Product
Mobile App
Client
Coralis
Coralis Resident Portal - Connecting Residents with Building Management
Project Name:
Coralis Resident Portal
My Role:
Product Designer. I was part of a small product team working on this app.
Tools:
Figma
Miro
Hotjar
Zoom
Project Duration:
4 Months
Project Description
This project involved designing a dedicated mobile application to provide residents with a simple, transparent, and efficient way to manage building-related finances, submit and track maintenance requests, and communicate directly with building management or contractors. It aimed to replace outdated manual methods and improve resident satisfaction.
The Challenge
Before the Coralis Resident Portal, residents often found it difficult to manage things related to their building and communicate effectively with management or contractors. The existing methods were inefficient and caused significant frustration:
Confusing Finances: Handling building payments often involved manual steps and receiving bills that were unclear. Residents struggled to easily track their payments or understand charges.
Difficult Reporting: Reporting problems, asking for repairs, or submitting complaints was done through scattered methods like phone calls and emails. Residents frequently had a hard time reaching the right person or department.
Poor Communication: There wasn't a clear or reliable way for residents to talk with building management, leading to slow responses and sometimes requests being missed or unresolved.
Lack of Transparency: Residents generally lacked a clear and easy-to-access view of building operations, their financial status, or the progress of their submitted requests.
These challenges created friction for residents and administrative burdens for management, highlighting a strong need for a streamlined, transparent, and accessible tool.
Goals
Our main goal was to design a simple, clear mobile app that gives residents an easy and transparent way to handle building-related matters and communicate directly with management, thereby improving their overall experience.
Specific Goals:
Simplify Money Management: Make it easy for residents to receive accurate bills, view their payment history, and understand their financial status related to their apartment.
Improve Reporting & Tracking: Create a simple and clear system for residents to submit maintenance issues or requests and track their status, history, and any related communications directly in the app.
Better Communication: Allow residents to quickly and directly communicate with building administration or the developer about specific issues or requests.
Increase Transparency: Give residents full and easy access to their financial records and a complete history of their requests and how they were handled, including their resolution.
Reduce Management Work: Provide self-service options in the app to decrease the volume of direct phone calls and emails received by building management.
Increase Resident Satisfaction: Improve the overall experience for residents by making interactions more convenient, transparent, and reliable, leading to higher satisfaction.
My Design Process
As a Product Designer on a small team, I spent five months designing the Coralis Resident Portal mobile app. My process focused on deeply understanding resident needs and creating a clear, intuitive mobile experience tailored for them.
a) Research:
My process began by gathering direct insights from the target users. I conducted surveys among residents and analyzed existing complaints and reported problems received by building management to understand the most common pain points residents faced with current processes.What I Learned: This research clearly showed the critical need for a more straightforward system for managing housing payments and a significantly better way to submit and track maintenance requests or inquiries about specific equipment.
b) Planning & Concepts:
Translating resident needs into design concepts, I defined the app's structure and key interactions. This involved creating user flow maps to visualize how residents would complete essential tasks like paying bills or submitting requests. I also sketched different layout ideas for app screens and organized how all the information (like bills, payments, and requests) would be structured within the app (Information Architecture).c) Design (Mobile) & Design System:
I designed the app specifically for the mobile platform. I started by creating basic layouts called wireframes to define the structure and core functionality of the app's main screens. I used these wireframes for discussion and obtaining feedback early in the process. I also created user scenarios to ensure the designs supported realistic user interactions. Simultaneously, I began building the Design System for the app, which provided a consistent set of UI components and guidelines. After wireframe reviews, I created the detailed visual designs (UI design).d) Collaboration:
I collaborated closely with project managers to ensure the designs aligned with the project's requirements and timeline. I also interacted with the development team to ensure the designs were feasible to build and to support them during implementation.e) Testing & Feedback:
To validate the designs, I presented interactive mockups or prototypes to a test group of potential users. I also gathered feedback directly from the client (Coralis). Based on the feedback received, I made necessary changes and additions to the designs, iteratively refining the application based on real-world input.
The Solution
The Coralis Resident Portal is a mobile application that provides residents with a convenient, transparent, and direct channel for managing their building-related needs and communications with building management.
Key features include:
Easy Finance Management: Residents can easily view their invoices, check their payment history, and even monitor the status of their apartment loan repayments directly within the app. This provides a clear, central overview of their financial obligations.
Simple Reporting & Tracking: The app offers a straightforward way for residents to submit requests (e.g., maintenance needs, complaints) electronically. Residents can easily track the status of their submitted items and view the full history and correspondence for each request, ensuring full accountability.
Clear Communication: Residents have clear ways to contact building administration or the developer. They can use an in-app messaging system related to a specific request or call administration, referencing a request number for quicker assistance.
Personal Dashboard: The app's main screen acts as a central dashboard showing important information at a glance, such as a summary of recent payments, messages from administration, and the latest shared documents.
Results & Impact
The introduction of the Coralis Resident Portal had a clear positive impact on the interaction between residents and building management, bringing clarity and efficiency.
Measurable Improvements (Trends):
We observed an improvement in the timely payment of bills due to the clearer information available in the app.
There was a noticeable decrease in direct phone calls and emails to management as residents used the app more for requests and information.
The streamlined process within the app helped contribute to faster resolution times for resident requests.
Positive Outcomes (Qualitative):
Residents provided positive feedback, often commenting on the app's ease of use, the transparency it offered, and getting faster responses to their issues.
The app significantly improved communication, reducing misunderstandings and making it easier for residents to clearly see the status of their requests and building information.
Goals Achieved: The application successfully met its goals by:
Making reporting and request submission much easier.
Creating better communication channels.
Providing increased transparency around financials and request status.
Ultimately leading to higher resident satisfaction
Learnings
Designing the Coralis Resident Portal provided valuable lessons, especially about user-focused design in the real estate sector and the importance of transparency.
Designing for End-Users (Consumers): This project offered significant experience in designing a product directly for everyday consumers (residents), which differs from designing for business users. It highlighted the need for extreme clarity, simple flows, and accessible language for a broad user base with varying technical skills.
Simplifying Complex Information: A key challenge was presenting complex information, such as financial statements and the status of maintenance requests, in a simple, understandable, and visually clear manner within a mobile interface. I learned effective techniques for structuring and visualizing this data for non-expert users.
The Critical Role of Transparency: The project strongly emphasized that for resident-facing tools, transparency is not just a feature, but a fundamental requirement. Designing clear views into financial history, request status, and communication logs was essential for building trust and reducing resident frustration.
Mobile-Only Design: Focusing solely on a mobile application honed my skills in designing specifically for the capabilities and limitations of the mobile form factor, including optimizing for touch interactions, smaller screens, and on-the-go usage patterns.