Override the default image zoom level and lock it to
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to cycle image zoom.Consultation and design for a Rental management
business to conceptualize and build the sales tool they needed.
successful rental management
company was in the process of
creating a digital tool that would give
homeowners the tools to manage the
vendors for their rentals at a fraction of the
cost of a traditional service. They also had
an in-home sales team in place that was
getting signups in our geographic region.
efore releasing their product at a
national level, they needed to get the
total system working well locally. However,
their existing tools were mostly backend
applications that were difficult to present
and sell to existing homeowners. They
needed a better signup process as well as a
consumer facing portal for vendor listings.
heir CEO asked me to design a site
that would be an in-home sales tool
while laying the foundation for vendor
listings. I took him and his partner through
a conceptualization process where we
identified key steps, content, and user
flows, and then I provided designs that
integrated with their existing brand.
I started by meeting every week with
their CEO for an hour and a half. I would
ask him a series of questions about his
business, the product they were already
creating, and their objectives.
We identified the key points in the sales
process for conversion and turned that
into a User Journey. We also came up
with questions that would direct users to
one of six key services. Finally, we
defined the components necessary to
design a geographic vendor search as
well as specific vendor pages. This
interview process allowed us to define
the major content areas of the site.
We also discussed his short vs long
term product goals so that this sales
tool would form the foundation of a
marketing site and signup process for
his product when he was ready to
launch it at a national level.
Each week, I would return with strategic
pieces based on our discussions and
we would refine them together to make
sure they met his goals. This included
the content map, site architecture, user
flow, and functionality. We then did
wireframe napkin sketches for
individual page layout.
After meeting together 6 times, we had a
good idea of what the product would be.
We then had a project kickoff. This
included the additional stakeholders as
well as technical leads, including the
head of their development team and
several business partners. We discussed
timeline, requirements, integration, and
the total process for them to create it on
their end after I handed over the final
design files.
It was important to me that they felt like
this was their project, that they
understood all the strategic pieces that
would inform the final designs, and that
it was something they could run with
once I was gone.
I was clear from the beginning that I
didn’t know their business and brand
well enough to write everything that
would go into the final product. Instead,
I created a content document with
recommended copy that they then had
one of their own marketing specialists
rewrite. This provided a consistent tone,
story, and length while giving their team
control of the final outcome.
It can be expensive to bring in a full
project manager for a small project like
this. In many agency environments,
account management and project
management costs can exceed design
and development. While I understand
the value that these individuals bring, I
also believe that every business must
strive to reduce manufacturing overhead
(costs not directly associated with
materials and direct labor to produce the
product). When I oversee the creation of
a product, I often act as pseudo-project
manager. I help each team member
understand their responsibilities, and I
make sure that we have clearly defined
requirements, deliverables, timelines,
and dependencies.
Their team of 6 developers had been working for over a year
on the vendor management component as an internal tool for
their own team. It had proven itself as a useful and valuable
tool but they had no idea if it would work as an outward
facing product. They saw an opportunity but they also knew
that they had a narrow window of about 6 months to prove
the profitability of the underlying financial concept.
This meant that we had an accelerated timeline with only 6
weeks from conceptualization to launch.
During the project kickoff, we discussed these constraints
and made sure that each contributor had a voice in defining
their deliverables based on the time allotted.
I often create a client dashboard in
InVision as a central location for links
to project updates and relevant
resources. It also serves as a
launchpad to enter into different
prototype flows. You can see the
dashboard for this project below.
Prototypes are great because they can be
updated over time and everyone has the
latest version. Unfortunately, it’s difficult
to know what has. Documenting updates
and changes in InVision keeps everyone
on the same page.
I also like to provide a list of relevant
documentation from the design process
to better facilitate discussion around
design decisions.
There are a lot of wireframing tools out there. I’ve created my
own wireframing kit in Illustrator that makes it extremely fast
for me to create them and upload them to InVision to create a
click-through prototype. A lot of people consider wireframes
to be completely design flexible, but I think this makes them
redundant to having a bulleted content list. Instead, I like to
commit to basic layout in my wireframes so we can test for
usability and flow in a prototype.
I don’t meet many people who are still sending designs in
PDFs (my worst nightmare) but I’m surprised how few people
use prototypes early in the discovery phase. UX designers
used to create paper prototypes using napkin sketches that
allowed them to experience and test different flows in front of
potential users. I believe that wireframe prototypes can
resolve a lot of issues and still take only a fraction of the time
that full design mocks require. In this project, I created over
30 wireframe pages and we debated almost all questions of
layout and flow before I ever touched the visual design.
With hundreds of pages already in place,
my role was to apply their existing styles
to my wireframe prototype with only a
few unique designs such as the Property
Services page. I freely admit that I would
have defined those styles differently if
we were starting from scratch, but good
product design should integrate
seamlessly into an existing environment.
One of the unique pieces of this project
was that everyone agreed up front that
speed trumped accuracy. I talk about my
philosophy on Pixel-perfect design in
this article, but suffice to say that I
believe in the power of good design, and
I’m not a huge fan of mangling that
design to save 10% in project costs. That
said, we knew from the beginning we
were creating a functional proof of
concept rather than a final product. We
also knew that two weeks isn’t really long
enough for a team of developers to build
17 unique pages. Knowing this, our team
agreed to a high degree of
programming flexibility. I reserved veto
power but only applied it in rare
situations that affected usability or
threw off the visual harmony of a page.
Normally, when I design a minimum
viable product, I would rather reduce
design complexity, content and
functionality before I compromise on
quality. However, there really wasn’t
room for reduction in this project.
To meet our deadline, we gave our team
the discretion to say that a text style,
form input, or scrollbar was already
defined and it then choose to reuse
from the existing product.
I wouldn’t recommend this as a
worthwhile ‘shortcut’ in very many
instances, but in this case it turned out
to be necessary and worthwhile.
I’m happy to say that we met our timeline
for design and development, after which
my contract was completed. I know that
they went through several rounds of
revision as they received feedback once
the tool went into use, although the final
product was modified into a private SaaS
service rather than public tool, and I
haven’t seen what that looks like.
However, I believe we exceeded our
original goals in creating a powerful
sales tool and I wish them the best!
I was the principal designer for all of the work shown unless otherwise noted, and I am the author and creator of the case studies within this portfolio. This website exists as a digital resume for the purpose of providing proof of experience in order to gain future potential work. Many of these projects were completed collaboratively in a “creative for hire” agency, freelance contract, or software company with copyright assigned to that entity or client.
I always have language in my creative contracts that I discuss with clients and employers that specifies my ability to display my work publicly. This includes concepts and processes as well as final deliverables, given that all of these are necessary to display my competence as a UX and Product Designer. I follow best practices to the best of my ability to assure that my work for clients is in compliance with copyright, either through open licensing or purchase of stock photography, mockups, icons, and other creative resources. However, I recognize that digital ownership is sometimes disputed on the internet. I do not assume legal liability for work completed in good faith on behalf of corporations and organizations, even if it is displayed here in my Resume. Even so, I take copyright and intellectual property seriously as a professional designer and photographer.
If you have any questions or concerns about something displayed here, please contact me and I will do my best to resolve them as simply and expediently as possible. Thank you!