Case Study 03
Transforming a complex housing resource library into a user-centric guidance tool, validated through 13 usability sessions with real housing stakeholders across government, state agencies, and community partners.
Overview
The Building Communities Playbook is an interactive tool developed for grantees and housing stakeholders to quickly identify and implement strategic solutions for local housing crises. A functional prototype had been built, but it needed rigorous usability testing to ensure that complex housing strategies were accessible and actionable for local government staff and community partners.
Users were struggling to navigate a vast landscape of housing resources. The Toolkit's information architecture wasn't meeting users where they were: people don't search for tools, they search for answers to specific housing problems.
"Users don't search for tools; they search for answers to specific problems. The IA needed to be reoriented around Housing Challenges, not technical strategy names."- Laurence L
Key Metrics
Research & Discovery
I facilitated 13 qualitative usability testing sessions with representative housing stakeholders, going beyond simple task completion to understand how users perceived the toolkit's mental model. Three friction patterns emerged consistently across all sessions.
Users strongly preferred "Strategies": a strategy implies something adaptable to local context, whereas a solution implies a single fixed answer. One word change, significant trust shift.
Success stories were the most valued content, but only when filterable by community size and region. Generic success stories felt irrelevant; locally comparable ones drove engagement.
Users navigated by housing challenge (e.g., high rental costs, lack of supply), not by strategy name. The IA needed to meet users at their problem, not at a technical taxonomy.
User Personas
Research identified three primary user groups with distinct needs and workflows. Testing focused on the most active participants to ensure findings were representative and actionable.
Process
Facilitated qualitative sessions with representative housing stakeholders (local government staff, state agencies, and community partners) using a functional prototype as the test vehicle.
Participants rated the prototype on a 1–7 scale across key task flows. The 2.0–2.4 average validated the foundation while precisely pinpointing Guided Search as the primary UX friction point.
Testing findings fed directly into mid-fidelity wireframe updates, simplifying the homepage, increasing navigational breadcrumbs, and repositioning critical content above the fold.
Translated research findings into executive-ready presentations, using 100% user consensus data to prioritize localized filtering as the Phase 2 roadmap centerpiece.
Final Solution
The testing results transformed the Playbook's design direction from a standard resource library into a user-centric guidance tool. Final recommendations prioritized relevance, discoverability, and challenges-based navigation, with the new IA approach now a core component of the Phase 2 implementation plan.
Reposition critical content (success stories, strategy infographics) above the fold. Diversify imagery to reflect suburban, urban, and rural housing contexts for broader user identification.
Rename "Curated Resources" to "Learn More About [Strategy]" and replace generic FAQ-style labels with descriptive, action-oriented titles. Testing showed users ignored standard link labels entirely.
Integrate community size and region filters within the success story map. 100% of participants required this to trust the relevance of examples to their specific local context.
Re-center the entire navigation around "Housing Challenges" (e.g., high rental costs, lack of supply) rather than technical strategy names. Meet users at their problem, not at a taxonomy.
Reflection
Research confirmed users search by challenge, not by tool. Restructuring the IA around problem-based entry points wasn't just a UX fix; it was a fundamental reframe of what the product is for.
Low response rates from elected officials underscored the need for 8+ week lead times and internal partnerships to secure high-level stakeholder feedback.
Users ignored standard FAQ-style links entirely. Optimizing labels to be descriptive and action-oriented proved that copy is as much a design decision as layout.
Participants valued "Lessons Learned" as much as success stories. Broadening the content strategy to include risk-mitigation insights helped users avoid repeating common industry mistakes.