Home away from home

The idea is that people that live in a Swapartment house can easily swap apartments with each other for shorter or longer periods. Focus is on the swappers feeling confident that privacy and security issues are handled by the Swapartment system and on the layout of the apartment.

The concept highlights the aspects we and our users consider important when swapping apartments.

The Swapartment Application

New residents are provided with a Swapartment profile where all the basic information is already filled in. Residents can use the system to search for available Swapartments that matches the specified criteria. The system provides the residents with simple solutions for locking private areas of their swapartments. Further, the system also provides the residents who are swapping with access needed at the destination Swapartment.

An organisation provides the system, sets the rules, and collaborates with construction companies when building the Swapartments. The landlords, together with the organisation, handle any problems that may occur, such as a potential evictions.

The Apartment

To provide incentives for easy swapping the apartments themselves are adapted towards this aim. Apartments are fitted with lockable storage throughout the living space which are used as ordinary storage but can be locked at the residents convenience deny guests access. All swapartments also provides an extra bed chamber with nearby storage space that can be used by the guest when visiting. The aim is to avoid much of the hassle of preparing the apartment for swapping, and to increase trust that personal belongings will be kept safe and out of reach.

Digital security

Security is the number one priority for making sure our users are confident and comfortable when they swap apartments. We have a set of security features that are available in all Swapartments.

Every apartment comes with a set of personal digital keys (either physical or through our app) that are connected to the system. When you visit another apartment, your key will unlock the door for the whole duration of your stay. When you prepare your apartment for a new guest to arrive, you decide what wardrobes, rooms and cupboards that the guest may open. The apartment locks and unlocks the desired zones when the guest enters the apartment.

Privacy matters

During this project, users were involved two times. The first time was in the beginning of the project, when the aim was to learn more about our classmates thoughts and opinions regarding swapping apartments, to see if our idea was worth investigating further. Since we wanted the answers to be of a more personal nature, we used interviews to gather information. The second time, a survey was conducted with the goal to investigate which places and physical things in an apartment that are more or less private. From this study, a lesson learned was that privacy matters a lot to our potential users.