Template Builder
Revamping Tenant Inc.’s Email Builder to Improve Customer Engagement
Design Systems
User Research
Project Summary
I revamped the email builder for Tenant Inc.’s software platform, which provides frontend and backend software solutions for self-storage operators. The existing emailing tool was basic and had very limited capabilities for its users. The email builder I designed provided our users with a full-fledged tool capable of creating marketing campaigns and transactional emails.
I had two main requirements for this project:
1. The tool needed to be simple to use for a user base that is not overly familiar with technology or design.
2. The tool needed to allow our user base to maintain brand consistency.
This is powerful for our users because creating pleasant and professional communication with their customers give storage operators an edge in converting more customers and driving up sales.
Key Features
Creating and managing templates
Every template that our users create show up in this section that provides an overview of their communication templates in a table format that’s easily identifiable. A user can also create a new template directly from this library.
Creating & managing
templates
The Process.
The Challenge
How can I create a tool for companies to have better engagement and overall communication with their customers, while deliver this project in our allotted time?
I needed to create a tool that would make it easier for self-storage companies to communicate with their customers by creating more engaging emails. The biggest hurdle in delivering this design was the limited timeframe I had to complete it. Because of this time restraint, I needed to scope the feature’s complexity so that it was able to fulfill the needs of our users but without getting too complicated so that developing it would require more time than we had.
Email Design Analysis
Understanding user needs - My mission was to give users the ability to create both transactional emails and marketing emails. Transactional emails are fairly basic, and only require basic text. Meanwhile marketing emails are more complex and involve overlaying text on images, geographic information, and several other components. I needed a design simple enough to quickly produce transactional emails, but comprehensive enough to meet the more expansive needs of marketing emails. I understood that this tools will be mostly used by people who don't have any design knowledge being that their focused job is property management. While doing competitive analysis, I designed some minimal emails to understand their anatomy and responsiveness.
Marketing Email
storage
Your Space Is Ready
Thank your for your reservation, your code is: WL0011-481
Unit C768 Specifications:
10’x10’, 1st Floor, Outdoor Access,
Household Storage (No Vehicles)
IN-STORE
$199.09
WEB PRICE
$104.5
Finish Rental
West Coast Storage Outlet 1710 West 2nd St, Pomona, CA 91766
Office Hours:
M-F 9:30am - 6:00pm
SAT 10:00am - 6:00pm
SUN 10:00am - 6:00pm
Gate Hours:
M-F 9:30am - 6:00pm
SAT 10:00am - 6:00pm
SUN 10:00am - 6:00pm
You Can’t Put a Price on Peace of Mind
The stuff you put into your storage unit isn’t just stuff. Watch our insurance guide video to find out what’s best for you.
Protection Plan
Never pay a late fee again
The stuff you put into your storage unit isn’t just stuff. Watch our insurance guide video to find out what’s best for you.
Protection Plan
Follow Storelocal Storage Co-op
Storelocal, 4920 Campus Dr, Suite B, Newport Beach, CA
www.storelocal.com | (123) 456-7890 Unsubscribe
Header
Image
Space
Information
Property
Information
Upsell
Footer
Header
Footer
Content -
Rich Text Editor
Functionality
Transactional Email
storage
Thank you for your payment!
We have successfully processed payment for your 5’ x 10’ storage space, you may find your receipt here.
Invoice ID: in_1NNAA5|vcqWR3dFD5tPwAVVZ
Invoice Date: 07/13/2023
Bill To: Kiran
Total: $15.00 USD
You can manage your billing by visiting
My Account.
Follow Storelocal Storage Co-op
Storelocal, 4920 Campus Dr, Suite B, Newport Beach, CA
www.storelocal.com | (123) 456-7890
I decided to use building blocks as the core of my design. Building blocks give users easy to use and ready designed assets to ensure that they’re able to keep brand consistency through a simple workflow. While researching competing tools like Hubspot or Mailchimp, I learned:
That these tools offered much more complex solutions than what our users actually needed.
The core functions of these tools that I wanted to ensure that we included in our tool.
By creating blocks the project could be phase out and prioritize to what is needed to be delivered first. We staggered block development to ease the load on our dev team, focusing initially on creating the header, content, and footer blocks for transactional emails.
Modular Block Design
Building blocks gives users easy to use and ready designed assets - One example of this is the header block. The header block asks the user for certain information, then once it is filled, it produces a pre-designed header that the user did not have to build from scratch. We helped with the design of the layout and the user can define the content.
Creating Your Template
Create your templates in a two step process and manage them in a table - In the first step you fill out 4 forms about the template you are creating. Then you proceed to the edit / preview step where the user has all the tools to create engaging templates.
Setting Up The Template
In the configuration step the user enters general information needed to start creating the template. They can enable the properties that can use these templates (if this company has multiple self storage properties). Add a name, the category of the template, and choose between email or text format to be sent.
Edit & Preview
Here is everything a customer needs to create engaging communication templates. This layout is has a split view between the design tools on the left, and the preview of the communication design on the right.
