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Lenz

A digital property inspection application designed to make the inspection process simple and doable for everyone. The product consists of a mobile app to conduct and share inspections, and a web app for recipients of shared inspections to view and give feedback on.

In this project, I:

  • Collected information from stakeholders to identify the target persona and problem statement

  • Compiled requirements for the app experience

  • Created low-to-high fidelity wireframes of the entire app workflow

  • Defined brand assets such as color palette, typography, and logo

  • Assisted in the code implementation of the app such as animations, screen navigation structure, and UI components

  • Interaction within the Lenz product ecosystem across the mobile and web apps

Team

Client

Skills Utilized

UX Design
Branding
Mobile App Design & Development

Scope of Work

0-to-1 Mobile App Design

The Problem.

Secondary Research

Surveys

1 in 6 students have reported struggling to get a rental deposit back for improper landlord claims of cleanliness, missing items, and property damage. [1]

Pain Points

Case Studies

There have been situations where inadequate documentation of move-in and move-out have led to unjust claims of property condition. [2]

From the Client

Market Need

The problem statement and project was identified by my client, a home inspector with over 30 years (100,000 hours) of industry experience.

Exploring the Inspection Process.

Before embarking on the experience design, I wanted to understand from my client what the core milestones are of a tenancy life cycle. This was to ensure that the information captured by the experience lined up with what might be required to provide in the case that a dispute between a landlord and tenant arose.

1

2

3

Check In

An inspection is conducted to assess the space's move-in condition

Mid Term

Condition of the property is assessed half-way through the lease

Check Out

An inspection is conducted to assess how the move-out condition compares to the recorded move-in condition

Putting together Requirements.

Additionally, I wanted to gain an understanding of what had to be part of the app's design from a functional and visual perspective. I compiled and distilled requirements from conversations and knowledge of the target audience to ensure that they were followed along the design process and present in the final product.

Functional Requirements

The system must...

  • Allow users to upload media of their choice as it pertains to documenting the found state of their property

  • Allow users to add any comments or additional information that best helps them document the state of their property

  • Provide tutorials and documentation of best practices that enable quicker adoption by users

  • Allow users to generate reports which capture the information they’ve entered in the app

Non-functional Requirements

The system shall...

  • Enable streamlined data entry (around 1-2 minutes per room or issue to add) and swift app navigation

  • Simplify cross-comparisons of information, as it pertains to property condition throughout a tenancy

  • Be quickly learnable and adoptable by people of varying competencies

  • Offer users familiar methods of interaction (transferability of other product experiences)

Ideating the Experience.

The name of the game for this app experience was achieving a balance of detailed data collection and simplicity of use. The app had to be capable of storing enough information to enable a tenant to defend themselves from any disputes about property condition or damage, but it also had to be usable by themselves and themselves only.

Therefore, I focused on an approach inspired by progressive disclosure, where a certain amount of core information would be required, but functionality would be provided to enable users to enter as much detail and information as they wish.

Rooms

Focused on capturing each room of the property.

Required Information

  • 4 room photos (ideally from each corner of a room)

  • Room condition and cleanliness

Optional Information

  • More room photos to capture more detail

Issues

Focused on capturing any exception items within each room (any items which contain notable condition or damage).

Required Information

  • 1 item photo (ideally capturing issue)

  • Item condition, cleanliness, and operation status (if applicable)

Optional Information

  • More item photos to capture more detail

  • Additional comments to verbalize the item and its issue

Designing the Flow.

Landlord (Creation)

At first, the creation of an inspection was delegated to a Landlord, after which they'd send the report to the Tenant to complete.

Tenant (Check In)

The flow was changed so that the inspection creation became a Check In, where the Tenant would enter information about their property.

Tenant

(Comparison)

(Check Out)

The Tenant would go through the information that the Landlord provided.

The Tenant themselves would then compare their observations as a Check Out to see if/how things changed during the tenancy.

Tenant (Check In)

The flow was changed so that the inspection creation became a Check In, where the Tenant would enter information about their property.

Tenant (Check In)

The flow was changed so that the inspection creation became a Check In, where the Tenant would enter information about their property.

Tenant

(Check Out)

The Tenant themselves would then compare their observations as a Check Out to see if/how things changed during the tenancy.

The Final Flow.

At the end of the iterations, the final flow became something entirely doable by the Tenant themselves.

During Check In, They could document the found (move-in) condition of their space.

Then, at the end of their tenancy (Check Out), they could document the final (move-out) condition of their space by comparing it directly to the Check In.

Creating the Report

Check In

The rooms and issue items found at the beginning of the tenancy are recorded for the first time, providing a baseline from which to compare to in the future.

Making comparisons

Check Out

Like a checklist, completing a Check Out report is all about comparing the final conditions of everything in your space to the Check In state, making it clear how things stayed the same or changed over time.

Implementing a Rich Visual Experience in Code.

I didn't want to hold back on what could be visually achieved in the live implementation of the app, so I spearheaded the programming of more complex and detailed React Native visual/interaction design to ensure it was built exactly as it was always meant to be.

The following are screenshots/recordings of the React Native app pages I developed.

Animations

Utilizing a learning and understanding of the React Native's Animated components, I put together an animation sequence that had multiple effects (shadow and position changes), an infinite loop, and a second animation triggered only after a button press.

Dynamic Timeline

Utilizing knowledge of SVG functionality, I made a timeline component that would fill in a curving progress bar in correspondence to where a user was in time relative to their tenancy start and end dates. Additionally, I implemented the ability for flags to be correctly placed on the curving timeline based on the event date they correspond to.

Sharing a Report.

The last step in the workflow was being able to share a report with a desired recipient.

At the end of a report, the user can share a report through a URL, which enables the recipient to access a larger version of the mobile experience on web. They can review the report and all its contents, then mark it as seen/approved.

That's all for now!

Since the app is still in development, I have been asked to not share the app design in too much detail. However, I hope that you have been able to gain a better understanding of the experiential considerations I made, as well as my application of programming knowledge to reduce shortcomings of the app's visual experience in code.

I hope to have more details to share on the app's complete design soon! In the meantime, here is an idea of the next steps that are currently in progress: