For: CoStar Group
Year: 2024
Tools: Figma (wireframing and design)
Figma files available upon request.
My Role
Principal UX, Principal UI, Illustration, Research
Contributors
Andre Williams - UX/UI
James Minior - Product Director
Rental Manager
Rental Manager is a suite of web applications that property managers or landlords can use to advertise vacancies, draft and sign digital leases, screen applicants, and manage online rent payments.
Challenges
Designed to be primarily a desktop application, Rental Manager has limited utility on mobile web. Although most activities on the app are well suited to desktop use, we’ve received many requests from our users for a more comprehensive user experience with a native app.
Why a Native App?
Often our users want to keep tabs on their properties while on the go or otherwise away from their computers. A mobile app would allow them to be more responsive to the challenges that can arise with property management.
Research
I ran a card sort survey to determine landlord preferences for what tasks they prefer to perform on mobile devices. Respondents were asked to ‘design’ a mobile app dashboard out of common tasks associated with rental management. Participants were sourced directly from our users on the site.
The top results were:
1. Outstanding payments
2. Maintenance requests
3. Time sensitive document signatures
4. Recent payment history
5. Leases that are about to expire
Architecture
The goal was to replicate most of the functions of the desktop app on the native app, but the architecture would prioritize the core functions identified in our testing and survey data by featuring them on the main dashboard.
UI Design
I wanted to create a clean, panel based interface with a consistent and clear header hierarchy and selective use of color and iconography. Inspiration was taken from banking and finance applications, as we’ve found that our users viewed their portfolio as investment opportunities.
These mocks were designed before the final proposed architecture was finalized.