INNER CITY VISIONS
Client management system for social housing
Timeline
January-June 2025 (10 weeks)
Client
Inner City Visions
Role
Design Lead
Team
2 PMs, 3 designers, 5 developers
Intake clients on the go
Track client's housing journey
Analyze trends for quarterly reports
Overview
CONTEXT
Who is Inner City Visions?
Inner City Visions (ICV) is a nonprofit that supports at-risk and underserved individuals in Los Angeles. Their Homeless Outreach program specifically supports unhoused clients and connects them to vital services.
Challenge Statement
Create a system that
automates
client
intake and data analysis through a
unified
database
within 20 weeks.
Timeline
Projected roadmap
As the design lead, I helped guide early planning sessions with the client, distribute design tasks, and helped troubleshoot design and technical challenges as they came up.
January - June 2025
1
User research
Gathered a high-level understanding of operations in stakeholder discovery
Conducted staff interviews
2
Design
Sketched initial layout and mapped core user flows
Built UI components that translate lo-fi’s into hi-fi’s
3
User Testing
Revised UI based on client and developer feedback
Ran 2 rounds of testing with ICV staff
4
Development Collab
Worked with developers to ensure feasibility and alignment
Delivered the final product
Research
User interviews
Understanding the problem scope
After the PLs conducted an initial stakeholder discovery session to define a high-level challenge statement, our next step was to gain a detailed understanding of ICV’s client processes and identify pain points.
Breakdown of interview structure
Across four 30-minute interviews with ICV outreach staff and program coordinators, we were able to identify 3 common groups: intake, check-ins, and database
We organized our insights through affinity diagramming
user journey
How to service an ICV client
After sorting our insights, we mapped client intake, check-in, and data analysis workflows, pinpointing key frustration zones and opportunities for improvement.
ICV's client processes include intake, check-in, and analysis
Ideating
Opportunities found in pain points
We focused on key user pain points and used “How Might We’s” to transform them into open-ended, design opportunities.
HMW simplify the intake process during client interviews?
Re-enter paper form data into a Google Sheet.
Solution
Digital intake forms that automatically send information to a client database
Tabbed navigation for quick access to different sections of the form
Considerations: functionality with spotty internet
Solution
Display last check-in date within client profile card
Show upcoming check-ins directly on the profile page
HMW track check-ins and flag inactivity?
Lose touch with clients don’t check in voluntarily.
HMW organize and filter diverse data in a simple, scalable manner?
Manually track and tally data
Solution
Display clients in a spreadsheet view with column filters
Considerations: category types and multiple filter selections
Design
wireframing
What We Built (and Why)
During our feature brainstorm, we came up with additional tools that could benefit ICV, but overstepped into other parts of their operations and stray from the project scope. To stay focused, we narrowed the product down to a client management system with four core features.
Digital intake form with tabbed navigation
Client profiles store biographical info, case notes, and documents
Calendar page tracks individual and team schedules
Client database displays all clients in a table view
Reiteration
How can I balance findability and clutter?
Each client’s profile page depicts their upcoming check-ins alongside their past check-ins. My goal was to give staff a flexible way to refer to previous case notes.
1
1
1
1
2
3
4
Ultimately, I decided a simple layout was the most intuitive and extra features only decreased usability.
1st challenge
How can we streamline 3 types of check-ins?
Issue
Client cases can only be logged into the database through a multi-step scheduling flow. However, quick, high-volume check-ins would be slowed by the multiple fields and lead to frustration.
Scheduled check in (default)
Wellness check
Handouts
Solution
Our solution was to include multiple check-in paths.
2nd Challenge
How can we accurately tally the client total?
Issue
ICV inputs a client’s entire family to coordinate family services effectively and get an accurate count of total impacted people.
SPOUSE IS IN ICV
However, the development team raised an issue of double-counting family members if both spouses are ICV clients.
Count: 8
Solution
The Head of Household label determines which spouse holds the household and dependents’ information, preventing data from being duplicated. As a safety measure, we added several conditional questions that trigger follow-up questions
SPOUSE IS IN ICV
While both Williams spouses are ICV clients, Angela is the Head of Household and the children are stored in her profile.
Count: 4
SPOUSE IS NOT IN ICV
As for the Smith household, only Lucy Smith is an ICV client so in addition to her dependents, she must input her spouse as well.
Count: 3
Styling
Design System
I created a simple design system with reusable elements that can be adapted to multiple elements in a database.
User Testing
Round 1
On the field
To stimulate a day on-site, we asked 14 ICV volunteers and experienced users to perform an unmoderated user test consisting of on-site tasks on tablet screens. After analyzing the test results, we made several accessibility changes.
Mission
SUCCESS RATE
MISCLICK RATE
AVERAGE DURATION
1
76.9%
55%
737.1s
Use the intake form to create a new client profile
2
100%
72.6%
86.3s
Add 3 hygiene kits, 5 hot meals, and 2 snack packs
3
100%
65.8%
38.2s
Create a Wellness Check for Kylie Bach
Implemented changes
In response to the usability tests, we increased the button size and included a collapsible menu.
Menu collapses to allow for a bigger screen on tablet mode and expands to show the tab names
Increased button size allows better accessibility on tablet mode
60 px
Hygiene Kits
2
Round 2
In the office
For the second round, we asked 10 ICV volunteers and users to perform in office tasks on desktop screens. Since our product had features unique to ICV’s processes, we wanted to examine how intuitive they were for our clients to interact with.
Mission
SUCCESS RATE
MISCLICK RATE
AVERAGE DURATION
1
90%
83.8%
67.2s
Schedule a client check in
2
87.5%
50%
17.7s
Use database filters
3
100%
23.6%
21.9s
Link a client’s spouse through their profile
Final Product
Demos
The final prototype
Ready to explore ICV’s client management database?
Responsive screens
Reflections
What I learned
Takeaways
Fully outline the project scope before diving into design to prevent feature creep and keep the team focused.
Regular check-ins with all teams—design, development, and stakeholders—help us catch miscommunications early and resolve issues before they became critical.
In fast-paced, real-world projects, I have to keep a flexible schedule that can accommodate sudden challenges. Prioritizing delivery meant letting go of some refinements to ensure the core product was functional and on time.
Conclusion
By working closely with ICV’s team, we designed a client management system that simplifies intake, tracks client progress, and generates meaningful data for reporting. Even with trade-offs, our user-centered approach helped ensure that the final product was practical, intuitive, and aligned with their mission.
This project not only strengthened my ability to coordinate across design, development, and client teams—it also reminded me of the role thoughtful design can play in supporting organizations doing critical community work.
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