Liv2202 Capstone Project

Process Book

To review the entire design process and artifacts from this project, check out the process book by clicking the image below:

Team

• Jerime Bernhardt, Visual & UX Design

• Denise Borges, UX & Interaction Design

• Allison Chambliss, User Research

• India Irish, User Research

Introduction

Our capstone project focuses on providing the residents of luxury apartment buildings with a unique digital experience that matches the quality of the physical space. We partnered with Clise Properties, Inc. to explore this area and potentially provide the residents of their building on 2202 8th Avenue with this technology.

Problem Space

One of our group members was the Lead Architectural Designer for the 2202 8th Avenue site. He knew that the owners of this property, Clise Properties, Inc. were interested in offering their residents a unique and innovative living experience. We met with Clise Properties, Inc. and they agreed to be our sponsor for this project. We had to work with the constraints of the current building plans and therefore focused on software rather than hardware.

After conducting interviews with current residents of luxury apartments, we found that the current resident portals were poorly designed. They frequently offered a lot of tools that were unknown or of little use to residents. Residents used these portals only for basic tasks such as paying rent, and even these basic experiences could have been improved. To meet the needs of our users and the desires of our clients, we decided to create a resident portal that would allow residents to easily complete essential tasks while also providing them with better knowledge and access to the amenities available in their building and an opportunity to connect with other residents.

Design Question

“How can we empower residents of luxury apartment buildings to better utilize the amenities available and improve their communication with management and other residents?”

Our Solution

Liv2202 is a building integrated system for residents of the currently under construction 2202 8th Avenue high rise residential building in downtown Seattle. It is a responsive design meant to be usable on desktop, tablet or mobile devices.

The system is focused on empowering the residents of 2202 to get the most out of their building. The project is broken down into three main sections of interest informed by our previous research.

1. The MY ACCOUNT section offers the resident the opportunity to manage all of their bills, interact with the building management team, and manage their guests. The information shared by the resident in their account setup is used to personalize the information shown to them in the other two sections.

2. The MY COMMUNITY section offers the resident a place to share interests, find and post events and share products and services to like-minded residents.

3. The MY AMENITIES section contains all of the pertinent information for the array of building amenities. The resident can reserve spaces, find out detailed information and see how busy the spaces are in real time.

Our Findings

Finding 1: Recreational amenities such as the gym, pools, and dog parks are a draw for new residents.

Finding 2: Current resident portals have essential but basic functionality.

Finding 3: Messaging boards for residents are frequently used for complaints and rarely used for making connections between neighbors.

Finding 4: Most residents prefer a quieter living environment in luxury high rise buildings.

Finding 5: Residents are more likely to socialize and create relationships with their neighbors if they find out that they have something in common, such as owning a dog.

Finding 6: Residents appreciate when management is accessible.

Finding 7: Residents respond positively to respectful, sincere leasing agents.

Finding 8: Residents use rooftop gardens to host guests and socialize with their neighbors.

Finding 9: Residents would like the convenience of communicating with management via a mobile app, but would need to be notified if it is available.

Survey

We created a survey to determine which of our findings from our user interviews apply to a wider audience. Our user profile, developed by information gathered from our client, is an individual at a specific income level, who lives in a luxury apartment building in an urban area. We were interested in residents of all ages.

Collection Methods

We used two methods to collect responses for our survey:

• The first method was to post the survey link on websites such as Facebook, Craigslist, and Reddit with a description of the survey. This survey contained 4 screener questions that disqualified users who did not fit our profile.

• The second method was to pay SurveyMonkey to collect responses for us from individuals who rent the place where they live and have a salary of $75,000 or more. (We wanted as much participation as possible and the salary range in survey monkey jumps drastically in the interval level above 75-200K)

The first collection method resulted in 11 complete surveys from younger respondents (21 - 49). The second collection method resulted in 36 complete surveys from older respondents (82% over 45).

Survey Results

1. Most residents know less than 8 people in their building. Survey A: 100% Survey B: 75%

2. Most residents rarely or do not go to building-hosted events. Survey A: 64% Survey B: 36%; 56% of respondents live in buildings that do not host events

3. Many residents would like to attend interest-centric events in their building. Survey A: 82% Survey B: 78%

4. Many residents rated their building’s sense of community as slightly strong or not at all strong. Survey A: 72% Survey B: 44%

5. Most residents use their online portals for paying bills and submitting maintenance requests. Survey A: 64% for both Survey B: 25% paying bills; 22% submitting maintenance

Analysis

Our surveys supported several findings from our interviews. From our survey and interviews, we determined that most residents of luxury apartment buildings do not know many people in their building and do not feel a strong sense of community. This was less true in our second survey, so it may apply less to older residents. We also validated our hypothesis that interest-centric events would be a good option to promote interactions between residents. Further studies would be needed to determine if residents would consistently attend these events and if it would provide a greater sense of community in the building.

