Check out the app on the App Store: App Store Link

Check out the app on Google Play Store: Store Link

Bedrock Residence is a premium short-let apartment business in Lagos, Nigeria, offering luxury, fully-serviced apartments designed for convenience and comfort. They focus on providing a high-end living experience, ensuring that guests feel at home while enjoying the amenities and services of a fully-equipped residence.

At the time this project began, Bedrock had a basic website that allowed users to book their stay and provided a contact number & email for any inquiries or requests.

With two primary user groups - guests, who book and stay at the apartments, and partners, who refer guests to Bedrock for commission payments - I was tasked with solving the following key challenges this setup presented:

On the guest side, challenges included:

Limited Guest Experience: Guests couldn’t access their booking history, and the service request process was not tailored to individual needs.

Tourist Support: Many guests (often tourists unfamiliar with Lagos, Nigeria), had difficulty finding local attractions and places to unwind during their stay.

Communication Gaps: Bedrock staff had trouble communicating urgent updates, like facility outages for instance, since email was their primary means of communication.

On the partner side, challenges included:

Lack of Transparency: Partners couldn’t track their referral and commission history.

Verification Issues: Bedrock had no structured way to verify the identities of partners, raising concerns about trust and accountability.

After researching industry best practices and gathering users’ insights, it became clear that the best approach to address these challenges was to develop a mobile app. This app would cater to both guests and partners, integrating features that align with their needs and Bedrock’s business goals.

As the sole designer on the team, I was responsible for ideating and creating a design that balances aesthetics, users’ needs, and business goals, which meant that collaboration was a key consideration throughout the project. I worked closely with the developers, product manager, and other stakeholders to make sure that we were always in alignment, considering that we had a short time frame for the project.

The ultimate goal of the business is to create a prosperous company that provides customers with valuable services

Seamless Guest Experience: Making it easy for guests to discover, book, and manage their stays, while keeping a record of their booking history.

Personalized Services: Simplifying the process for guests to request services and find local hotspots tailored to their preferences.

Partner Management: Providing partners with a system to track referrals and commissions while ensuring identity verification.

Effective Communication: Giving Bedrock staff a direct way to communicate important updates and news to users.

Upon launching the app, users choose whether to enter as a guest or a partner, setting the stage for a personalized experience.

One of the first challenges was to figure out how to onboard guests in a way that made their experience smooth and enjoyable.

We knew that guests would need to create accounts to access features like booking history and personalized services. However, we didn’t want the registration process to feel like a barrier, so I designed the onboarding flow to allow guests to explore the app without needing to sign in right away.

This gave them the freedom to browse before committing, with the option to sign in or sign up when they were ready. Multiple sign-in options, such as email and social media logins, were also added to make the process as convenient as possible.

Once inside the app, guests are greeted with a clean and simple interface that displays all available residences, highlighting key information such as location and amenities.

Guests can search for apartments that meet their specific needs or navigate into each residence to book an apartment. This streamlined approach made it easier for guests to find and secure their perfect stay with minimal hassle.

To improve how guests requested services, I designed a simple page that lists all available services. Guests could select a service and send an auto-typed message to staff, allowing for real-time communication.

To ensure a personalized experience, I added a requirement for guests to sign in before making requests and restricted service requests to guests with active bookings.

Collaborating with the developers, we integrated APIs that would provide guests with recommendations for local hotspots, such as restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. based on their location.

I also introduced a "Recommended for You" section, which offered personalized suggestions tailored to the guest’s preferences, enhancing their overall experience during their stay.

For partners, security and confidentiality were key concerns.

Unlike guests, partners needed to sign in or sign up before accessing the app. This was necessary to protect their transactional information and to allow Bedrock to verify their identities before they could start referring guests.

Once signed in, partners are presented with a clean and simple dashboard that displays their referral history and commission earnings. This gave them a clear view of their progress and allows them to track their earnings in real-time.

They could also easily copy their referral link from the dashboard and navigate to detailed booking information for the guests they have referred.

Partners are also allowed to book an apartment on behalf of a guest by navigating through the Discover page and providing the guest’s information before booking.

A common issue for both guests and partners was the need for quick and effective communication with Bedrock staff. To address this, we included a News Hub section in the app, where users could find important updates and offers from Bedrock.

Additionally, a Profile section allowed users to manage their personal information and preferences, ensuring that their experience was tailored to their needs.

As I mentioned at the beginning of my long story, Bedrock’s system relied on a basic website. This website is powered by an external admin platform for handling bookings. Unfortunately, the platform lacks an API, making direct integration into the mobile app impossible. Given the time constraints, building a custom admin platform from scratch wasn't feasible either.

To address this limitation, we implemented a workaround by integrating the external admin system into the mobile app via an iframe - a web component that embeds one web interface within another. This allowed users to make bookings through the existing system while the app seamlessly tracked interactions.

This approach ensured that the app could function effectively with the current system, providing a cohesive experience for users without the immediate need for a complete admin system rebuild.

Working on the Bedrock Residence project was a rewarding experience that allowed me to collaborate with a talented team. We combined different perspectives to create a mobile app that meets the needs of both guests and partners while pushing Bedrock’s business goals forward.

By incorporating feedback into the design process, we identified interface issues early on and made iterative improvements. I’m proud of the final product and excited to see how it evolves in future versions as Bedrock continues to meet the needs of its users.