Housable got in touch during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, seeing the perfect opportunity to finally move digital. The business had been around for a few years, making a name for itself locally, but now with COVID taking a foothold and the majority of Californians stuck at home Housable saw an opportunity for some ADU DIY and to help others cash in.

They were the only place to provide Design, Permit and Build all in one place — needing someone to help create a modern, digital portal for everything they were doing; to help reduce staff time and make everything a little more personal.

This is how we did it.

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Housable were never looking for a branding heavy approach (largely due to budget concerns) so we began with a lot of conversations about what they had and was a must and how far we should work on the Brand before focusing on the product.

With a quick refinement of the logo done and finding some colours to flank the House Blue, it was time to form groundwork for a Design System. Rather than mostly focusing on inputs etc. I spent time creating a lot of repeatable design elements that we decided upon early on that would be the foundation of whatever we build.

With the foundations set, my focus switched to the marketing site. Early on we settled on a friendly-educational approach with the tone of voice (some might say the David Attenborough of ADUs) that would make all the complexity around ADUs more understandable.

The homepage was meant to be that gateway; adapting to every region of California (with California_ being replaced with San Diego, Oakland etc.), an introduction to the process and a look at the results of many happy new owners of an ADU.

That filtering into detailed Case Studies with quick-summaries for those who knew what they were looking for, Services to promote what is available and an ADU marketplace to connect those wanting an ADU with those providing the services.

The member portal was an all encompassing endeavour, meant to take a potential ADU owner from concept to realisation.

We knew we wanted to create some sort of guideline for every new potential customer - deciding on the left-sided menu to be that guide. Taking you from your property check → construction.

I worked on creating a fundamental consistency throughout the portal using your project status, project information, location as well as the latest available information (especially in regards to zoning).