We also determined that if residents have access to an online portal, they mostly use it for essential functions and do not frequently use the social features in place of their normal social media applications (Facebook, Twitter etc.). As residents rarely communicate with other residents using their building’s online portal and also make more meaningful connections through in-person interactions, our focus will be to promote in-person interactions between residents with common interests.

Personas

We developed personas based on the research we gathered. These personas represented the users we were designing for and helped provide our client with context of the design problem.

Matt

Our primary persona, Matt, represented wealthy, young, professional residents who want to live close to work and spend their free time on their hobbies rather than running errands or sitting in traffic. Matt is kept busy with his work and in order to spend his weekends hiking he orders everything online. Living close to work allows him to walk his dog at lunch.

Annie

Our secondary persona, Annie, represented wealthy empty-nesters who like having a place in the city. Annie and her husband Steve frequently travel and love to spend their time sailing around the Puget Sound area. When they are home, they like to entertain and have friends over to their luxury apartment for activities like wine tastings or dinner parties.

User Stories

High Level Goals

Based on the user interviews, our findings, the competitive analysis, and survey results, our users will expect the solution to have the following base level functionality:

• Pay bills

• Receive alerts

• Submit maintenance request

• Communicate with management

• Display availability of amenities

The value of community was a qualitative theme noted throughout our interviews. We also discovered that 80% of our survey respondents (n = 60) said they had little to no community within their buildings. We propose the following additional functionality for our final product:

• Share information with other residents

• Report issues within the community

• Connect with residents based on similar interests

User Stories

1. As a resident, I want know more about the amenities within my building so that I can fully take advantage of them.

2. As a resident, I want to meet people I have similar interests with within my building so that I have friends nearby.

3. As a resident, I want to be able to quickly manage my bills in one place so that I can concentrate on other things.

4. As a resident, I want to have good communication with my building’s management so that I can be assured that I will have help when I need it.

5. As a resident, I want to learn about events in my building so that I can add them to my schedule and meet people within my building.

6. As a resident, I want to be able to track when my packages arrive so that I can make sure I receive them.

7. As a resident, I want the account creation process to be simple so that I don’t have to reproduce a social profile that already exists.

8. As a resident, I want to be able to connect with other residents within my building so that I can leverage the community knowledge around me.

9. As a resident, I want to easily accommodate my friends so that they can visit me.

Sketches

Once our user scenarios were established, we created concept sketches to explore different options for our user interface. Each group member sketched a potential way to meet the need represented in each user story. For instance, user story 1 represented the desire of users to know more about amenities in order to take full advantage of what their building has to offer. Our sketches included solutions such as an amenity calendar that allows residents to view when an amenity is reserved or frequently used and an amenity dashboard that allows users to learn more about and reserve amenities. After sharing and discussing our sketches, we chose the best ones to make up our design concept.

Initial Sitemap

Reviewing our sketches as a group helped us identify common areas that our final product should provide:

1. Community: Residents can share information, report issues, and find out about ways to connect with other residents with similar interests.

2. My Account: Residents can pay their bills, receive alerts, submit maintenance requests, and communicate with building management.

3. Amenities: Residents can view amenities, make reservations, learn about their availability, and find out in real time if it is too crowded.

Prototype V1

1. Navigation. There are three main pages: Community, My Account, and Amenities. This is the ‘Amenities’ page.

2. Amenities sections. Users can access different amenity detail pages from this point. These detail pages appear within modals and give detailed information about that specific amenity.

3. Section Modal. Different amenities open in modals. This example shows the ‘Rooftop Deck’ amenity page. It displays items to reserve, a visualization of average usage and a live feed image.

4. Exit Icon. Users can exit the modal by tapping or clicking the ‘x’ icon.

5. Detail Button. Users can select an amenity to open a detail card. This example opens the reservations detail card for the selected amenity area.

6. Detail Card. The Detail Cards appear within modals and with detailed information. This example is the card used for reserving the grill area amenity.

