Use Case 1: The Landlord

To view working Prototype from Use Case, click here.

Persona(s)

The Landlord: Sally-Sue Merryweather

The Tenant: Bekha Monroe

The Project: Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129

The Background

Sally-Sue Merryweather is a popular dessert Chef at Chez Montan’que, a high-end restaurant that serves premium cuisine to a nightly customer base of 300+. She is always researching for new ingredients online and in the locale neighborhood markets along her route to work each day. Recently married to her beau of 8 yrs, Sally-Sue decides to lease out her fabulous Uptown apartment located in the posh Turtle Creek subset of Dallas, TX. Her husband is a real estate property manager and has set up a team to manage her property after she has it leased.

While shopping for figs at Market Figaro, Sally-Sue overhears a conversation between two ladies where one is seeking advice on a great/affordable apartment in the area. Sally-Sue interrupts the ladies and gives the lady seeking an apartment, Bekha Monroe, the details to her newly available apartment for lease stating the following: $950 per month, $950 security deposit at move-in, 12 month lease, available October 1, 2010, $40 application fee and showing photos on Sally-Sue’s iPhone. In return, Bekha gives Sally-Sue her email address (b.monroe@hotmail.com), her available move in date (October 1, 2010) and $40 cash for the application fee. Sally-Sue leaves ‘Market Figaro’ stating she will email over a lease application in a few hours.

Because of this coincidental meeting at Market Figaro, Sally-Sue seeks an online solution to leasing, managing, controlling her property in a way that doesn’t impede her daily routine of researching, menu planning and work too intrusively.

The Assumptions

• A real estate project template for the state of Texas exists in the library with the appropriate forms attached
• Sally-Sue and Bekha are computer literate and understands a signing up process
• All use cases are done in project view mode unless specified differently
• Both Sally-Sue and Bekha have Microsoft Office 2007 and Adobe Acrobat Reader 9
• Bekha and Sally-Sue are trustworthy individuals

The Definitions

• Project Template: defines the initial structure, workflow, tasks to be completed, events, rules and other characteristics of a thing. Project Templates do not have data, but may contain ‘document templates’ associated with it where ‘structured content’ gets mapped.
• Document Template: A file with ‘unstructured content’ with placeholders for ‘structured content’ found in projects or parties. The template contains additional metadata to deal with mapping of data and other various rules.
• Document: A file (that may or may not have originated as a document template) that has value to the user. The system may be able to populate the content inside a document from the project it belongs to, using ‘rules’ defined with a project template.
• Project: represents a living thing that has value to the user that is initially generated by a ‘Project Template’.
• Party: a legal entity, such as a person or organization not defined by a template nor can a unique template be generated from it.
• Library: a dropdown menu that lists pre-defined project templates and document templates as well as user-uploaded templates. It also includes a search field for user filtering.
• Form Document Template: a document template which has form fields as placeholders.
• Form Fields: a field with a unique name that can populated by the user.
• Category: is an area in project or party view for organization specified by title. It comes with an ‘Upload’ button and a search bar for filtering.
• UID: stands for Unique Identification and is embedded within a document for identifying it’s origins within the system .
• Round tripping: the document life cycle between parties until final signatures halts it.
• Pre-Populated: input fields completed by the system based on previous input data.
• Password Encrypted: areas in a project or document with a double layer of accessibility.
• Mouse Over: to move cursor over a link or area to perform or reveal a specified action.

The Process

Sally-Sue, creates a new account.

To create a new user account, Sally-Sue:
• enters her email (this action allows the system to keep in contact with her and acts as the username)
• a password (unique to her for security measures)
• sub-domain URL (which is her unique portal each time she needs access to the system)
• checks the checkbox to activate a bookmark for the future login page tied to her sub-domain (which is for persons who tend to forget to bookmark)
• checks the checkbox (accepting the systems terms and conditions for use).

When completing the above, Sally-Sue:
• presses 'New Account' to activate.

Sally-Sue creates a new project (Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129).

