Emphatise
Understand the company, users and project context.
Project overview
Ed Controls is a construction quality-management platform used by project teams to manage inspections, tickets and follow-up work.
Although the platform works well for construction professionals, its current environment is too technical for homebuyers and tenants. Communication with these external users is therefore often handled through emails, documents, client portals and separate conversations.
This project explored how Ed Controls could provide homebuyers with a simplified communication layer while keeping construction teams in control of the internal workflow.
Design process
Define
Turn primary and secondary research into clear needs and requirements.
Ideate
Develop concept directions based on the research insights.
Design
Translate the selected concept into a complete interface.
Test
Validate the concept and design with multiple participants.
Ed Controls context
Administrator
Accountable
Manager
Support
Responsible
Consulted
Informed
Reporter
Accountable
The accountable is the person who owns the project. This user has full access to the project and can edit the settings of the project.
assigns the tickets from the reporters to a responsible
Reporter
The Reporter is a limited-access role in Ed Controls. This user can create and follow tickets within the drawings or project areas assigned to them, but only sees the tickets they reported themselves.
currently used for homebuyers
Research
Research Methods
Personas
Translate the research into clear user needs, goals and usage contexts.
Interviews
Understand where communication becomes unclear and what information they need most.
Desk research
Understand common UI practices used for tickets, progress, documents and communication.
User testing
Validate the concept and check if the interface was clear enough for non-technical users.
Benchmark study
Compare client portals to identify useful patterns for tickets, progress, and communication.
Journey mapping
Identify the most important communication moments, uncertainties and required actions.
Key insights
01
Not feasible as a client portal
Communication is fundamentally phase-dependent
02
03
Buyers need clarity, not data
Homebuyer communication needs to be controlled by the construction team
04
05
Requests should stay separate from internal tickets until reviewed
clearer communication,
control over the process.
