CLIENT

Space Craft – a real estate developer creating sustainable, walkable apartment communities

Designing scalable brand & communications systems

Reframing a walkable neighborhood vision into language that resonates through smart design systems, strategic messaging, and repeatable tools.

UX RESEARCH ⦿ UX + SERVICE DESIGN ⦿ PRODUCT STRATEGY 
ROLE

Sole design partner supporting brand system creation, communication strategy, and template design for ongoing development projects.

TL;DR

Context

This project sat at the intersection of operational efficiency and behavioral insight. Space Craft needed a faster, smarter way to launch new properties and their future residents needed to see the benefits of walkable, sustainable neighborhoods in their own terms. My role was to bridge both, designing a sub-brand system and messaging strategy that worked for the business and resonated with everyday renters.

Business Goal

  • Reduce the lift required for new property launches

  • Maintain consistency across sub-brands

  • Increase speed-to-market for websites and marketing

  • Attract prospective residents without relying on heavy personalization or ground-up content development

User Impact Goal

  • Reframe “sustainable living” in terms of convenience, lifestyle, and affordability

  • Reduce friction or skepticism by aligning with real motivations

  • Make the brand feel approachable, intuitive, and personally relevant

Impact

Space Craft now has a scalable toolkit for launching new properties. From brand identity to website and marketing collateral, and a resident-facing messaging system that speaks to what people actually care about.

STEP ONE

Understanding the prospective resident.

While Space Craft had limited resources for collecting data on current residents, I looked at the demographics of the area, changing housing needs in Charlotte, NC, nearby competitors, and reviews and comments from current and former residents. From there I developed prospective resident archetypes.

To build a messaging strategy that actually resonated, I started by developing prospective resident archetypes to help us move beyond assumptions and clearly define:

  • What future tenants core needs are

  • Why those things matter to them

  • How Space Craft’s value propositions across properties can meet those desires

This wasn’t about demographic profiling, it was about psychographics and motivation: What gets someone to sign a lease? What makes them feel at home?

STEP TWO

Research methods & insights.

To understand why patients were missing appointments and struggling to engage, I conducted mixed-method user research in collaboration with the clinical and product teams. Research included:

  • Interviewed 25 No-Show patients across tech literacy and health complexity

  • Tested the MyHeyday patient portal with active patients and target demographics on desktop, tablet, and smartphone experiences.

  • Integrated a patient survey conducted by our clinical staff at the first appointment to better understand and track what devices they are using, their scheduling and reminder preferences, and other people involved in their care.

  • Created user archetypes based on 1) patient’s health complexity as defined by the clinical team, 2) patient’s approach to health (struglling or coping), and 3) high vs low tech savviness.

87% of patients preferred phone calls as their primary mode of communication.

  1. Many patients felt most supported when they could call and reach a real human — not a portal or call center.

  2. SMS was widely used and understood — more than email or portal messages.

Insight: For some people, patient portals and video-based care created more friction, not less.

Many patients had difficulty switching between tabs, apps, and portals during virtual visits — some spent 15–20 minutes trying to join a Zoom appointment.

  1. Pop-up blockers and small screen sizes created invisible errors that went unaddressed.

  2. Even patients with smartphones found the process confusing or stressful.

Insight: Care is often shared and requires multiple communication touch points.

  1. 70% of patients had a caregiver involved in some way (family/friend, professional, or both).

  2. Over half were not their own primary contact, making portal-based communication complicated and incomplete.

  3. Patients living with others or with high mobility needs often relied on shared decision-making.

Our research revealed a disconnect between the digital-first care model and the on-the-ground realities of patients’ lives.

Patient’s who had not shown up for the their appointments overwhelmingly preferred phone calls and had digital-touchpoint access issues preventing them from regularly receiving follow ups, reminders, patient portal messages and more.

“They answer the phone and someone helps me. That’s the most important thing.”

“Even when something’s small, it helps to talk to someone. I don’t want to log in just to ask a question.”

“It took me 20 minutes just to figure out how to join the Zoom. By the time I got in, I was already frustrated.”

“I don’t know what happened. The screen went blank and I thought I broke it, so I hung up.”

“I think my daughter signed up for the portal but I never got anything about a follow-up. Maybe I missed the email or maybe it went to my daughter? I don’t know.”

Insight: Phone was not a fallback. It was the primary access point for trust and continuity.

STEP THREE

Solution: Integrating a phone-first user journey to expand trust and access.

Sometimes no amount of

Booklet

New analog user journey integrated

SMS opt out issue