HOA Violation Management
TL;DR
As the sole UX designer, I led the design of an internal platform that helps Home Partners of America manage 100+ HOA violations daily. By streamlining workflows, centralizing communication, and introducing a task-driven system, I helped reduce case handling time by over 50% and nearly doubled agent capacity. The solution was launched as an MVP and received highly positive feedback from stakeholders and end users.
Team
1 x UX Designer
1 x Product Manager
3 x Developer
Timeline
Jun 2022 - Dec 2022
Role
UX Research
UX Design
HOA Violation Management Is Broken
Who is Home Partner of America (HPA)
A U.S. real estate company
Manages 40K+ properties
Have 70K+ residents
Receivs 100+ HOA violations everyday
Problem We're Facing
Low efficiency
Email overload
Lack of visibility and tracking
“I have to handle and update every case manually—it takes too much time.”
“I often need to wait for my manager to tell me what to do next.”
“It’s hard to track the same case across different platforms.”
Solution Overview
From Chaos to Clarity
Smart Inbox
Automatically categorizes and highlights important violation emails to reduce manual sorting and missed updates.
Task Driven
Provides step-by-step guidance with clear tasks, helping agents handle violations efficiently without second-guessing.
Progress Tracking
Offers real-time visibility into case status and history, improving team alignment and reducing follow-up gaps.
Violation Dashboard
Delivers a centralized overview of all active cases, enabling smarter prioritization and faster decision-making.
From Questions to Clarity
Kickoff
Pushing Back and Starting with Research
Like many B2B projects, my PM handed me a PRD and user flow during our first meeting and expected me to jump straight into wireframing.
But I knew that skipping research would lead to design built on assumptions. After a few rounds of (friendly) negotiation, I managed to push back—and won time to start with research. I had zero background in HOA at the time, and I knew understanding the context was the only way to design a meaningful solution.
Weekly Sync with Stakeholders
Understand the each WHYs and HOWs in Workflow
To understand the context and pain points, I actively communicated with the business team during the weekly meetings, and I knew:
Managing cases across multiple platforms made it difficult to track and follow up effectively.
Every step had to be completed manually, which consumed significant time and energy.
With only one shared inbox, agents wasted hours sorting and chasing emails.
1:1 Interviews with Agents
What Our Agents Were Really Struggling With
To better understand the emotional and practical challenges faced by the HOA team, I conducted 1-on-1 interviews with four agents—and uncovered the struggles behind their daily routines.
They felt lost, constantly unsure of what the next step should be in each case.
They felt overwhelmed, as a small team had to keep up with over 1,000 cases every day.
They felt unrecognized, doing most of the heavy lifting without a way to show their contributions.
Turning Research into Direction
Lack of visibility limits tracking and control
Email overload creates unnecessary noise
Task-Driven
Clear & Connected
Smarter Emails
Market Needs
A workflow that’s easier to follow, train, and prioritize, especially for agents dealing with large volumes of cases.
Business Needs
A centralized system that connects violations, communication, and task status into a single, trackable flow.
Refine Use Case and Break Down PRD
After figuring out design principles, I had a call with PM to refine the use case together, and also discuss how to break down the whole project into smaller pieces for prioritized and tracking.
As a user, I want to view all violation status…
As a user, I want to create new violation…
As a user, I want to know the next step…
As a user, I want to view case history…
As a user, I want to check email for the case…
As a user, I want to check email for this case…
Violation List Page - dashboard and table (part 1)
Design in Progress
HOA-001
JC
Violation List Page - create new violation (part 2)
Design Backlog
HOA-002
JC
Violation Detail Page - task flow (part 3)
Design Backlog
HOA-003
JC
After figuring out design principles, I had a call with PM to refine the use case together, and also discuss how to break down the whole project into smaller pieces for prioritized and tracking.
Design Goal
Create a task-oriented platform that streamlines HOA violation handling, improves communication efficiency, and gives teams better visibility into case progress.
Success Metrics
We defined success based on measurable improvements in workflow performance:
Reduce average handling time per violation case
Lower drop-offs or delays during multi-step workflows
Increase the number of cases an agent can complete daily
From Problem to Platform
Synthesis
Translate Insights to Design Principles
Platform Overview
How the Key Screens Work Together
Before diving into specific features, here’s an overview of the platform’s two core pages. Together, they support a complete workflow, from managing case queues to taking action within each violation.
Violation Dashboard
Gives managers and agents a clear overview of all active violations, helping them prioritize and delegate work efficiently.
Violation Detail
Centralizes all case-related actions, communication history, and status tracking—so agents can handle each violation from start to finish in one place.
Features
From Principles to Product
Turning ideas into interaction, these features were designed around three key principles: Guided Tasks to remove guesswork, Clear & Connected to reduce tool-switching, and Smarter Emails to cut through the noise. Here’s how they work in practice.
