Case study for a mobile app SaaS for a small landlord.

I designed a mobile rental portal that brings landlords and residents together in one seamless experience making interactions more efficient, convenient, and secure for both sides.

Project Overview

Overview

Small property owners often rely on manual processes to manage tenants, payments, and maintenance requests.

  • Wants secure payment method

  • Wants to make requesting maintenance more accessible 

  • Wants more privacy and indirect contact with tenants 

  • Wants digital file storage / “cloud” feature

Solution

  1. App Portal automatic payment option and push notifications to minimize late payments and boost card security.

  2. Report property issues and request maintenance online anytime.

  3. Keeps Landlord's personal info private and increases tenant's likelihood of reporting issues before it's sever

Key insight 2

Tenants are more likely to report issues when barriers to communication are reduced.

Key insight 3

Digital communication can improve accountability for both landlords and tenants.

02 - Design

My goal was to create a visual identity that’s aligned with the brand’s values and TOV, which is: “professional, simple, and convenient." I researched similar applications for inspiration.

  • I chose a dark color scheme for high contrast visibility incorporated into the design. I chose Black, White, Grey and Blue as the core color scheme for pp's interface to have an honest, professional and trustworthy energy.

    • The app color scheme and brand's color scheme arose due to my solution to problem 3. I advised the Landlord to switch from a SP to a LLC which turned into a full branding project as well.

  • I made mockups following Material Design and HIG design guidelines so the app could be seamlessly integrated across device platforms.

  • My design was Mobile First as mobile devices are statistically the most commonly used device by tenants. I designed for both android and iOS.

  • My final design met the needs of the client and his tenants.


03 - Usability testing

I created a fully-functional, high-fidelity prototype of the new flows using Figma.

Study Type: Mixed-Methods Usability and User Needs Assessment

Purpose: Evaluate whether a rent portal application can improve rent collection, maintenance reporting, communication, and document management for landlords and tenants.

Location: Virtual surveys and interviews 

Data Collection: Surveys, interviews, and usability testing of the prototype

Metrics: User satisfaction, ease of use, task completion rate, perceived usefulness, and likelihood of adoption


  1. Tenants used CashApp and payments often late or bounced.

  2. Tenants call Landlord's personal cell for maintenance.

  3. Low privacy for Landlord. Low security for payments.

Problem

01 - Interviews

During the ideation phase of the project, I had a consult with the client (landlord) to discuss what kind of app he was looking for. With permission, I conducted user (tenant) interviews to build personas and to inform the design.

Key insight 1

Users value convenience, transparency, and accessibility in property management tasks.

Next

Mobile App — Personal Fashion Stylist