COMIN
0 to 1. A neighborhood app for reaching people and building information without handing over a full identity.
AWARD
2025 Asian Vanguard Art & Design Award_ Bronze Award
ROLE
Designer & PM
MY CONTRIBUTE
User research & Userflow & Low-Fi & Hi-Fi
01/ Background
People who just moved into a building want to find neighbors — to socialize, to ask for a small favor, not to stay invisible. Neighborhood products start from that warm brief. In houses those asks already sit on a thicker relationship. In apartments they do not. You share a hallway with hundreds of strangers. Help is occasional. Becoming the neighbor who knows your life is not assumed.
What the apartment already withholds
SPARE KEYS
41%
Apartment residents
who would leave a spare key with a neighbor, versus 63% in houses. Survey Center on American Life.
PET HELP
39%
Apartment residents
comfortable asking a neighbor to watch a pet, versus 55% in houses. Same source.
NOTICE REACH
~1/3
Typical open rate for property email.
Door notices are read by only 22–44% within 48 hours.
So the product cannot assume friendship first.
02/ Goals
What has to be solved?
USER NEEDS
Get connected to people in the apartment with proper social distance
Get occasional help before friendship
Receive building information without mixing it into neighbor chat
PRODUCT GOALS
Enable contact without unlocking a full profile
Keep neighbor talk, anonymous reports, and official notices as three distinct voices
03/ Research
Shaping a 0-to-1 product depends on how information is collected, then cut. Interviews and competitive analysis diverged. An affinity wall, personas, How Might We questions, and storyboards converged — far enough to start wireframes. We ran thorough research to get there. The work is collected below.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
INTERVIEW
PERSONA
STORYBOARDS
AFFINITY WALL
04/ Info Archotecture
Through the info we gathered in the discorvery process, we started brainstorm. Ideas and notes are gathered, categorized. Problems are summarized and developed into solutions. And solutions are converted to the potential features. With the features we want to propose, userflow is created.
KEY FEATURE 1
Connect Neighbors
KEY FEATURE 2
Direct Message
KEY FEATURE 3
Information Share Hub
With the features we want to propose, userflow and wireframes are created.
05/ Design Challenge 1
HMW: let a neighbor be reached before friendship, without handing over a full, private profile?
NOte
We try to keep user's info private from landing, to messages, and editable profiles.
Literation 1
You can find your neighbors, while all private info are exposed, no privacy.
Literation 2
When you don't know your neighbor, you can just temp DM them, and the info are blurred. While when you pass their request of adding a friend, you can connect and normally chat with your neighbors. While how user differentiate CHAT interface and TEMP DM interface?
FINAL DESIGN
CHAT and TEMP DM are different entrance and interface now. The blurred card and Temp DM share one screen: Add friend is the only unlock, one message before they reply, then it becomes a normal chat. Contact happens, friendship stays a separate mark, the person stays closed.
SOMEBREAK DOWNS
From landing, profile can be set with privacy.
Public card is nickname and a slogan. Age, unit, work, and socials stay optional — each field can be skipped.
The hero banner has been shortened to accommodate neighboring cards. The online status is enabled in case users need immediate assistance. The UI has been revised to be simpler and easier to read.
take a look at the prototype
06/ Design Challenge 2
HMW: let messages from different sources all reach residents, and still keep privacy where it is needed?
Literation 1
To protect privacy, we put sources into filter channels — General and other categories — and added an Anonymous board so a complaint did not need a name. While the dropdown sat on top of the feed and buried those channels, and management still lived in the same Home, so a management notification read like another post.
Literation 2
The info hub stayed named for events and tips; Anonymous became its own feed with no name or avatar; management became an inbox you archive.
FINAL DESIGN
The info hub opens a comment panel so a tailgate can travel as talk. Anonymous stays nameless, while a blurred avatar and a reaction are added to indicate it's from a user. Management stays mail. Every source arrives. Privacy stays on the source that needs it.
SOMEBREAK DOWNS
The comments section has gone through several iterations, including denser information layout, smaller gaps, stronger contrast between main comments and sub-replies, and a shift from a card-based UI to a non-card design for better clarity, etc.
Info hub is revised to emphasize the pictures in the posts, to capture user's attention. Comments, Likes, Reports are added to make sure the proper interactions btw neighbors.
take a look at the prototype