Managed App
Client
Role
Timeline
Service Provided
Managed, Australia
Design Lead
25 Nov-12 Dec 2024
Website Redesign
Introduction
As part of a three-person UX team, I served as Design Lead on a project to improve Managed's property management platform. Managed, an Australian property management application, processes nearly $100 million in transactions monthly and needed to enhance their task management system. Our team was brought in to redesign key aspects of their platform to better serve their property manager users. The project ran from 25 November to 12 December, 2024.
The Challenge
While Managed had built a successful platform processing over $3 billion in transactions since 2019, property managers using the system were struggling with their daily workflows. Our team was tasked with addressing the overwhelming task lists and inefficient interface that were making it difficult for users to maintain clarity and control over their work.
Discovery & Research
Our research phase revealed crucial insights about how property managers worked and where the platform was falling short. Through reviewing the platform's interface and analysing usage data, we discovered that while the Action Centre was the most-used feature, it was also the biggest source of user frustration. Property managers were frequently switching between multiple screens to complete related tasks, creating unnecessary friction in their workflow.
In-depth interviews with property managers revealed their specific frustrations: they were losing time constantly switching between property views to update task statuses, and the lack of visual progress indicators made it impossible to know how close they were to clearing their daily task queue. Many expressed feeling overwhelmed by tasks that didn't distinguish between urgent maintenance issues and routine administrative work. Our competitor analysis of both Australian and global property management platforms along with leading task management apps helped identify proven patterns we could adapt to address these challenges.
Design Solutions
To synthesise our research findings, I organised and facilitated affinity mapping sessions with my team, both online and offline. These collaborative sessions helped us clearly identify core user needs and pain points, creating a strong foundation for ideation.
Based on this structured analysis, I developed three interconnected solutions:
Property Specific Overlay
The overlay feature became the cornerstone of our redesign. Instead of forcing users to navigate between multiple screens, it provides context-rich task management directly within each property's view. Property managers can now complete tasks, access critical information and maintain their workflow without losing context. The standardised layout across properties ensures users always know where to find the information they need.
Actionable Dashboard
We transformed the dashboard from a static display of graphs and numbers into an interactive command centre. The new design prioritises actionable insights, with sections for urgent tasks, new requests and important reminders. Property managers can now customise their dashboard layout to match their workflow, creating a personalised experience that helps them stay focused on what matters most.
Reimagined Action Centre
Taking inspiration from kanban-style task management systems like Trello and Asana, we rebuilt the Action Centre to provide better organisation and visual feedback. Tasks are now intuitively grouped by property and type into kanban-like cards, making it easier for managers to focus on specific responsibilities like maintenance tasks. The design enables seamless workflow by allowing users to click any card for direct access to the property-specific overlay, where they can view and complete associated tasks without switching contexts.
To improve efficiency, we implemented multi-select options that allow property managers to perform repetitive actions in bulk, significantly reducing friction in their daily workflow. Visual elements like progress bars track task completion, while celebratory animations provide moments of delight and reinforce user motivation. The interface supports both card and list views, offering flexibility for different working styles and task types.
Design Process
The design process began with collaborative sketching sessions where I explored various solutions to our identified problems. Using familiar design patterns and conventions to reduce cognitive load, I created initial concepts that were refined through team feedback. These sketches evolved into wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma, with each iteration being validated against our research insights.
Our usability testing with property managers provided valuable feedback that shaped the final design. We refined task grouping mechanisms, enhanced dashboard customisation options and simplified navigation patterns based on user feedback and how they responded to the prototype.
Impact and Results
The redesign significantly improved how property managers interact with the platform. The property-specific overlay reduced context switching, while the new dashboard and Action Centre provided better task organisation and prioritisation tools. By establishing a consistent system for task management elements (like color-coded category tabs, progress bars, and priority indicators) and interactions (like how tasks are accessed and actioned), we not only improved current usability but created a blueprint that ensures any new features would follow these familiar patterns - making them instantly understandable to users.
Looking Forward
As we concluded the project, we identified several key opportunities for Managed's platform evolution. Mobile optimisation would ensure property managers could effectively manage tasks while conducting property inspections or responding to maintenance issues on-site. Enhanced analytics could provide smarter task prioritisation by learning from user patterns and automatically surfacing the most urgent or relevant tasks based on historical data. Additionally, we suggested thoughtfully incorporating gamification elements - such as extending our completion celebrations into achievement milestones - to make daily task management more engaging while maintaining professional utility.