Modernizing the firm’s in-house project management app with a seamless migration and a 50% reduction in manual accounting.
New Avenue Homes
New Avenue App
Product Design • Product Strategy • UX Research
Source of Truth from Files to Finances
New Avenue Homes prided itself in having a home-grown platform for managing your remodel online as easy as getting an Uber or pizza delivery. The old app had struggled to keep up and manual accounting and customer service continued to distract from project work . Designers and homeowners wanted better control of project finances and easy access to more detail.
The team started on a new app from scratch to address these concerns and to simplify project management for designers and builders. Projects included the development of a budget and payments model to support custom invoicing, budgets, and payments, an integrated file sharing center, and a project overview dashboard to help breakdown the complexity of projects for homeowners.
Role
As a project architect and technical design manager with the firm, I was the voice for the user and designer during product calls. I conducted interviews, handled project migration, provided customer support and training, and lead UI/UX design for the app.
Goals
Project Overview
The project overview section came from my dual role as an architect user and as a user researcher working with my clients. Weekly meetings and troubleshooting feedback lead to the design of a new one-stop-shop for project information which connected many of the disconnected yet powerful tools the app provided.
The new overview section ensures details and tasks are not overlooked. Phase detail pages now serve as a customizable home for each phase, allowing homeowners to approve phase completion and access necessary documents and messages. The design connects to many site features, enabling file uploads, invoice creation, and meeting minute entries without unnecessary navigation.
The Feasibility Report replaces Google Docs and simplifies processes by automating data collection and layout. Project designers use a pre-populated template with live links to Google and Bing Maps and upload relevant files and data. This information is formatted for PDF printing and shared with permitting authorities to expedite project approval. It was the first of a handful of semi-automated reports created.
Contact Center and Consultants Portal
The contact center was two projects merged into a single seamless experience for users. Homeowners wanted a personal connection with their full team and New Avenue’s designers and builders wanted to consolidate consultants and project finances.
Paying internal consultants relied heavily on manual payments and increased the burden on accounting. The payments workflow kept the same simple format for customers to review, approve and pay while expanding the options for how money is collected and to whom it gets paid.
This lead to the reduction of manual/check payments in the first 3 months by 70% and saved 50% of the accounting time for these payments.
Consultants database integrated 3rd party users.
Consultants integrated into the project finances & payments.
Project consultants can be shared between projects while keeping contracts and finances separate.
File Center
The app was strong in finances and weak in communication. Since the app was the source of truth for project finances, our users asked if file and document management could be improved. Having one place to approve contracts, invoices, design changes, and meeting requests helped connect the various sections of the app since many approvals and discussions were tied to files and documents.
Less time searching for emails and shared Box links lead to fewer client meetings and reduced construction RFI’s (requests for information).
All project files transitioned from Box to the app.
Relevant metadata established chain of custody and reduced redundancy.
Project organization and permissions ensured access control.
The files and attachments integrated throughout the app.