Resident Onboarding

Fall 2020

The Problem
From the time a prospect is sent their lease to the time they move in and officially become a resident, there is still ancillary information the team needs to collect before they can give the resident their keys.

Internally this is known as the resident checklist. In the UX world, it can best be compared to an onboarding flow.
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The Solution
With this in mind, I used those principles to help build out a system to inform the new resident about what was required before they were able to receive their keys.

Collecting the Necessities

The required information needed from a resident included a signed lease, payments of the first month's rent plus any fees, utility confirmation numbers from respective providers, and a copy of the renter's insurance.

Gathering Feedback

With my first iteration, I thought too much of the flow like a mobile app with the bottom and top navigation systems. I quickly found that this would hinder the design when trying to translate to a desktop. I also found through feedback that the green confirmation and selected state weren't a high enough contrast for the users. In addition, team members requested to be able to see a full breakdown of charges to a resident's account for 100% transparency.

Other items included:

Changing tables to a one-row design to help when flexing different screens.
Removing an information card that only lent to the mobile design.
Replacing the hamburger menu with a button for users to get back to the start screen
Adding a stepper to let users know how many steps have been completed/need to be completed.

Introducing a Change

Midway through the project, our product and technology
lead told the team that instead of handling payment processing through our system, we would be using a service called Plaid.
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I as the designer had the benefit of removing parts of the user flow versus adding to the flow. Because each item required was a separate step, there were minimal required changes to the overall flow.

Designing for Multiple Scenarios

Depending on the lease, a unit of course can have multiple tenants. What does it look like if one roommate provides their information, but not the other? Luckily, the law states that only one copy of renters insurance is needed per unit and single confirmation numbers for utilities. I still needed to provide a way for prospects to see who submitted a payment for the account and how much remained, if any. As well as who has or hasn't signed the lease plus provided a copy of renters insurance.

Transition to Desktop

Using a breakpoint system, the layout of the onboarding flow allows the content to flex depending on the screen size the user is on up to 768px. If larger than 768px, the content will remain fixed.

Ideation for the Future

Although a short-lived product once the business model for the company pivoted, there were still questions that could be addressed and solved if the concept were developed further.

Multiple team members handle and handoff conversations throughout the week. What type of workflow is needed to let the leasing team know that a prospect has started onboarding?

The onboarding link was accessible exclusively to the prospects. What visibility is necessary for leasing team members waiting for prospects to provide their information?

Are there opportunities to expand the concept into a resident portal? Can this onboarding flow be an introduction to the property and a tool for residents to come back to stay up-to-date, pay rent, submit service requests, or more?