YAY!borhood
Rachana Gone
YAY!borhood
Capstone Project • Product Designer
Designing a community-driven app to help newcomers build authentic connections, discover local experiences, and feel at home in a new city.
Quick summary
Personalized paths to community and connection
Moving to a new city is exciting—but often overwhelming. Many newcomers struggle with loneliness, fragmented information, and the uncertainty of where to begin building a community.
Existing platforms like Meetup, Facebook groups, and Bumble BFF can feel impersonal, chaotic, or too transactional, leaving movers without meaningful connections.
So we designed Yayborhood.
Yayborhood is a community-driven app that helps newcomers feel at home through personalized onboarding, layered group chats, curated event feeds, and local tips, all designed to turn moving into belonging.
Impact
3x
faster social integration through layered group chats and curated events that helped newcomers connect within weeks instead of months.
72%
reduction in isolation during the first year of moving through structured, low-pressure interactions.
40%
higher engagement compared to existing tools when events were introduced within group chats.
the problem
So, where did we start?
Relocating to a new city brings both excitement and uncertainty.
Our formative research showed that 72% of movers experience loneliness in the first year. Existing platforms like Meetup or Facebook groups often felt impersonal, overwhelming, or too transactional.
We wanted to explore how design could create a structured yet low-pressure pathway to belonging for people navigating this transition.
What did we observe?
From 30 survey responses, 4 in-depth interviews, and card sorting workshops, we uncovered key patterns:
Isolation & anxiety | Fragmented information overload | Preference for small groups | Emotional resonance matters |
|---|---|---|---|
Movers often felt disconnected, even after attending events. | Too many scattered forums and groups with little trustworthiness. | Users favored interest-based, curated gatherings over large mixers. | Tone, affirmations, and welcoming visuals built more trust than just functional features |
Problem Statement
How might we create a community-driven, emotionally intelligent platform that helps newcomers form authentic connections and feel welcomed in a new city?
Design process
What did we do?
Discovery
Conducted surveys, interviews, and affinity mapping to understand movers’ pain points around housing, transit, and belonging.
Design
Built personas, empathy maps, and group structures. Designed onboarding flows, event feeds, and feedback systems in Figma.
Iteration
Adjusted onboarding tone, simplified features, and added nudges to increase participation.
Definition
Refined scope to prioritize social belonging over logistical support like housing.
Testing
Ran scenario-based demo scripts to validate how users felt during onboarding, group chats, and event discovery.
Testing revealed that newcomers want simple, authentic ways to connect. Features like event highlights worked, but complex onboarding and forced social tools fell flat.
The takeaway – focus on intuitive experiences that build trust, foster real connections, and remove friction.
What didn't work?
Housing Focus Early prototypes included transit + housing features, but users valued social connection more. Feature Overload Initial designs tried to solve too many problems at once, creating complexity. Shallow feedback loops We lacked enough mechanisms to capture how users felt after events, limiting insights for improvement.
final dESIGN
What DID work?
Making moving feel less lonely.
Yayborhood helps newcomers build authentic connections through layered group chats, curated event feeds, and community-driven tips, turning moving into belonging.
Onboarding
An affirming, personalized setup flow that captures mood, social preferences, and support style—setting the tone for a welcoming start.
Homepage
A personalized dashboard showing group updates, event highlights, and quick actions to stay connected.
Recommendations
Curated event and activity suggestions tailored to each user’s preferences, schedule, and location. Shows who else from their groups is attending, lowering the barrier to participation.
Profile
A personal hub where users track their activity, badges, and contributions. The profile also features a leaderboard, adding a light gamified layer that recognizes participation and encourages ongoing engagement within the community.
Reflection
What did I learn?
Designing for emotions matters Tone, affirmations, and visual language were just as impactful as features, users trusted the app more when it felt warm and supportive. Start small to build confidence Layered groups and curated chats reduced anxiety, showing that gradual social exposure works better than dropping users into large events. Feedback is a loop, not a one-off We needed deeper ways to capture how users felt after events, proving that continuous input drives both community trust and product growth. Branding and voice are part of usability Testing emotional resonance early (colors, copy, onboarding tone) is critical to designing an experience that feels safe and welcoming.
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Posted Apr 7, 2026
Designed a community-driven app for newcomers to build connections and discover local experiences.
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