Auto-Categorized Email Inbox
Automatically links incoming emails to the right violation case, so agents no longer waste time searching across an unstructured inbox.
Highlights only action-relevant messages, helping agents avoid miscommunication and focus on what truly needs attention.
Structured and Flexible Task Flow
A structured task flow guides agents step by step, reducing confusion and the need for constant instructions.
Flexible controls allow agents to skip tasks with context, making handoffs smoother and better suited for real-world scenarios.
Case Progress Bar
A visual progress bar lays out each task in the case, helping agents quickly understand what’s been done and what’s next, without digging through multiple tabs.
Reference links under communication tasks let agents access past emails or files instantly, reducing time spent searching and preventing miscommunication.
Overview Dashboard
A centralized dashboard shows case statuses and responsibilities at a glance, helping managers quickly assess workload and make better resource decisions.
Task-level visibility enables agents to spot urgent actions, avoid missing deadlines, and better prioritize their daily work.
How Feedback Made the Design Better
Collecting feedback wasn’t a one-time step, it was a continuous loop. By sharing design progress in weekly meetings, I gathered input from both PMs and business stakeholders, uncovered edge cases, and refined the experience through multiple iterations.
Iteration #1
Add New Violation Modal
To add a new violation, users had to upload the violation document and fill in related property data through a lengthy form.
Problem
Too many fields made the form exhausting to complete, especially for agents handling high volumes of cases.
Goal
Simplify the input process and make the form easier and faster to complete.
Add New Violation Modal
1st Iteration
Improvement
1. Users can use the uploaded document as a reference while filling out the form.
2. Guides users step by step: upload → search → fill; to reduce confusion.
Add New Violation Modal
Other Alternaitves
Why Not Them
Unable to refer to the uploaded document while filling in the form.
Extra clicks were needed to switch tabs, breaking user flow.
Add New Violation Modal
2nd Iteration
Improvement
1. Added clearer section titles to guide users through each part of the form.
2. Covered edge cases upfront to reduce confusion and rework.
Iteration #2
Communication History Widget
This widget displays all related emails in one place, allowing agents to track past communications within the case context.
Problem
Lack of hierarchy made it difficult for agents to scan and locate the right email quickly.
Goal
Introduce clear visual hierarchy to help users identify and access the right communication faster.
Communication History Widget
1st Iteration
Improvement
1. Introduced visual hierarchy to make emails easier to scan and read.
2. Displayed more info like sender and timestamp info to help users quickly locate specific messages.
Communication History Widget
2nd Iteration
Improvement
1. Added filters to let agents quickly sort messages by type or sender.
2. Tagged senders with clear identity labels to reduce confusion.
3. Visually connected related emails to help users follow the conversation thread.
Iteration #3
Violation Detail
A centralized view to present all violation-related data in a clear and scannable format, helping agents quickly assess and act.
Problem
Too much information displayed in a flat layout, making it hard to read and scan quickly.
Goal
Group and organize key data into visual sections to improve clarity and scalability.
Violation Detail
1st Iteration
Improvement
1. Unified the text length to improve scanability and alignment.
2. Moved less important data into secondary sections to reduce overload.
Violation Detail
2nd Iteration
Improvement
1. Grouped related data into tabs for better focus and reduced clutter.
2. Enhanced visual structure to improve scanability and user experience.
Driving Efficiency at Scale
Deliverable
What I Designed
End-to-End Violation Journey Design
Defined and mapped a complete violation handling flow—from intake to resolution—translating complex operations into structured, trackable task modules.
Modular Interface System in Figma
Delivered a scalable UI framework including dashboard, task cards, detail views, and reusable components, built to support flexible workflows and future iterations.
After MVP product launch for a trial run, we conducted the first round of data collection for the product and got very positive feedback for the following metrics.
214
%
Faster
Reduced case handling time with guided task flow and centralized communication.
Now: ~ 20mins/case
Before: ~ 45mins/case
80
%
More Cases/Day
Helped agents manage more cases per day through improved visibility and fewer manual steps.
Now: ~ 18 cases
Before: ~ 10 cases
Catalina Lopera
Design Manager at Home Partner of America
"…Junjin is an amazing UX Designer and I would recommend him to any company looking for top talent. Not only can he create accesible and clean design systems and prototypes, he also has a critical mind that is able to simplify and act on complex problems. He follows UX practices and user research when approaching challenges to ensure user-centric solutions. Additionally, he is a great team player, always ready to help and collaborate!"
Takeaways
Growing Through Challenges
Into Unknown
As a new intern with no knowledge of U.S. real estate or HOA, I actively explored the domain by studying competitors, shadowing agents, and attending industry events.
Speak Out
As the only designer on the team, I learned to advocate for design by clearly communicating its value and pushing back when user needs were overlooked.
Thanks for Reading
Junjin Chen | 2024 All Right Reserved