OVERVIEW
Connecting local contractors to property owners across Asia.
MY ROLE
Solo Product Designer
TIMEFRAME
2024 (2-month project)
LOCATION
Vancouver/Bangkok
HIGHLIGHTS
CONTEXT
Property and business owners in East and Southeast Asia often struggle to find trusted, reliable local contractors.
To see how people were finding property contractors to partner with overseas, I interviewed business owners and dug into local SE Asian online communities. A few key pain points emerged:
💻
Small local businesses have little to no digital footprint, making it hard to find social proof and examples of their work
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Property owners rely on others' personal experience working with a contractor to inform their decisions
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Overseas property owners want to work with multilingual contractors
Similar solutions within the space didn't address these limitations.
🕵
Lacked social proof. It took extra effort for customers to do their own research to “vibe check” a company.
😵💫
Visually overwhelmed with ads, creating an unpleasant and confusing browsing experience for potential customers.
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Only supported the local language and catered to local customers
PROCESS
Organizing product requirements with Object-Oriented UX
Using OOUX methodology, I defined the “objects” of our product- the key players like our users, companies, services, etc. Mapping the important data relating to each object in a spreadsheet provides a bird’s-eye view of the entire product to align with stakeholders and informs the product's architecture.
Reducing time-to-build with an established component library
For a 0→1 project, speed and consistency are critical. Rather than designing a component library from scratch, I based the product's UI kit on MUI, giving the development team a well-documented, ready-to-use resource while keeping design decisions consistent and scalable from the start.
OUTCOMES
Helping overseas business owners find the right local contractor, anywhere in Asia
The directory's core experience needed to handle a wide range of services across multiple countries and cities. The search flow that lets users filter by service category, location, and language - with results that surface key trust signals like ratings and specializations at a glance, making it easy to compare and shortlist companies quickly.
Giving businesses with little online presence a platform to showcase their work
Business pages highlight crucial information for potential customers to decide who they want to work with - location, language, community ratings, and examples of past work. For small businesses with no marketing team, this provides an invaluable digital platform for attracting new customers.
Connecting local contractors to international customers
V1 included localization for languages common to the target region - English, Thai, Japanese, and Chinese to start.
Driving sign-ups by clearly communicating value to two distinct audiences
The directory serves both property service seekers and the contractors who want to be found. I designed marketing pages to speak to each - leading with a clear value props, building trust through social proof and a transparent onboarding flow, and guiding visitors toward conversion with a focused pricing section.
