Building a digital platform to connect neighbors and empower local communities

Keys Community needed a digital platform to transform how residential communities connect and operate. The existing property management landscape was fragmented, with multiple disconnected channels for communication and services.

The task expanded from a simple communication tool to a platform serving five distinct user groups: residents, property managers, committee members, local businesses, and service providers.

I was the lead designer. I led a team of two designers, ran the research and the stakeholder workshops, set the product direction that came out of them, and built the design system the team worked from.

With two designers on my team and a 12-month timeline to launch both mobile and desktop applications, I had to prioritize hard and build a foundation the team could scale on rather than redraw.

We spoke with residents, property managers, committee members, and local business owners to understand their goals, pain points, and expectations.

• —Property Managers: need efficient tools to communicate with residents, manage maintenance requests, and organize community affairs.
• —Committee Members: require platforms for transparent decision-making, project management, and community engagement.
• —Residents: want simple ways to stay informed, connect with neighbors, access services, and participate in community activities.
• —Local Businesses: need visibility within the community and ways to offer services to local residents.
• —Service Providers: require efficient ways to receive and manage service requests from community members.

The research pointed at a split I had to design around: residents came to the platform for practical things like payments, requests, and bookings, but what kept them there was the neighbors. I structured the product so the practical tasks stay fast and community life sits alongside them instead of behind them.

Mobile: the resident's daily touchpoint

The mobile app is where residents meet their community day to day:

• —Personalized home feed with community updates
• —Direct messaging with neighbors and property management
• —Community events and projects
• —Local services marketplace
• —Voting tools for community decisions

Desktop: tools for managers and committees

The desktop platform carries the heavier work for property managers and committee members:

• —A single dashboard for community oversight
• —Reporting and document management
• —Project planning and tracking tools
• —Community engagement analytics

Proof of concept: the administrator CRM

I designed a dedicated interface for property managers:

• —Resident management tools
• —Maintenance request tracking
• —Communication templates and scheduling
• —Financial management features

The platform was still in the last stages of development when the engagement ended, so there are no adoption numbers to report. What the design delivered:

• —One interaction model shared across mobile, desktop, and the admin CRM
• —Flows covering all five user groups, not only residents
• —A component system the team could keep building on after launch

Keys Locals had to serve people with almost nothing in common: a resident booking a plumber, a committee running a vote, a cleaner picking up work. Keeping all of that in one product without it feeling like three separate apps was the design problem worth solving, and the system underneath it is what made that possible with a small team.