Havenly
An app that helps users with homesickness by connecting them with events and experiences shared by people from similar places or cultures.
PRODUCT DESIGN
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MOBILE APP
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Overview
PROJECT TYPE
UX/UI Case Study
Independent Project
TIMELINE
Sep - Dec 2024
ROLE
UX Researcher
UI Designer
SKILLS
Product Design
Interaction Design
Brand Design
TOOLS
Figma
Miro
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Havenly is an app that helps users with homesickness by connecting them with events and experiences shared by people from similar places or cultures.
Find and attend events
Users can find and attend events uploaded and hosted by people who share an affinity to a specific country. Users can find their community through in person events no matter where they are!
Find experiences
Users can discover places or experiences that remind them of home, created by people who share the same background as them.
Post events
Users can host their own events and post it on Havenly for other users to see and join.
Users can share their own experiences or places that give them a sense of home for other to see as well!
Share experiences
Homesickness is extremely common.
It's estimated that 50% to 75% of the general population have felt homesick at least once in their life.
Homesickness can lead to poor mental health.
About 20% of university students and campers report moderate homesickness, while 5–7% experience severe homesickness with anxiety or depression.
Homesickness can be prolonged and intense.
Although it really depends on the individual, homesickness can last between 3 weeks to 1 year and 4 months
Wait ...why create Havenly anyways?
Well ...
Thus my project began with this focused question:
How might we empower homesick individuals to develop and access healthy coping strategies, enabling them to thrive in their new environment?
VALUE PROPOSITION IDEATION
Havenly is the app that helps homesick individuals cope healthily by connecting them with culturally familiar communities and experiences.
KEY FEATURE IDEATION
🎉
Attend events
Easily attend events in your area and meet people with the same background and interests as you.
💡
Find recommendations
Discover places or experiences that remind you of home, created by people who share the same background as you.
📝
Create your own events and recommendations
Post recommendations for others to see that remind you of home and also create and host your own events.
Now let’s see who Havenly is up against ...
Oh ... that’s intimidating
Let’s take a deeper look at some of these apps!
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS LEARNINGS
Through my research, I’ve identified an opportunity for Havenly to create a community-driven platform that blends event and social connection features. Unlike traditional event apps focused on logistics, Havenly fosters belonging by connecting users through shared cultural backgrounds and experiences, offering more than just event coordination.
Before beginning the design process, we need to deeply understand who we're actually designing for.
USER PERSONA
I created two personas derived from my research to better understand the pains and goals of my target user. I focused on college students, as I found that homesickness is extremely prevalent and intense amongst new students at college.
After establishing who the target users are, I began to ask:
What are the patterns, key problems and areas of opportunity within Jacob and Annie’s current homesickness experience?
Now let’s use the research and insights to organize Havenly’s content!
Yay!Super organized :)
What would all this information look like visually?
I then designed low fidelity wireframes that translate Havenly’s information architecture into clear visual layouts, defining the structure, navigation, and placement of various features.
To user testing ...
and beyond!
I conducted 20 minute in-depth interviews with 5 college students who have or are experiencing homesickness. During the 20 minute interviews, the 5 interviewees reviewed my proposed solutions and analyzed the wireframes, giving me insightful feedback.
USER INTERVIEW INSIGHTS
100% of participants liked being able to find and save experiences and events
100%
80% of participants disliked the empathetic AI voice chat feature
80%
Users love the ability to find and save experiences + events, as it helps them reconnect with a sense of home. However, the empathetic AI voice chat feature received mixed or negative feedback, as users said that they would prefer to have real human connection or would be uncomfortable using it.
100% of participants liked being able to find and save experiences and events
100%
100% of participants said that the concept effectively addressed the issue of homesickness
100%
0% of the participants said that they would post an event or go to an event alone
0%
Using my user interview learnings, I came up with three design refinements that would help strengthen Havenly’s overall experience.
REFINEMENT 1
Friend Invites
Being able to invite friends to events you want to attend. Pairing system that allows users to find buddies in their area that they can attend an event with.
REFINEMENT 2
Co-hosting and event planning templates
Connect with other users who might be interested in co-hosting events. Provide detailed templates or guides that can help streamline the event planning process.
REFINEMENT 3
Ratings and reviews
Users can leave ratings and reviews under other people’s posts on experiences or events that the person recommended or hosted. Each experience and event will show the rating of the user who posted it.
After revising the wireframes using the design solutions based on the user testing, I began designing Havenly’s visual aspects and brand identity.
I created three different stylescapes, from strategically analyzing Havenly’s competition. This ranged from Havenly’s competitor’s logo, typography, color and imagery. After creating all three, I decided to continue with the third stylescape as the yellow color scheme and font choice exuded a more approachable and friendly feeling.
Using the stylescape as a guide, I created Havenly’s style guide to create cohesive and structured high fidelity wireframes.
Reflections
User centered design is non-negotiable.
Creating an app requires more than just solving a problem. User research, testing, and feedback were essential in refining features, ensuring every design decision addressed real user needs and behaviors.
Simplicity drives usability
A well-designed app isn’t defined by the number of features but by how seamlessly users can navigate and interact with it. I learned that prioritizing clarity, intuitive navigation, and clean interfaces prevents overwhelm and keeps users engaged.
Consistency builds trust
Consistency across design elements—colors, typography, interactions, and tone—creates a reliable and predictable experience. I realized that trust is built not just through functionality but through a cohesive design language that feels familiar and dependable.
