Halfpenny Management
Project Details
Illustrator
Photoshop
After Effects (Lottie)
Company Staff
Leasing Offices
Introduction
Halfpenny Management is a Philadelphia-based property management company that has been serving clients since 1976. Despite their high-quality services, their outdated website and branding failed to reflect their expertise and reliability.
In this project, I redesigned their visual identity and developed a cohesive design system. I also integrated a modern content management system that enables independent apartment listings, ensuring accurate updates while enhancing brand appeal to attract and retain clients.
Skills Involved
Challenges
Previous website suffered from inconsistencies in visual design, which affected the overall user experience and brand perception.
Limited time and resources required prioritizing the most critical features based on user feedback.
Solutions
Design the website with an integrated content system for independent listings to make design system consistent.
Prioritizing the highest rated features requested by user was absolutely essential when faced with time constraints.
Impact
Business Goals
Optimize Internal Operations
With no CMS in place, property listings and updates had to be managed manually, making operations inefficient.
We introduced a scalable system that streamlined content management, ensuring consistency across property listings, tenant communications, and client dashboards.
Resource allocation was planned strategically to enable seamless coordination with stakeholders, photographers, and developers.
Facilitate a Smooth Transition
Halfpenny Management needed a stronger digital presence to reflect its modern, client-first approach. The previous site lacked a cohesive design and structure, so we built a visual identity from the ground up to communicate expertise, transparency, and efficiency.
Since stakeholders were used to a manual workflow, transitioning to a structured design system required careful consideration.
Early feedback showed struggles with adoption, reinforcing the need for a simple interface and minimal technical jargon to ease the learning curve.
User Goals
Prioritize User Needs
With no structured backend, adding or updating properties was time-consuming. We prioritized launching the most impactful features first—property pages were the focus, while unit listings and other features rolled out in later phases.
Improve Information Accessibility
Navigating property details on the old site was difficult due to a lack of structure. We ensured key information was easy to find, and after launch, stakeholder feedback led to refinements, such as increasing visibility for pet and parking policies.
Defining the Problem
"How can we redesign Halfpenny Management’s website to strengthen brand identity, streamline content management, improve user engagement, and enhance user experience with limited resources?"
research
Competitor Analysis
Identifying and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of Halfpenny’s competitors.
- Missing Property Search: Consequences include frustrated users, reduced engagement, and potential customer loss.
- Accessibility Issues: Lead to exclusion and hinder the user experience for individuals with disabilities.
Content Audit
Spreadsheet evaluated the effectiveness and relevance of all the content on Halfpenny Management’s official website.
- Poor Responsive Design: Can lead to decreased user engagement, lower search engine rankings, and reduced mobile traffic.
- Poor Word Count: Aim for 300-600 words to enhance search engine understanding and potentially improve rankings.
Card Sort Exercise
A research technique where participants categorize different features for a website based on their perceived importance.
- Neighborhood Guidelines: Participants showed a keen interest in accessing neighborhood guidelines, which were missing on the previous website.
- Prioritizing Easy Search: Interactive map search was not as appealing compared to other search features available on competitor sites. , to clearly indicate unit availability and details.
ideation
Customer Profiles
Offers insights for identifying problems, prioritizing features, and enhancing communication between design teams and stakeholders.
Findings
- Implement visually appealing filters and sorting options to make information access easier.
- Use visual cues, like icons and color codes, to clearly indicate unit availability and details.
- Provide additional visualizations of properties to aid in evaluating options and making informed decisions.
reflections
Simplify Explanations to Clients
I found that explaining technical terms to clients led to difficulties and manual changes, highlighting the need for clearer, simpler explanations.
Prioritize Design for Ongoing Adjustments
Stakeholders requested changes to info that wasn't apart of CMS, which required going back and updates to design system to accommodate previously-static info.
Taking Note of Additional Assets
Although my primary goal was to design site, creating additional assets, such as photography, also played a crucial role in the success of the redesign.
design system
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