The Challenge: Make finding and booking long-stay corporate housing as easy as booking an AirBNB.

My Role

Design Lead - Oversee research & design, guiding team members' execution to ensure the product meets business requirements and customer needs.

Content Strategy & Writing - Execute all content-related activities and functions.

Team: Experience Designer, Visual Designer, Frontend Developer, & Content Strategist/Design Lead

Timeline: Three months

Research Tracts

User Personas - Residents, their families, and internal and external booking agents.

Experience Audit - Their current content was managed by individual properties with no guidelines or requirements.

Corporate Housing Competitive Analysis - No other corporate housing organizations were doing this yet, we could be the first.

Short-term Rental Competitive Analysis - What are the content and experience elements critical to a best-in-class experience.

Overview:

Our Strategy involved a multi-prong approach to make the redesign process as efficient as possible. After we completed our research, we focused on structure. We created a taxonomy for the site including amenities and features related to the properties. Based on existing property content we took the first pass to convert everything to the new taxonomy. We documented and socialized our new standards and guidelines for tagging as well as a reward system for adhering to the requirements to encourage owners to make their content the best it could be for the end users. Then we shared the new options for owners to review and correct.

In tandem with the taxonomy efforts, we focused on the property page and property preview wires first. This allowed us to create the image and description requirements early on so we could circulate them with the taxonomy standards. This gave property owners the longest runway possible to create new content while the rest of the experience could be designed and built.

Once guidelines were distributed, we focused on the other parts of the users' experience, especially finding and sharing properties with others, booking and extending stays.

Above and beyond

Because these were long-stay rentals, we began to explore how the site could be a hub for the resident, providing them insights into the nearest amenities such as grocery stores, pet stores, cleaners, car share, restaurants, gyms, even schools and family activities depending on their personal profiles.

Bridgestreet: Disrupt Corporate Housing

Sz Donnelly

Leader Content Strategy | UX Design

I'm Sz (Suzy) Donnelly, a Content Strategist & UX Designer who excels at delivering best-in-class digital experiences that balance business goals with customer needs. I've honed my craft over the last 20 years by pairing thoughtful content creation with human-centered design.

Whether I'm leading a team or designing with them, I'm known for my unique way of looking at a challenge; being a strong collaborator; advocating for the user; carefully laying the groundwork to gain stakeholder support; and managing multi-faceted teams with care and finesse.

When I discover a problem (or a challenge is brought to me), I dig deep to expose the heart of it and understand its complexities then design sophisticated solutions that deliver a big impact while still feeling clean and simple.

When we chat, ask me how I accelerate the design process through paired design.

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