ESCP Housing Web Platform
Connecting students to homes across borders.
MY CONTRIBUTION
Creating flows and wireframe concepts to quickly test ideas in the early phase of the project
Designing high-fidelity product interfaces and prototypes
Maintaining, customizing and expanding Bootstrap design system for faster progress with design
Presenting and demonstrating design work to the CEO and other stakeholders
Helping developers implement the design into the product and making final design adjustments before development, if necessary
Checking the quality of deployed product to make sure it's implemented according to the plan
TECHNOLOGY STACK
Sketch
ChatGPT
Jira
Notion
THE CHALLENGE
The ESCP Housing Web Platform represents a comprehensive digital solution for student accommodation management within the ESCP Business School ecosystem.
The main goal of the ESCP Housing Web Platform is to simplify and enhance the student accommodation experience within the ESCP Business School ecosystem. Also to empower ESCP students with a seamless digital housing experience that combines clarity, usability, and trust in one unified platform.
UNDERSTANDING USERS
The research phase focused on understanding the needs and priorities of ESCP students when searching for accommodation. Through user interviews and informal discussions, I aimed to uncover what factors students consider most important in their housing experience and how digital tools could better support their search and booking process.
Therefore, one of the key design goals became ensuring that students could easily find, compare, and book housing in just a few steps.
Another major finding was the importance of trust and transparency. Students wanted to feel confident about what they were booking—especially when moving to a new city. To support this, the platform design emphasizes high-quality, verified photos and a map that remains visible throughout the browsing experience.
Finally, navigation was a recurring theme: students wanted a clean, intuitive interface that allowed them to move seamlessly between listings, maps, and booking details without feeling lost.
FOUNDATION
The design system for the ESCP Housing Platform was built using the Bootstrap library, which provided a flexible and consistent foundation for the interface. Bootstrap’s responsive grid system and extensive set of pre-built components allowed for rapid prototyping and ensured that all interface elements—from buttons and modals to navigation bars and forms—maintained visual and functional consistency across devices.
BRINGING IDEAS TO LIFE
The homepage was designed with a clear focus on helping students start their housing search immediately. The central element of the page is a prominent search field, allowing users to quickly select the city where they are looking for accommodation. This direct entry point minimizes friction and leads students straight into a more detailed search view with additional filters to refine their results.
In addition to the main search function, the homepage also provides quick access to all listed cities, enabling users to browse available accommodations by location. This layout ensures that students can either begin with a targeted search or explore options at a glance, depending on their preference.
The booking feature was designed to be simple, trustworthy, and transparent, ensuring that students feel confident throughout the entire process. Once a student finds their desired flat, they can easily start the booking process by clicking the “Reserve” button.
This action leads directly to a secure Stripe payment flow, providing a familiar and reliable checkout experience. After a successful payment, users receive an automatic confirmation email containing all booking details, including property information and payment confirmation.
Additionally, the platform displays a confirmation message directly on the website, along with access to a personal booking dashboard. From there, students can view both their active reservations and past bookings, helping them keep track of their housing history in one place.
The focus of this feature was to make the booking journey fast, secure, and reassuring, minimizing uncertainty while providing students with a clear sense of control and confidence.
Through research, we identified that students usually focus on just a few key criteria when searching for housing—such as price range and apartment size.
Based on these insights, the filter interface was kept intentionally light and intuitive. As users apply filters, all available flats are displayed both in a list view and on an interactive map, allowing them to see the exact locations instantly.
This combination of filters and real-time map integration helps students visually understand where each accommodation is located, making the search process faster, clearer, and more engaging.
LOOKING BACK
It's advisable to work hand-in-hand with developers to speed up development
We learned to get feedback as early as possible to remove uncertainties and ambiguities
This project helped me grow not only design skills but also systems thinking
The importance of documenting design decisions (in Confluence/Notion) so all team members understand the why
UP NEXT
Explore my next case study on an universal software solution for efficiently managing limousine businesses
