Relo Relocation Concierge — full case study

Designed a concept app that manages end-to-end relocation in one place, pairing a dashboard that consolidates every service with REBOT, an AI chatbot concierge.

Client: Relo

Category: Concept

Designed a concept app that manages end-to-end relocation in one place, pairing a dashboard that consolidates every service with REBOT, an AI chatbot concierge.

Metric: REBOT, an AI concierge

Role: UX and UI Designer

Duration: Concept project

Solo concept project

No competitor in the UK or the US offered an iOS or Android app comprehensive enough to cover real relocation needs. Relo's opportunity: one place to manage almost every relocation service, for individuals and corporates.

Relocating, especially internationally, means juggling immigration support, home search, packing and moving, settling in and childcare across many providers, and it gets far harder with family and kids.

  • A concept project covering services from immigration support to finding a childminder.
  • A dashboard consolidates every service: log requests, track and manage them on the phone.
  • Notifications cover status changes and upcoming activities.
  • Market research pointed at AI and bots, which became the foundation of REBOT.

Researched mobility and relocation industry trends, scanned competitors in the UK and the US, and interviewed people who had relocated domestically and internationally about how they coordinated their moves.

  • Relocating is far tougher with family and kids in tow.
  • Finding good schools needs local help you cannot get from outside the country.
  • A missed visa rule change delayed one family's travel by a month.
  • Proof of address needs arranging early, because schools, banks and doctors all ask for it.

Crazy 8 sketching opened the ideation, and its microframes fed the sitemap and a user flow built around Julia, the persona: a teacher whose move to Qatar was delayed a month by a missed visa rule change. Paper wireframes were digitised in Sketch.

A dashboard consolidating every relocation service, REBOT, an AI chatbot concierge handling everything from quotations and onboarding to reminders and troubleshooting, and timely notifications, in a white and blue palette with colourful icons.

  • An interactive InVision prototype tested with users.
  • Two affinity maps clustering the pains, gains and common suggestions from testing.
  • Prioritised design changes folded back into the designs.
  • Six hi-fi screens covering the core journey.
  • The concept shows end-to-end relocation managed in a single app.
  • REBOT demonstrates how an AI concierge can scale the service without losing the personal touch.

Designing a chatbot for Relo was a real learning experience: it taught me the basics of designing a good conversational interface, alongside the value of timely notifications and a single consolidated dashboard.

Backed by a more powerful AI, REBOT could go well beyond notifications into answering questions and solving user problems, which is where I would take it next.

Overview

Category: Concept

Discipline: Mobile app design

Relo is a concept app providing relocation services to individuals and corporates: immigration support, home search, packing and moving, settling in, even finding childcare, all managed from a single place. A dashboard consolidates every service so users can log requests, track and manage them on their phones, and get notified of status changes and upcoming activities.

An easy-to-use mobile app to manage end-to-end relocation services.

Target Users: People relocating domestically and internationally.

Role: UX and UI Designer

Tools: Pen and paper, Sketch, InVision

Empathise

  • Market research
  • Competitive analysis
  • User interviews
  • Contextual enquiries

Define

  • Personas
  • Empathy maps
  • Problem statements

Ideate

  • Ideation
  • Sitemap
  • User flows
  • Wireframes

Prototype

  • Lo-fi prototypes
  • Hi-fi prototypes

Test

  • Usability testing
  • Affinity maps

Process, phase by phase

Empathise

Market Research

I researched trends in the mobility and relocation industry, then studied competitors in the UK and the US. None offered an iOS or Android app comprehensive enough to cover real relocation needs. The research also showed AI and chatbots reaching every industry, and mobility was no exception. That insight became the foundation of REBOT, the chatbot at the heart of the Relo app, helping users with everything from quotations and onboarding to reminders, notifications and troubleshooting.

  • Relo market research and competitive analysis

User Interviews

I interviewed people who had relocated domestically and internationally, to learn why they moved and how they coordinated the many activities and people involved. Seven findings stood out: relocating is far tougher with family and kids; finding good schools needs local help you cannot get from outside the country; a missed visa rule change delayed one family's travel by a month; people want homes near hospitals and schools; they want housing and schooling sorted before they land; area orientation and local language training are a must; and proof of address needs arranging early, because schools, banks and doctors all ask for it.

User Persona

The persona focused on Julia, a teacher who moved to Qatar two years ago. Her family's relocation was difficult: they missed a change in visa rules, which delayed their travel by a month, and they had to coordinate schools, housing and paperwork from another country.

  • Relo user persona: Julia, relocating with her family

Empathy Map

The empathy map explored Julia's motivations and frustrations: the anxiety of deadlines she could not control, the strain of chasing several providers for updates, and the relief she wanted from having everything managed in one place.

  • Relo empathy map

Define

Problem Statements

Synthesising the observations from the Empathise phase, I wrote meaningful and actionable problem statements to kick the ideation off in the right direction.

  • Relo problem statements

Ideate

Crazy 8 Ideation

The Ideate phase began with Crazy 8, a core design sprint method: sketch eight ideas in eight minutes to generate a wide variety of solutions to the challenge.

  • Relo Crazy 8 ideation sketches

Sitemap

All the research came together in a sitemap, the foundation for how users would experience the app's features, with a dashboard consolidating every relocation service in one place.

  • Relo sitemap

User Flow

I mapped a simple user flow helping Julia get notified of changes in visa rules. The flow used microframes taken from the Crazy 8 exercise, which made the subsequent design steps much easier.

  • Relo user flow: visa rule change notifications

Prototype

Lo-fi Wireframes

The microframes, sitemap and user flow fed into simple paper wireframes, which I then digitised in Sketch.

  • Relo wireframe: dashboard
  • Relo wireframe: services
  • Relo wireframe: request tracking
  • Relo wireframe: notifications
  • Relo wireframe: REBOT chat
  • Relo wireframe: profile

Hi-fi Designs

Relo needed a simple yet modern and fresh look, so I chose a white and blue colour palette with colourful icons on the homepage and developed the hi-fi designs from it.

  • Relo hi-fi: home dashboard
  • Relo hi-fi: services
  • Relo hi-fi: request tracking
  • Relo hi-fi: notifications
  • Relo hi-fi: REBOT chat
  • Relo hi-fi: profile

Test

Usability Testing

I used the user flow to build an interactive prototype, then ran a usability test and observed users working through it.

Affinity Maps

The observations from testing fed two affinity maps highlighting the pains, gains and suggestions users had in common. I prioritised the design changes and folded them back into the designs.

  • Relo affinity map: pains and gains
  • Relo affinity map: common suggestions

Reflection

I thoroughly enjoyed designing this product. Designing a chatbot for Relo was a real learning experience, and it taught me the basics of designing a good conversational interface. I focused on a simple but important pair of features, timely notifications and effective communication, alongside a dashboard that gives users a single place to manage their relocation. Backed by a powerful AI, a bot like REBOT can go much further in answering questions and solving user problems.