BACK
YiRental
Redefine people's renting experience.
Mobile UX
0→1 Product
PropTech
User Research
Company
YiRental
Role
UX Designer
Timeline
2017
Product
YiRental
Executive Summary
Making the rental journey easier for an underserved community
Finding housing in the U.S. can be especially difficult for Chinese newcomers who are navigating unfamiliar rental practices, language barriers, and different expectations around housing.
At the same time, landlords looking to reach Chinese renters had limited ways to connect with this audience effectively.
I worked on YiRental, a mobile housing platform designed around these needs — combining rental listings, roommate matching, and community features into one experience.
Business challenge
A fragmented rental journey for both renters and landlords
The opportunity was not simply to create another property-listing app. The product needed to support multiple sides of the rental journey while addressing the specific needs of Chinese users living in the U.S.
Research & Discovery
Understanding both sides of the marketplace
I combined primary user research with competitive analysis to understand how renters and landlords were currently solving housing problems and where existing products fell short.
FINdings
What we learned
01
Renters needed more than property listings.
Finding a home also involved understanding the local market, finding compatible roommates, and building trust in unfamiliar surroundings.
02
The marketplace needed to work for both supply and demand.
Renters needed greater visibility for their housing needs, while landlords needed a better way to reach and evaluate potential tenants.
03
Roommate matching represented a distinct unmet need.
Users were actively interested in shared housing, but existing rental tools offered limited support for discovering compatible roommates.
04
Community could extend the product beyond a transaction.
Housing was closely connected to social integration, especially for newcomers, creating an opportunity to support local connections beyond the rental itself.
Design strategy
Designing the rental journey as one connected experience
Rather than treating search, roommate discovery, and community as separate products, the strategy focused on bringing them together around the broader experience of settling into a new city.
Solutions
Supporting the journey from finding a home to building a community
Solution 01 — Find the Right Home
Making housing discovery more visual and trustworthy
Users could browse available properties, filter listings based on their needs, and evaluate homes through photos and video tours.
Why this mattered
For users navigating an unfamiliar housing market, clearer property information reduced uncertainty and made it easier to compare options.
Solution 02 — List a Property
Making it easier for landlords to reach potential renters
The listing flow simplified the process of adding rental properties and making them discoverable to the YiRental community.
Why this mattered
A healthy marketplace depends on both sides. Reducing friction for landlords helped increase available inventory while giving renters more options.
Solution 03 — Find a Roommate
Turning roommate discovery into a dedicated experience
Users could browse potential roommates and send roommate requests directly through the platform.
Why this mattered
Shared housing was an important use case for younger renters, but traditional rental products treated roommate discovery as an afterthought.
Solution 04 — Stay Connected With the Community
Extending the experience beyond finding housing
Community features helped users discover local groups, connect with neighbours, and build relationships in their new environment.
Why this mattered
For newcomers, settling into a city involves more than signing a lease. Community features helped address the social side of relocation.
Impact
Growing from a focused community product into an active rental platform
YiRental grew from a focused housing solution for Chinese renters in the U.S. into an active marketplace that connected listings, new users, and daily engagement.
Reflection
Reflection
YiRental was one of the first projects that taught me to think beyond individual screens and consider the dynamics of an entire product ecosystem.
Designing for a two-sided marketplace meant balancing very different needs: renters wanted choice, trust, and visibility, while landlords needed reach and qualified demand. Roommate matching and community features added another layer by extending the experience beyond the housing transaction itself.
The project reinforced an idea that has continued to shape how I approach product design: the strongest solutions often come from understanding the broader journey around a user’s task — not just the task itself.
More
