Entrata | PaaS ("Platform" as a Service)

I joined the Entrata UX team in March 2011--I was the 1st full-time Sr. UX designer hired under the Director of UX. Since that time I have contributed to the hiring of about 90% of our UX hires, including 4 current members of the 9 person team who have been with the company at least 4 years each. I have developed numerous design, html, css, javascript, and motion patterns. I have contributed to the ongoing user research, outreach, shadowing, and testing protocols. I have driven the development of several products from the ground up, and have been involved in the overall strategy and planning of numerous products during my tenure. Below is a sampling of products I oversee.

Experience with Product: 6 years 11 months

Platform Redesign

Currently leading a 3 person team in a product redesign for our Entrata desktop platform. This involves updates to overall style, pattern, and workflow design, introducing motion, and modernizing our aging system to stay ahead of the competition.

Mobile Platform

As part of the platform redesign, we are proposing a new mobile UI for areas of the system available on mobile devices. This will be accomplished with a responsive code and pattern base that, replacing our current mobile-specific solutions.

Authentication

There were 3 main goals for the login redesign project. 1st was updating code that had been around since the dinosaurs, and replacing it with the modern, well structured code. 2nd was making the page responsive. We found that nearly 33% of our visits were via mobile, so the experience was quite poor with a non-responsive/mobile solution. Lastly we wanted to bring the look and feel in line with the rebranding when Property Solutions became Entrata.

Dashboards

For most of the 6+ years I've been at Entrata, the UX team has tried to introduce visual dashboards in various parts of the system that have powerful KPI's to help improve the experience clients provide for their customers. It's been an uphill battle but recently I got the go ahead to introduce one such dashboard helping our clients find ways to improve the relationship between their maintenance people and residents. Curious how I did this? Ask me :)

Maintenance

In 2013 I took ownership of the Facilities Management tool kit for Entrata--including work order management, inspection management, make ready display, and mobile maintenance. Since then I have worked to provide improvements via user testing, on-the-job training with clients, and relationship building with various types of users across the system. The facilities product consistently averages in 80-90% range using the Net Promoter Scoring system--one of the highest averages across the platform.

App Store

Entrata differs from many competitors in the industry by offering integrations with just about any company that has a solution used by our clients. In order to make these integrations more seamless and provide an easy way to manage them I was tasked with designing the "App Store". Issues with integrations dropped dramatically after its implementation, resulting in 55% fewer calls to support for integration related issues.

Packages

In December 2011, I was visiting a leasing office to job shadow leasing agents and see how they were using our products. I noticed the onslaught of deliveries as it was the holiday season, and the leasing agents were manually entering the deliveries in a binder. This took upwards of an hour for some deliveries. I proposed introducing the ability to scan packages in and out using our SiteTablet app. Package scanning functionality is the most used functionality in SiteTablet to this day.

Guest Manager

Keeping track of how and who visits residents at some high end properties can be a mess. Another job shadowing experience provided this idea that led to the creation of guest management to allow the property to keep track of regularly visiting guests, vendors, and other people who are granted access to properties. For properties with automatic locks and gates, the technology to build this into our ResidentPortal, Facilities, and other upcoming apps will provide a better and faster experience for getting around properties.

Reports

Reporting was long a backseat passenger on the Entrata platform. In 2013 I presented a solution for a unified design, and pattern library to use across reports. On top of the design I implemented functionality in the code that provided an enjoyable experience for users while working in a generally boring section of the system. The simple reports solution has been in use since, with an upcoming feature update to include visualizations where applicable.

Settings

Another area of the system that doesn't scream excitement, we completed an entire overhaul of our setting between 2011-2014. I was responsible for the initial product review, wireframing, and pattern design. The long process of moving settings into the new system included figuring out new ways to improve the speed and efficiency that our users handled setup. In many cases this included ditching traditional inputs and typing for more touch interface and default configurations.

Lobby Display

Lobby Display is an ancillary product that allows clients to put a display on TV monitors around their properties for informational and advertising purposes. I was given full creative license on this product, and after working with several clients to identify their needs (and wants), I came up with several templates that allowed a a seamless coupling of information with advertising to provide both interesting and useful displays.

ResidentVerify

I was pulled into a project in disarray to simplify the user experience and help users through a rather joyless process of filing a claim when they were denied a housing request. Business requirements called for loads of information that were unnecessary upon further research. By cutting out 67% of the initial requirements, I was able to work with the product owner and get the user through the process in under 2 minutes--on both mobile and desktop with a responsive solution.

VendorAccess

I was tasked with helping design and build out a storefront for a new product. My previous experience at Overstock.com helped me work with the product owner to provide the simplest solution for our clients needs. This included following standards and practices employed at top online sellers, so our users felt that our process was inline with their normal shopping habits, as well as creating very simple product upload solutions to help clients quickly and easily get 1,000's of products on site.

Print Solutions

Despite a big push to go paperless, the multi-family housing industry is a slow adopter of technology--and specifically the idea of going paperless. Despite our best efforts to guide users away from paper, we still need paper solutions, and I have overseen the redesign of most of our print products in the last 2 years. I tackled the problem with a 2 pronged solution that focused on maximizing information organization, while providing and aesthetically pleasing look and feel.

Paperless Solutions

For clients on the paperless bandwagon, we have tried to utilize as many paperless solutions as possible. Along with our mobile apps, and the online platform, we have utilized SMS, and more visually speaking, emails. In 2017, I took ownership of our email design and code standards and have been converting emails to the new standard providing responsive solutions that fit into our clients branding needs using just color, with clean templates focusing on the specific information.