A self-initiated UX redesign of Germany's most popular apartment-hunting platform — improving search experience, visual hierarchy, and usability for a younger, design-aware audience.
WG-Gesucht is the go-to platform for finding shared apartments (WGs) in Germany — especially among students and young professionals. Despite its massive user base, the platform's interface hasn't meaningfully evolved in over a decade. The visual design feels dated, the search experience is cluttered, and the information hierarchy makes it hard to quickly evaluate listings.
As someone who actively used WG-Gesucht while relocating to Berlin, I experienced these frustrations firsthand, which made this the perfect candidate for a self-initiated redesign.
I conducted a heuristic evaluation of the existing site and gathered feedback from fellow international students and expats who regularly used the platform. Key pain points identified:
The redesign focused on three core improvements: a cleaner search UI with progressive disclosure of filters, a redesigned listing card that surfaces the most decision-critical information first, and a unified map+list view that works together seamlessly.
