for international students?

📊

$34B

Annual contribution of international students to the U.S. economy.

💰

61%

Unsure if they had enough funds to sustain themselves.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑

42%

More likely to experience social isolation than domestic peers.

👩‍💼

81%

Rely on part-time jobs to cover living expenses.

For many, everything was new. Nest began with their stories because behind every statistic is a student learning how to live.

🚌 Which bus do I take, and how do I pay?

🛒 How do I handle self-checkout and everyday errands?

💳 How do I build credit and manage money here?

💵 Why is tipping expected, and what are the norms?

How did we know about the struggles?

Struggles we uncovered...

Making Sense of the Research

We carried out interviews 🎤 and observations 👀 at grocery stores and malls to capture the lived experiences of both newcomers and seniors.

#1 Interviews taught us the value of trust, flexibility, and active listening, leading to deeper insights and authentic participant stories.

#2 We conducted “in the wild” observations at Kroger and the Fashion Mall, ensuring participant consent beforehand, which revealed key challenges faced by international students.

To move from raw observations to actionable insights, we used affinity diagramming 🗂️ to group interview notes and behaviors into themes. This helped us uncover hidden patterns across finance, shopping, transportation, and social life.

We then built empathy maps 💭 to capture what students were thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. This process helped us go beyond surface-level struggles and understand the emotional and behavioral drivers behind their actions—for example, anxiety at self-checkout wasn’t just about scanning items, but about the fear of “slowing others down.”

“I always ask my roommate how coupons or taxes work—I’d be lost otherwise”

-Sam

“Constant WhatsApp questions about housing and banking get exhausting.”

-Sharan

“ Everything here is a learning experience… but it’s a lot to take in at once”

-Arya

#1 Adjusting to new store systems and unfamiliar tasks

#3 Dealing with uncertainty around routes and timing

#4 Depending heavily on peers, sometimes leading to burnout

#2 Navigating credit, payments, and hidden rules

We organized insights from both

newcomers and experienced students

into clusters, revealing recurring patterns

and shared struggles.

Two Sides of the Same Story

Behind every sticky note and mapped emotion, we found two distinct voices. One spoke of anxiety and constant learning, the other of knowledge and fatigue. These voices took shape as our personas—two sides of the same student journey.

Aryan 🎒, a new data science student, struggled with tipping, taxes, and self-service but slowly gained confidence with guidance from roommates and seniors.

🛍️ Buy, sell, or swap with peers

Yash 📘 overcame his own struggles adjusting to U.S. life and now supports new students with housing, banking, and transport advice.

✅ Goals

Manage finances and save on daily expenses.

Adapt to U.S. self-service culture.

Build independence in daily tasks.

✅ Goals

Help newcomers make informed decisions.

Share tips to avoid scams and financial mistakes.

Promote networking for jobs and internships.

❌ Frustrations

High grocery costs and hidden fees.

Confusing credit and banking systems.

Struggles with transport and large stores.

❌ Frustrations

Over-reliance of newcomers on seniors.

Repetitive questions on WhatsApp.

Emotional burnout from constant mentoring.

🙋🏾‍♂️️

“ Everything here is a learning experience… but it’s a lot to take in at once”

🙋🏻‍️️️

“ The more you connect, the more you realize what’s possible”

How might we empower newcomers while reducing burnout for seniors?

Sketching student stories, one feature at a time...

How Our Ideas Took Shape in Figma

Feature #1

After mapping struggles, synthesizing insights, and building personas, we brought everything together in a 💡brainstorming session with peers. Using the needs of both Aryan (newcomer) and Yash (experienced student) as anchors, we explored potential solutions that balanced guidance with independence.

What started as scattered thoughts on a whiteboard turned into actionable concepts. These features capture the balance of guidance and independence we set out to design.

To bring our ideas to life, we doodled student journeys on paper. Each sketch showed a moment where Nest could ease confusion, save time, or reduce burnout.

We translated research insights into 📱 interactive prototypes, letting Aryan and Yash’s challenges play out on real screens rather than sticky notes.

At the core of Nest are four main features, each anchored in the navigation bar to guide students through daily needs.

🏷️

Discount Aggregator

A hub where students can discover and redeem exclusive local deals, helping them save on groceries, transport, and daily needs.

🪑

Furniture Co-op

A platform to buy, sell, or exchange affordable second-hand furniture, easing the setup of a comfortable living space.

🏘️

Group Housing & Ride-Share Finder

Connects students looking for roommates or ride partners, making shared living and commuting more affordable and social.

🛍️️

Marketplace

A safe peer-to-peer space for students to trade essentials like books, electronics, or kitchen items without scams.

🤖️

FAQ Bot with Senior Tips

An automated assistant that answers repetitive questions using curated advice from experienced students, reducing senior burnout.

🌐️

Community Feed

A centralized forum where students can post queries, share updates, and find resources about housing, transport, and cultural adaptation.

Akshay

Freshman

MS HCI

Hey guys, I’m struggling to find affordable housing near campus. Most of the listings I’m seeing are super expensive or look a bit sketchy. Any recommendations on where I can find decent, student-friendly places? Also, how do I avoid scams? Would love any tips!

