Keyo rented apartments in NYC and the Bay Area (acquired by Zillow in 2019). We employed Scouts – gig-economy workers – who were locals in the community to facilitate on-demand apartment viewings, all while eliminating broker fees. Prospective tenants browsed listings and scheduled viewings on our website. Owners managed inventory and approved applications through our web-based dashboard.

Challenges

Renting an apartment is a daunting process. After finding a suitable home, the dry and uninviting application process begins. As with any form on paper, there is no order in which the form has to be filled out; applicants can move freely to any section at any time. Additionally, documents that may already exist digitally on computers or phones need to be printed out and attached. But we have a mobile app for renters in NYC at Keyo, so we digitized this process. This is my take at an interaction model for filling out this long, monotonous form.

The first step was to analyze the application to determine top level navigation. There are seven categories total (employment, residential history, etc.), with two having three subcategories each (current, previous, and prior). When a category is selected from the main menu, a card slides up from the bottom of the screen to display questions one at a time. Swiping down minimizes the card and reveals the main menu. Categories with subcategories contain tabs in the cards. This allows seamless movement between categories and subcategories alike.

The next step was to design navigation between questions. This solution was a combination of a Continue/arrow to advance to the next question, and a numerical fraction at the bottom left of the card to indicate the current question out of the total questions in that category (i.e. 8 / 11). Tapping the fraction opens a menu in the card with a list of the questions in that category and a Help section to provide assistance (pictured below). Single-line text entries may utilize the return key on the mobile OS keyboard to move to the next question as well.

Finally, progress indicators are important component of lengthy tasks such as a lease application. If the questions are completed in order, the form feels long. If they’re completed out of order, the form still feels long, and it’s easy to be unsure about what is left to complete. To simplify the matter, there are progress fractions and check marks throughout the application. All completed categories and questions have a check mark. The main menu utilizes dark and light text colors, fractions, check marks, and a progress bar that sits at the bottom to indicate completion.

Designing a digital lease application takes more thought than copying a form into a mobile app. Studying the categories of questions, the types of answers, providing necessary keyboards and types of fields are just a few aspects to creating an interaction model that helps smooth the process. My goal was to make the application more human, the anthesis of its physical paper state. Some decisions to help make the application friendlier, and therefore easier, meant phrasing all of the fields to be questions. So, “Name: First Middle Last” name became “What is your full name (including middle)?” Another decision was to automatically navigate where the applicant left off when they select a category they partially completed. All in all, the only way to know the efficacy of these hypotheses are to measure them. For example, one of the subcategories has an exclamation mark “!” and it’s unclear whether that should be implemented throughout the application or reconsidered altogether. While it’s important to communicate incomplete sections, there may be a better way to show this with further exploration. Navigation was the biggest challenge, and this interaction model hopes to bring functional and visual appeal to a digital rental application.