Foxface Systems 2020-2023

Streamlining Tax Credit Certification in Affordable Housing

I was the main designer leading this project from 2020 to 2023 ideating early concepts, presenting regularly to leadership, and delivering final assets for production. I worked with a small cross-functional team that included 3 property managers and 1 developer.

‍PROJECT SUMMARY📖

The pain of waiting times

Affordable housing developers and property managers must comply with a variety of regulations and certifications to remain eligible for valuable tax credits. One such certification is the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).

These certifications require extensive documentation, calculations, and tracking, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Foxface Systems is a responsive website for property managers and residents in affordable housing to streamline the tax credit certification process so move-in times are improved and homelessness among residents is reduced.

‍the problem❓

Making the affordable housing process easier

When it comes to affordable housing, factors such as time, poor communication, and software options being too costly or unavailable can create a complex and archaic compliance process for on-site managers who spend most of their time trying to complete the compliance process.​

Meanwhile, for applicants and residents, society’s systemic problems such as the 120 day deadline keeping them from immediate move-in, illiteracy, language/communication barriers, transportation problems and/or the understanding of financial terms makes it too difficult for them to complete.

GOALS💬

User goals

  • Ensure the UI is easy to use and navigate, and it provides residents with all the information they need to apply for housing, including eligibility requirements, application deadlines, and contact information at the main page of their dashboard.

  • Ensure that the residents finish their file on time by including a live chat feature, so residents can get help with the application process in real time.

  • Be inclusive of cultures with linguistic barriers by providing other language options.

business Goals

  • The website can automate the process of generating and submitting compliance documentation, which can reduce time property managers spend filing by 40%.

  • Reduce the administrative burden of tax credit certification and increase their ability to maintain compliance with LIHTC regulations

  • Property managers can use the website to market their properties and to quickly fill vacancies.

User Research🧑🧑

Empathizing with them

Foxface Systems is start-up company that had immediate support from property managers in the Portland, OR metro area. We were limited on a budget, but had plenty of connections to property managers, so I chose to interview them and examinie our competitors.

Residents

Be sensitive to cultural differences. Different cultures have different views on money and poverty. Be sensitive to these differences when creating our software and provide more than one language as option for them to understand questions.

Provide resources. Since we were creating a responsive website, we need to be sure to provide links to resources that can help people complete their file on time.

Get feedback from users. Once we have created our software, we want to get feedback from our users. This will help ensure that our software is sensitive to the needs of users.

Property Managers

Avoid outside office hours. Property Managers are extremely busy taking care of their residents and bringing in additional residents. They can potentially come in outside office hours to accomplish tasks.

A warmer work environment. The deadlines for submitting compliance documentation are often tight and working across other teams can create a lot of frustrations so we need to create software that dilutes any tension across teams.

Healthier community. Speeding up lease-ups and reducing vacancy can overall stabilize housing therefore promote a healthier community.

Competitor Research

Competitor Insights

  • Yardi Breeze software is designed specifically for affordable housing providers, and it offers a number of features that are tailored to the needs of this market. Yardi Breeze also offers a number of innovative features, such as its online resident portal and its automated income and asset verification service.
  • Real Page is a larger company with a more comprehensive product offering. Its software includes features for managing all aspects of affordable housing, from property maintenance to resident services. Real Page also offers a wide range of support services, including training, consulting, and technical support.

How might we develop a system that helps
residents, property managers, and a compliance team work together?

architecture ⚒📐

Establishing content and flow

Make navigation as easily as possible so users don’t drop-off and files can be completed on time.

Residents often don’t have laptops or computers so ensure content is optimized to fit in mobile and tablet screens.

Wireframes ✏️🗒

Then to understand how things are going to look I turned to paper

High-fidelity PROTOTYPES📱

Creating the experience

After the flows and some simple sketches were ready I made a basic prototype and had at least 5 users perform a number of tasks. Then I could see where they were having difficulty and where I should improve the product based on real use.

For our user-testing we had individuals test the self-certifications task in dark-mode and also users totest the property management dashboard to upload a resident's certification packet.

‍usability test 📋

So what happened?

Some of our users liked the idea of one question at a time, an automatic flow after each question to ease them into the task, and eliminate unnecessary tasks if possible. Ex: if they are employed at more than one job, an automatic prompt that says "I have another employer" so they understand that more than one job means they need to input their annual income for all jobs in one field under the card employment. If they worked for uber they would often forget to input this as employment income.

Most of the users want to see a receipt of their file sent to their email inbox upon completion of the self-certs task.

Most of our user testers struggled with locating the buttons and understanding the save current progress, save and finish later, and continue. I think a save & continue button, save and finish later, and a back button is enough. The save current progress sometimes moved on to the next step when the users thought it would keep them on the same screen.  

Some of the users made comments about the visual design, specifically the bright green color not being accessible for those with potential visual impairments.

Takeaways

The Good

My first experience volunteering for a research project led me to earn the role of Lead UX/UI Designer. Initially I was nervous sharing my prototypes in meetings but I grew to being more confident in my role.

An excellent collaboration with stakeholders resulted in an impressive prototype that we were proud to showcase in pitches and trade shows.

Work To Be Done

We are still in the process of manufacturing our final product. Because of limited funds and a small team, we have been working consistently, but it will take some time to distribute our MVP.

What I'd Do Differently

Begin research with residents living in affordable housing. We have begun interviewing property managers about the compliance process, but the results might be different had we put the resident first.

Conduct interviews with additional people who are compliance officers who have worked in affordable housing. We need to be mindful of their frustrations and incorporate that when designing the product.

Thank you!!!

About

UI/UX DESIGNER

Lauren Stanton

Hi there! Starting my career in UI/UX Design has been such a rewarding experience for me because I enjoy problem-solving and creativity. I transitioned from being a flight attendant to a UX/UI Designer and as part of my journey, I have learned some front-end coding in order to bridge any potential gap between developers and designers. Visual design and content strategy have been my favorite subjects to study.

My interests aside from traveling include snowboarding, photography, reading, hiking, listening to music, and wine tasting. I am currently available for part-time work and am always happy to assist with innovative projects. If you'd like to contact me, I can be found on LinkedIn or via email.

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