Transforming Digital Access to Government Housing Data
A Canadian province faces a growing housing crisis, worsened by the rise of online short-term rental (STR) platforms like Airbnb. Thousands of housing units are being diverted from the long-term rental market, and local governments lacked the data and tools to effectively regulate or enforce STR policies.
Role
Service Design Strategist
Key Contributions
User & Stakeholder Interviews
User Flows & Journey Maps
Co-creation Sessions
Wireframe Prototypes
Usability Testing
Duration
June - December 2024
The Ask
A Department of Housing needed a centralized Data Portal that could aggregate STR listings and provide local governments and compliance officers with tools to enforce regulations more effectively.
My role as the Service Design Strategist was to lead user and UX research, and work closely with the product owner, UX/UI designer, business analyst, developer and architects to ensure the product and service aligned with user needs and policy goals.
Human-Centered and Agile Approach
Learn & Observe:
Conducted 19 interviews with local and provincial government staff to map enforcement workflows, identify inefficiencies and gather business and design requirements.
Polled 10 local government staff to validate assumptions.
Frame Insights:
Created user flows and journey maps to visualize enforcement processes and pain points.
Identified top opportunities for high-impact.
Explore Solutions:
Led 4 ideation sessions to co-design and prioritize solutions with government stakeholders, and the development team.
Prototype & Test
Designed lo-fidelity wireframes to gather feature/concept validation and requirements feedback.
Conducted 12 usability testing sessions across different stages of the product lifecycle, including wireframe and live system.
Realize Value
Worked within an agile development environment to deliver quick, iterative insights.
Provide recommendations for development and implementation.
Presented to Product Owner, Senior Leadership and Project Team.
User Persona and Journey Map to define and validate their end-to-end experience, digital touch-points, pains and opportunities.
2x2 Impact vs. Effort matrix to prioritize business requirements and design features for product backlog.
The Result & Impact
The project led to significant impacts across enforcement, adoption, and the housing market:
Deployed centralized data portal for local goverments across the province for improved tracking and faster identification of non-compliant properties.
Delivered 7 product releases, increasing adptoption rate to 60% within the first 3 months of launch.
2,000+ non-compliant listings were removed since launch.
The system helped convert thousands of STRs back to long-term rentals and allowed municipalities to collect more tax revenue from vacant STR units.
