Happy Home
A shared-living management app that helps bachelor roommates manage expenses, settlements, and household harmony — without awkward conversations.
Role
UX Lead · Product Designer
Platform
Android Mobile App
Stack
React Native · NestJS · PostgreSQL
Output
Functional APK Prototype
Shared homes run on trust. Trust breaks when clarity is missing.
Bachelors in shared homes manage everything through WhatsApp messages, screenshots, and verbal agreements. One person tracks rent. Someone else buys groceries. Someone forgets to pay back. A roommate goes home for a month. Another moves out.
The problem isn't calculation. It's emotional. People avoid asking for money because they don't want conflict. Chore reminders feel personal. Responsibility quietly falls on one person — until it doesn't.
Money conversations become awkward
Direct reminders can feel uncomfortable or trigger ego clashes.
One person carries everything
The responsible roommate handles rent, bills, groceries, and landlord calls — silently.
Absence breaks the system
When someone is away, their chores and responsibilities fall through with no handover.
Move-outs get messy
Deposits, shared assets, pending dues — all unclear when someone leaves.
How Might We
How might we help bachelors manage shared homes peacefully — making expenses, responsibilities, settlements, and member changes transparent, fair, and low-friction?
Designing for real roommate dynamics.
Shared living isn't a single-user experience. Every action affects the entire home.
Persona
Kishore, 24
New to city
The Real Problem
Doesn't know roommates. Needs transparency on deposits, rules, and costs before trusting the group.
UX Opportunity
Onboarding, invite flow, home context, member visibility so new roommates feel safe and informed.
The design decisions that matter.
Home-first architecture
The app is built around the shared home as the core entity — not individual transactions. Home → Members → Expenses → Settlements.
Reduce conflict, not just track data
Every feature must reduce friction and awkwardness — not just record what happened.
Friendly money language
Never "You owe ₹500". Always "Can settle ₹500 when convenient." Language protects relationships.
Flexible real-life splits
Equal, selected members, custom amount, custom %, personal, deposit-based. Because real expenses are never one-size-fits-all.
Continuity during change
When someone goes away, moves out, or joins — the home continues without breaking.
Gamify harmony, not competition
Harmony Score and badges encourage shared responsibility. Not pressure, not public shaming.
Three flows that solve the hardest problems.
Flow 1
Add & Split an Expense
One roommate pays ₹1,000 for groceries. Adds the expense, selects who to split with, picks a split type. Balances update instantly — no manual math, no WhatsApp messages.
Flow 2
Friendly Settlement
Kishore sees he can settle ₹250 with Raju. Creates a settlement. Raju confirms. Balance clears. No awkward direct message, no ego involved — just a calm mutual confirmation.
Flow 3
Out-of-Home Mode
Gautam goes home for a month. Enables Away mode. Chores transfer to available members. No new tasks assigned. When he returns, he rejoins the normal rotation.
Clarity, calmness, and trust in every screen.
High-fidelity UI screens designed with clarity and trust in mind. The UX intent behind each flow is carefully mapped out.
My Homes
Harmony Score + home cards
Home Detail
Members, balances, quick actions
Add Expense
Flexible split types
Balances
Who can settle with whom
Settlement
Mutual confirm flow
Harmony Score
Gamified household health
The language that removes the awkward.
In a shared-home app, every word is a UX decision. The wrong word creates tension. The right word maintains trust.
Kishore owes ₹300
Kishore can settle ₹300 when convenient
Payment overdue
Small reminder: this settlement is still open
You have debt pending
Your home expenses are almost balanced
Task overdue
Small reminder: this task is still open
Harmony Score — not a leaderboard.
A score between 0–100 based on settled expenses, completed chores, and active members. The goal is to make shared responsibility feel rewarding — not competitive or guilt-inducing.
- Bills settled on time
- Low pending balances
- Chores completed
- No overdue tasks
Happy Home
Everything looks peaceful today.
What this project proves.
Happy Home is a full product story — from real-world problem discovery to architecture, UX flows, functional APK, and future vision. It shows how UX leadership turns everyday friction into a calmer, fairer system.
- Defined a real product problem from lived experience
- Designed home-first UX architecture from scratch
- Built flexible expense and settlement flows
- Introduced friendly money microcopy as a core UX layer
- Validated multi-user flows via functional APK
What I learned
Emotional context shapes product decisions
Expense splitting isn't a math problem. It's a relationship problem. UX must protect both.
Multi-user flows expose real complexity
Building the APK revealed edge cases no static mockup would ever catch.
The right core entity unlocks everything
Making "Home" the centre — not the user — created a scalable foundation for every future module.
UX Lead Case Study
Built from real life, not assumptions.
Product strategy, emotional UX, multi-user flows, friendly microcopy, and a functional APK — all from one real problem in shared living.