CUApts: Information architecture for email newsletter
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
4 Months
Team
2 Project Managers
2 Product Designers
4 Developers
2 Product Marketer
Platform
Figma, Figjam
CONTEXT
What is CUApts?
The search for off-campus housing in Ithaca is insane. Launched in 2024, CU Apts helps you search for off-campus housing, share apartment reviews, and explore your best options.
In Spring 2025, CUApts aimed to launch an email newsletter to deliver timely housing updates during housing season and expand their user base. My goal was to research the main pain points in the housing discovery process, identify what could be included, and design information architecture for the newsletter.
USER RESEARCH
Housing Discovery Process Painpoints
From the key findings from over 20 user interview, I summarized that users value word of mouth and advice from upperclassmen.
“Maybe a student spotlight on subleases would be nice. I’d also like to see new available housing, especially from legit or highly rated landlords.”
Cornell Sophomore
“I want to see advice from upperclassmen in the newsletter—it’s always super helpful seeing past tips. I might even post advice myself”
Cornell Junior
One challenge is that there’s limited useful housing information available in the spring semester aside from subleases. Based on these insights, I made a low fidelity sketch for the newsletter
The first and second halves of the vertical scroll email newsletter
GOAL FOR THE NEWSLETTER
Deliver Timely Housing Updates and Expand CUApts User Base
From the user interview results, I identified timeliness as the top priority for the newsletter. Because apartment listings can be taken down or booked within a short timeframe, users emphasized the need to receive information as quickly and up-to-date as possible. From that, I changed the design priority to be the following
Recently released/vacant
Featuring recently vacated housing to address the pain point of users not knowing when units became available
Re-usable topics
To ensure timeliness, I worked with PMs to make the newsletter weekly and introduced reusable sections to ease the PMM’s workload.
Consistency & Redirection
I aligned the newsletter visuals with the website and added redirects to drive traffic and increase branding awareness
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Landlord Highlight Information Architecture
In user research, many students noted they didn’t know when housing became vacant. To solve this pain point, we added a ‘recently vacated’ section. From low- to mid-fidelity, I reorganized listings so users could easily see newly available units with reviews of landlords.
“It feels more like an ad — when we’re searching for housing, we don’t really care about the landlord; what matters most is the location and the price.”
From user testing
However, In user testing, many participants shared that during their apartment search, they cared more about price and location than the landlord. I realized structuring cards by landlord creates too many edge cases—since many individual landlords in Ithaca only list one apartment, this would result in excessive blank space on newsletter.
Low-fidelity
Landlord Highlight
Recently Vacant
Top Loved
Medium & high-fidelity
Recently Vacant
Close to Collegetown
Budget-friendly
Top Loved
Highest Rated
Most Reviewed
Improved Information Architecture: removed landlord highlight, separated Recently Vacant and Top Loved.
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Design System Apartment Card Iteration
I followed the design system’s card style for consistency and, considering touch targets on both mobile and desktop, removed nonessential details, keeping only the information relevant to each section.
Design System Apartment Card
Collegetown Plaza
4.3
111 Dryden Rd
19 Reviews
$1K - $1.2K
2-4 Bed
Recently Released
111 Dryden Rd
$1.2K
2 Bed
Most Loved
Collegetown Plaza
4.3
111 Dryden Rd
$1.2K
2 Bed
KEY DESIGN DECISIONS
Unsubscribe Flow
As a newly launched service on CUApts, I want to gather user feedback to confirm if the newsletter address real pain points. In the unsubscribe flow, users are redirected to the website and asked a few questions to share feedback.
Two-step unsubscribe popup after redirection
AFTER TPM AND DEVELOPER SYNC
Design Technical Constraints
After syncing with the developer, I realized there were several technical constraints on my design. For example, I wanted to personalize each email with the recipient’s name, but the current system doesn’t support that. From this, I learned the importance of aligning design ideas with technical feasibility early on, and adapting solutions to work within existing system limitations.
SIDEQUEST
Landlord Messaging Modal Redesign
Apart from the newsletter, I also worked on redesigning the landlord messaging modal by cleaning up the UI and making the information input process more intuitive.
Entry point for landlord messaging modal
The landlord messaging modal is essentially a two-step form that allows users to send an email directly from each housing page. In my redesign, I focused on improving the information structure, adding features to streamline the process, and reformatting the developer handoff page.
Heres the before & after:
Before
There’s inconsistency in font sizes, and the current sizes are slightly too large for web. The form input are too close to each other and does not look like typical UI patterns
After
Updated fonts and buttons to align with the design system, added icons that match the rest of the website, and made modal visually clearer and more distinct when interacting with the element (e.g. price range selector)
Before
Modal is different length than the previous page, slight inconsistency in font sizes, text hierarchy is a bit unclear
After
Requested a new email template from the PMM, adjusted the modal to match the width of the previous page, and replaced the 'Save email draft' checkbox with autosave
Responsive design & components design for mobile:
May 2025
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The first and second halves of the vertical scroll email newsletter
FINAL DESIGN
Responsive Design for Mobile & Desktop
The newsletter design features property cards consistent with the website, encouraging users to click through and get redirected. Each edition also includes advice from an upperclassman, with flexible sections that product marketers can swap in to create variations and maintain user interest. The design is fully responsive across desktop and mobile, with attention to email formatting.
Desktop
Desktop substitute sections
Mobile substitute sections
Mobile
REFLECTION
What Did I Learn?
This was my first project on the DTI team and my first time collaborating with a PM, TPM ,and developers. Facilitate a dev handoff, holding weekly check-ins, and learning to balance design vision with feasibility and the realities of the development process.
I had a great experience working with such a supportive team and am excited about the impact this project can have on Cornell students. Being able to work on something real and meaningful makes me proud. As someone currently looking for housing and using CUApts myself, I’m excited to see our newsletter launch in Fall 2025 and can’t wait to subscribe!
DTI Designers & CU Apts Team Socials!
Contact me at zw757@cornell.edu
fun fact: tomato is my favorite veggie(fruit) if u can’t tell:)