Initial Usability Study

Once the low-fidelity prototype was created, we conducted a usability study in order to identify if the information architecture is intuitive, uncover issues with usability and terminology, and identify what interactions users expect. We tested our prototype with 3 young professionals and 3 students who currently live or have lived in an apartment complex. Participants were given the scenario that they have recently moved to a luxury apartment in downtown Seattle to be close to their job and their new apartment has a resident portal that they will be using to complete their tasks. They were then given 8 tasks that required participants to explore different sections of the prototype. The moderator asked probing questions after each task to gather additional feedback.

From our usability study, we found that the overall information architecture is intuitive. However, many sections needed additional information about what users could do. We also found that a Messages feature in the Community section was unexpected and unnecessary.

Recommendations

General

• Make emergency contact numbers easily discoverable.

• Provide more information at-a-glance on the My Accounts section to make it look more like a landing page.

• Indicate that each section is personal to the user (e.g. My Amenities, My Community).

• Consider providing some temporary tools for residents who are moving in or moving out.

Contact Management

• Provide separate Submit Maintenance Request button.

• Consider changing the name My Account to something else, such as My Apartment.

• Provide way to submit complaints anonymously or without the tenants knowing who it was.

Bills

• In the Bills section, indicate any rules such as splitting payments or making multiple payments for one bill.

• Display amount of each bill on the list of bills.

• On the list of bills, indicate which bills have already been paid.

• Provide option to compare usage to personal average usage.

• Provide option for recurring payments in Bills.

• Send receipt to user after the user pays a bill.

• Allow users to save their payment information in the Bills section.

• Provide an option to pay all bills at once.

• Consider allowing users to pay by selecting pay now and receive a pop up confirmation rather than having to input the amount.

• Allow users to see previous payments on the Bills section.

Amenities

• Provide detailed information on reservable amenities.

• Do not provide a live feed of amenities.

• Provide a calendar view of when amenities have already been booked.

• Indicate any rules that apply to reservable amenities.

• Consider making the map view interactive.

• Change “Average Usage” to “Popular Times”.

Package Notifications

• Allow users to set their notification preferences.

Events

• Provide a list view and/or calendar view of events.

• In the Events section, provide details about the event, such as time, place, and description.

• Allow users to RSVP from the Events section of the website.

• Provide the option to receive a notification or reminder for events that users are attending.

• Display how many people have already RSVP’d for an event.

• Consider providing a messaging board for an event.

Community

• Do not include Messages in Community.

Guest

• Consider allowing users to give temporary keys to their guest.

• Do not require users to provide a lot of information when requesting guest pass or parking pass.

Prototype V2

The design team built a high-fidelity prototype using Axure to re-test our design changes. Our design changes are outlined in the Concept Specification starting on page 20. The research team took the prototype and tested it with users to illicit feedback. We have included the findings as a catalyst for improving the product in the next iteration.

The final prototype can be viewed at the following link:

http://3tp0km.axshare.com

Second Usability Study

We tested 8 participants over the course of a day with our second version of the prototype on an iPad Mini. This usability study validated the information architecture of the application with its high success rate of the tasks completed by participants. It also validated our design decisions to include a separate ‘Submit Maintenance Request’ Section Selector, to include a calendar in the Rooftop Deck Modal, and to include more details in the Manage My Bills Modal, Rooftop Deck Modal, Manage My Guests Modal and Events Modal.

Though participants liked the existing information, they expressed a desire for additional information in each of those sections. Participants were also unaware that they were able to make amenities reservations, set notification preferences, and allow building entry to guests by providing their guests’ information ahead of time. This caused some delays and task failures.

Recommendations

Management Requests

• Provide details on what actions have been taken to fulfill their request.

• Provide pre-populated categories to choose from to minimize what information needs to be included.

Bills

• Incorporate an additional screen after tapping the ‘Pay Now’ call-to-action button that requires the user to confirm the payment method and amount.

• Provide an option to view billing history.

Amenities

• It should be noted that the interactive map interaction that causes the detail information to slide in from the right was not a part of the prototype in the study. This interaction requires testing.

Events

• Allow users to see who is coming to events.

• Display the end time for events.

• Display if residents are allowed to bring guests.

Guest

• Provide more information about registering guests.

• Have a way to save guests who do not visit on a regular basis.

Concept Specification

View the concept specification starting on page 20 of the Liv2202 Process Book.