3 replies

Add a comment

Rahul

Sophomore

MS HCI

2 Spots Available for Shared Apartment Near Campus

Axis Apartments

10-minute walk from campus

N Senate Ave

Available from: Nov 1st

Preferred gender: Male

Ideal roommate: Looking for a student, non-smoker, tidy, and respectful of shared spaces

Priyanka

Sophomore

MS HCI

One way ride to Chicago

30 Oct, 2024

Ford Fiesta

17:30

20:30

Canal square leasing office

Chicago bus station

Message

Book

Community

Search community

All

Queries

Housing

Rides

Community

IU Deals

FAQs

Marketplace

Profile

📱 Ask, share, and connect instantly

🏷️ Save money with student-only offers

❓ Find quick answers or ask anew

The Community Hub is a centralized space where students can connect, share, and support one another. Instead of relying on scattered WhatsApp groups or one-on-one messages, this feature creates a structured platform for housing, transport, and daily life queries making peer help more accessible and less repetitive.

Offering a Ride

Ride-sharing becomes safer and easier by posting offers or requests directly within the hub.

✅ Problem Solved

Eliminates the hassle of finding rides through fragmented chats or word of mouth.

📌

Posting a Question

Students can quickly post queries in the hub, reaching everyone at once instead of asking seniors individually.

📌

✅ Problem Solved

Reduced repetitive one-on-one questions that overwhelm experienced students.

Feature #2

IU Deals gives students easy access to exclusive discounts, organized by categories like food, transport, and daily essentials. With just one click, students can redeem a deal, generate a barcode, and track it under “Redeemed Deals” for future reference.

Browsing & Redeeming Deals

Students can explore categorized deals (e.g., 15% off at Starbucks), click to reveal a barcode, and redeem it instantly at checkout.

✅ Problem Solved

Helps newcomers like Aryan manage tight budgets and rising grocery/meal costs, easing the financial stress noted in our empathy maps.

📌

Feature #3

The FAQ section organizes common student questions into clear categories, making answers quick to find. If students don’t see what they’re looking for, they can directly post the query into the Community Hub with one click.

Housing Leads

Students can browse and share housing options, complete with details and contacts in one place.

✅ Problem Solved

Saves time and reduces confusion from scattered housing information across multiple sources.

📌

Exploring FAQs & Posting a Query

Students can browse categorized FAQs for instant answers, or post their own question to the Community Hub if no match is found.

✅ Problem Solved

Reduces repetitive one-on-one queries that drain seniors’ time and gives newcomers like Aryan confidence to seek help without hesitation.

📌

Feature #4

Exploring FAQs & Posting a Query

Students can explore listings posted by peers or faculty, and easily upload their own items with photos and details. A personal dashboard keeps track of all active and sold items.

📌

✅ Problem Solved

Provides newcomers like Aryan an affordable alternative to expensive furniture shopping, while reducing dependence on seniors for second-hand resources.

Putting Nest in the hands of users

Turning feedback into improvements...

What changed for newcomers, seniors, and the community?

Design isn’t finished until it’s tested with real users. To validate Nest, we ran 🔍 heuristic evaluations and 🗣️ think-aloud usability sessions with both newcomers and experienced students.

When we put the prototype in front of students, a few recurring issues stood out:

🎉

Despite these pain points, most participants were able to complete their tasks successfully, and the feedback was encouraging

🎉

By the end, Nest became more than an app, it became a bridge between systems, cultures, and people.

✅ For newcomers → Greater confidence in handling finances, transportation, and cultural differences.

✅ For seniors → Relief from answering repetitive queries, avoiding burnout.

✅ For the community → A stronger, more sustainable support network.

Quantitatively, Nest delivered measurable impact: a 30% improvement in task success rates, a 40% reduction in newcomer reliance on peers, and a 30% increase in student confidenceal l validated through iterative usability testing.

Hidden interactions

The “+” button for adding posts wasn’t obvious. Many participants overlooked it completely, which meant they couldn’t find how to start posting.

Unclear system feedback

Without proper error states or confirmations, students weren’t sure if their action (like posting or redeeming a deal) was successful.

Overwhelming Forms

Long input forms made students pause or skip steps. They felt the effort was too high for simple tasks, like sharing a ride or listing housing details.

Personal Reflection 💭

For me as a designer, this project reinforced the value of story-driven design. Great UX isn’t just about wireframes or screens—it’s about creating journeys people see themselves in. By designing with empathy, iteration, and resolution, we shaped an experience that sticks because it makes people feel.

Connectivity friction

In some flows, students experienced delays that broke trust. Even simulated lag made them wonder if the app would be reliable in real life.

📌

“This feels like a friend guiding me, not just another app.”

– Usability tester

✨

More visible icons and consistent labels for CTAs.

📝

Shorter, simplified forms to reduce cognitive load.

🚨

Clear error messages and basic help documentation.

⏩

Shortcuts for frequent or repeat tasks.

Validated through 3 rounds of usability testing with 10 participants.

📈 +30%

Task Success Rate

👥 -40%

Newcomer Reliance on Peers

💪 +30%

Student Confidence in Daily Tasks

Personal Reflection 💭