My Role

Lead Researcher

UX Designer

Timeline

2.5 Weeks

  • project plan

  • A testing plan

  • A component library built

  • A functioning clickable prototype

Deliverables

The Team

Gabriela Chan, Project Manager & UX Designer

Pooja Kumar, Lead Designer

Ayana Walker, Lead Researcher & UX Designer

Homenow

Homenow is a website application that assist homeowners with maintenance issues as well as keep them connected to their tenants and vendors.

The Problem

Inefficiencies in the communication flow between vendors, tenants, and homeowners often lead to unresolved issues and weakened relationships, hindering effective problem resolution.

Research

User Interviews

As a team we conducted 10 interviews consisting of home ownwers/property managers and tenants. Through interviews, we found similarities in needs between owners and renters. Both groups prioritized:

  • Effective communication

  • Timeliness in addressing maintenance issues

“Communication is the biggest source of friction when requesting maintenance”

User 1

“I receive urgent service requests through text or call depending”

User 2

“I would like a ping (maybe text?) that gives me the level of urgency”

User 3

Key Findings

Secondary Research

The majority of property owners in the 1-4 unit category are individuals, with significant contributions from businesses and other entities. This trend suggests a largely fragmented ownership structure, where small-scale investors dominate the market.

  • 14.1 million individual investors own 1-4 units.

  • 3.4 million businesses own 1-4 units.

  • 1.2 million "other" owners (e.g., organizations, institutions) own 1-4 units.

Demographics: Majority of renters are in the lowest income quartile, while homeowners predominantly belong to the highest income quartile.

Market Insights: There are always renters in the market, with 14.1 million individual investors owning 1-4 units, 130,000 owning 5-24 units, and 160,000 owning 25 or more properties.

Competitor Analysis: We analyzed 8 competitors, noting the features they offered and their associated costs. A common trend observed was that smaller portfolios often faced high costs and limited access to features.

Card Sorting

We conducted a closed card sort with 4 participants using 30 cards to categorize features and ensure intuitive navigation.

Competitive Anlysis

As part of our competitive analysis, we examined 7 key players in the property management software market: Airbnb, Buildium, Cozy, AppFolio, TenantCloud, Innago, and Rentec Direct. Our goal was to understand how each platform supports property owners, particularly those managing smaller portfolios.

Key Observations:

  • Higher Costs for Smaller Portfolios: Across these competitors, owners with smaller property portfolios (1-4 units) are typically charged higher fees for basic services.

  • Limited Feature Access: These smaller portfolio owners often have restricted access to premium tools such as advanced reporting, automation, and multi-channel support.

Insight:

  • This analysis reveals an opportunity for Homenow to differentiate itself by offering more affordable, feature-rich options for users with smaller portfolios. By addressing this gap, we can attract a broader range of users.


  • Designing a flexible, user-friendly platform that ensures small-scale property owners have access to essential tools, without the burden of high costs or restrictive pricing tiers, could set Homenow apart from competitors.

Problem Statement

Small-scale homeowners face challenges in finding affordable and comprehensive property management systems that facilitate communication with tenants and vendors. Existing tools are often expensive and limit access to essential features.

Goal

Homenow aims to provide an affordable and comprehensive property management solution for small-scale homeowners who manage 1-4 rental properties. The platform focuses on facilitating communication between homeowners, tenants, and vendors, ensuring maintenance issues are addressed efficiently.

Design Process

Key Features Development

Based on our research, we identified the following key features to enhance the user experience:

  • Maintenance Request Forms: Simple forms for tenants to report issues.

  • Maintenance Scheduling System: A streamlined process for scheduling repairs.

  • Chat System: Direct communication channels between vendors and tenants.

  • Priority Sorting for Maintenance Tickets: Allowing users to sort issues based on urgency.

  • Ticket Assignment: Enabling homeowners to assign tasks to specific vendors.

  • Vendor List: A curated list of preferred vendors with contact information.

User Flow

Sketches

  • Ticket Overview

  • Sorting and filtering tickets

  • Vendor overview for assigning tickets

  • Chat system

Prototyping

Developed a mid-fidelity prototype incorporating the identified features.

Usability Testing

We performed usability testing on the mid-fidelity prototype, gathering feedback to identify areas for improvement. We found that users like being able to acces pages through shortcuts, we needed to add a back button and not rely on icons for navigation, and that users want to contact tenants from the ticket view page.

Results

Key Outcomes

  • Enhanced communication and prioritization of maintenance tasks among users.

  • Improved user satisfaction with a more accessible management tool tailored for small-scale homeowners.

Take a sneak peek at

Homenow :where homeowners' needs meet sleek design!

Future Improvements

High Fidelity Prototype


  • Conduct additional user testing on high fidelity with 5 property owners

  • Explore flow of chat system between vendors and tenants

  • Build out freemium plan

  • Consider having vendors pay to be on the platform so that they are recommended and have access to small homeowners

Explore Revenue

Streams

Consider integrating more features from HomeNow

  • include E-inspections feature

  • Explore feature that files and stores forms and important documents

Lessons Learned

This project highlighted the importance of user-centered design, particularly in understanding the unique challenges faced by small-scale homeowners. Collaboration has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my design journey. While differing opinions and ideas sometimes led to challenges in finding a unified design direction, our ability to communicate effectively allowed us to find solutions and move forward. Being part of an all-female team was an empowering experience, and it reinforced how vital clear communication is in achieving project goals. I learned to take full advantage of team stand-ups, ask questions to clarify the plan, and ensure that the user’s needs were always at the forefront of our decision-making process.

Thank you for taking the time to read my case study on the homeowners app Homenow!

Thank you for reading!