RENTAL GUARD | CAPSTONE | SJSU
What if your browser could protect you from a bad rental deal?
Renters spend hours across multiple tabs, spreadsheets, and gut feelings still unsure if a listing is fair, real, or affordable. RentalGuard is a browser plugin that brings transparency directly into the search.
Role
Graduate Capstone Project
Role
UX Researcher & Designer
Scope
User Research
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Advisor
Daniel Rosenberg
Institution
San José State University
MS Human Factors / UX
PROBLEM SPACE
The rental market is designed to keep renters in the dark.
Base rent is just the beginning — utilities, parking, amenity fees, and concessions are rarely disclosed upfront. Renters are left comparing listings across fragmented platforms with no unified way to evaluate fairness, detect scams, or calculate what they'd actually pay each month.
RESEARCH
The rental market is designed to keep renters in the dark.
Semi-structured interviews and journey mapping sessions with 12 Bay Area renters (screened from 53 respondents) uncovered where the rental experience breaks down — and what renters are actually trying to do.
Key Insights
Hidden fees blindside people
Most participants discovered extra charges only at the leasing stage — long after they were emotionally invested in a unit.
Cross-platform searching is exhausting
Renters juggled multiple tabs and spreadsheets to manually track and compare the same listings across Zillow, Craigslist, and Facebook.
No benchmark for "fair"
Without market context, renters couldn't tell if $2,400/month was a deal or a ripoff for a given neighborhood and unit type.
Scam anxiety is real
Too-good-to-be-true listings created stress, but no platform gave renters tools to investigate or flag suspicious posts.
OPPORTUNITY
How might we surface the full picture before renters commit?
Rather than another listing platform, the opportunity was a browser-native layer — meeting renters where they already search, and enriching every listing with the context they're missing.
DESIGN
A plugin that lives inside the search — not outside it.
RentalGuard overlays directly on rental listing pages, adding trust signals, cost breakdowns, and market context without requiring renters to switch tools or copy data elsewhere.
Cost overlay
Total monthly cost including fees, utilities, and concessions — calculated on the listing itself.
Trust score
Cross-verified listing authenticity using a transparent, expandable scoring panel.
Market insights
Rent fairness benchmarks and negotiation tips based on neighborhood pricing trends.
USABILITY TESTING
91% average success rate across 7 tasks — with clear room to grow.
8 participants completed scenario-based sessions with a mid-fidelity Figma prototype, each tackling real renter tasks from saving listings to flagging scams.
KEY FINDINGS
91% average success rate across 7 tasks — with clear room to grow.
8 participants completed scenario-based sessions with a mid-fidelity Figma prototype, each tackling real renter tasks from saving listings to flagging scams.