Employer
Year
2022
Role
UI Designer
Team
UI/UX Department
1. What uHabi Is
uHabi is a web platform and native iOS and Android app that allows tenants to access information, processes, and documents related to their lease. It is part of Unik System Design’s product suite for large Danish property administration companies and serves as the primary digital touchpoint between tenants and property managers.
The platform supports a wide range of tenant needs, from everyday communication and document access to more complex, regulated processes tied to tenancy lifecycle events.
2. The Core Challenges
➀ From a UX perspective, the primary challenge was translating complex legal and administrative processes into experiences that felt clear, safe, and approachable for tenants. Many flows—such as move-out inspections—span multiple phases and contain rules that are difficult to explain without overwhelming the user. Long forms and multi-step processes had to be broken down carefully to reduce friction and anxiety.
➁ Technically, the product relied on legacy integrations and inconsistent data structures, which constrained how cleanly some experiences could be designed. These limitations required close collaboration with developers and product owners to find pragmatic solutions that still respected the user.
➂ Organizationally, Unik System Design had recently undergone a merger. Multiple teams were effectively building “the same product” across platforms, and the UX team often acted as the connective tissue aligning design decisions and shared principles. Despite having a strong UX advocate in leadership, overall UX maturity in the organization was low. Many long-standing processes had been unchanged for decades, making user-centered change slow and, at times, costly.
➃ From a UI standpoint, an additional challenge was balancing platform-native patterns with the need for a cohesive cross-platform product. Deciding when to strictly follow iOS and Android conventions—and when to bend them—was key to delivering a unified experience without sacrificing familiarity.
3. My Role
I worked as a UI/UX Designer within a dedicated UX team. My primary responsibility was translating UX flows and wireframes into polished, platform-specific interfaces for iOS andAndroid, while the web product was on a different timeline almost completed by another designer.
I collaborated closely with UX designers to refine flows, challenge assumptions, and ensure that complex interactions were expressed clearly through visual hierarchy, spacing, and feedback.
I also worked alongside developers to ensure that designs were realistic to implement within the technical constraints of the platform and existing systems.
Example of flow by UX Department. Flow showing incorporation of a printed form that tenants before had to download, print, fill and turn in. This particular form is Application for keeping a cat.
Example of wireframes by UX Department.
Overview of steps and branching for terminating a lease with final UI for iOS. Below the main flow are possible error states shown.
4. Approach
We treated uHabi as one product with multiple expressions, rather than separate experiences per platform. UX designers defined shared flows, structures, and mental models, while UI work split into platform-specific implementations.
Using Material 3 Theme Builder and iOS community UI kits, we focused on creating interfaces that felt native to each platform while still sharing a common visual language and brand tone. Navigation patterns, interaction feedback, and system components followed platform conventions wherever possible, giving users a sense of familiarity and trust.
For complex processes and long forms, we emphasized:
clear step-by-step progression
predictable feedback and validation
calm, reassuring UI that signaled safety and progress
This approach helped make regulated and sometimes stressful tenant tasks feel manageable rather than bureaucratic.
Example of custom component with a native feel to sit within a Material driven Android design.
iOS: Steps for creating a task for your landlord 1 / 2
iOS: Steps for creating a task for your landlord 2 / 2
iOS: Lease information for a four bedroom apartment.
Both iOS and Android apps supported light and dark modes.
5. Results
While the product continued to evolve, the UX team’s work had a tangible impact on both the experience and the organization. In several cases, our designs exposed unnecessary complexity in backend systems and processes, leading management to invest in simplifying legacy services—most notably in onboarding and signup flows.
We successfully delivered:
intuitive guidance through complex tenant processes
platform-native UI that felt clean and familiar
designs built on existing libraries, giving developers a strong head start
A core principle throughout the project was that business complexity should never become the user’s problem—and in multiple instances, the design work helped shift internal conversations toward that mindset.
6. Learnings
This project deepened my understanding of designing native mobile applications and building interfaces aligned with both Material Design and Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.
I also learned firsthand that delivering great UX often comes with real organizational and technical cost. Balancing user advocacy against constraints like legacy systems, timelines, and internal resistance is rarely straightforward. Learning when to push, when to compromise, and how to make incremental improvements without losing sight of the user is something I continue to refine.