Welcome message appears along with options to creating a new project. To create a new lease, Sally-Sue:
• scrolls through the Library of defined project templates and document templates
• locates the Real Estate Lease in Texas
• double-clicks the project template name activating a dialogue box with pre-structured fields.

In the dialogue box’s pre-structured empty fields, Sally Sue:
• enters a with project title (Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129)
• enters the project address (509 Turtle Creek, Unit 129, Dallas, TX 75219)
• enters the square footage (975 sq ft)
• enters number of bedrooms/bathrooms (2/2)
• enters prospect tenant name and email (Bekha Monroe, b.monroe@hotmail.com) since she collected this data at Market Figaro
• enters the rent amount ($950)
• enters the security deposit ($950)
• enters the pet deposit amount ($500/pet)
• checks the checkbox beside pet deposit indicating it is non-refundable
• enters number of max pets (2 max)
• enters the application fee amount ($40)
• checks the checkbox beside application fee (Paid)
• enters the length of lease (October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011).

Viewable in the dialogue box are images of the document templates that come packaged with the project template. In this case for Texas, those are: a Lease Application (which is a form), a Lease Contract (requires initials and signatures to complete), two Texas-specific addendums (requires signatures) and an optional Pet Agreement (requires signature) for tenants leasing with pets.

After completing the above, Sally-Sue:
• presses ‘Create Project’.

Sally-Sue creates a new party (Bekha Monroe, the tenant)

To complete the new tenant information for the ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’ project just created and begin the round tripping process between Bekha and herself, Sally-Sue:
• selects the Lease Application Form, which has form fields, from the ‘Documents’ category, in the project view, activating a dialogue box.

Within the dialogue box, Sally-Sue double checks the Apartment Details bulleted list based off the initial project creation data fields entry. The list she is double-checking is:
• the pre-populated tenant name (Bekha Monroe)
• the pre-populated email address (b.monroe@hotmail.com)
• the pre-populated property title (Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129)
• the pre-populated Lease Terms (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011)
• the pre-populated rent amount ($950)
• the pre-populated security deposit amount ($950)
• the pre-populated pet deposit amount and limit($500/pet, 2)
• double-checks the checked checkbox of application fee (Paid) an
• presses ‘Upload’ button to add photo attachments (4 total)
• enters a custom message (Hi Bekha, This is Sally-Sue. We met at Market Figaro the other day and you were interested in leasing my fabulous apartment on Turtle Creek. Below are the apartment details for leasing. And I’m attaching additional photos of the property for your consideration. Also, attached is the Lease Application to be filled out in Microsoft Word and returned to me via email at sallysuenyoutoo@yahoo.com. I’ve credited you for paying the $40 non-refundable application fee, in cash, the day we met. Once the application is returned, I can do a brief, non-intrusive background check through www.beenverified.com. Thanks, Sally-Sue.

After completing the above, Sally-Sue:
• presses ‘Send’.

Bekha opens the Lease Application.doc in Microsoft Word and sees the property information pre-populated with its leasing details that Sally-Sue previously entered and confirmed during the project creation process. Bekha:
• enters her full name (Bekha Ann Monroe)
• enters her current residence address (address here)
• enters her reason for moving (needed a bigger space close to Uptown area of Turtle Creek)
• enters current rent amount ($900)
• enters her previous residences address (address here)
• enters previous rent amount ($850)
• enters her reason for moving (needed an apartment with a community pool)
• enters personal information (eye color, weight, height, hair color, emergency contact, work history, income history, two references, pet information
• enters sensitive information (drivers license, social security number)
• on return, triggers the system to password encrypt this information.

After completing the above, Bekha:
• saves the file
• opens her email
• replies to Sally-Sue’s email to preserve Sally-Sue’s email address
• attaches the file
• presses ‘Send’.

Sally-Sue receives an email notification from the system stating that she has an incomplete task waiting for attention. Sally-Sue:
• logs into the system
• selects ‘Tasks’ which has a fading red indicator light beside it
• selects ‘Returned Lease Application’ which activates a dialogue box.

During the dialogue box activation, the system, behind the scenes but indicated through a progress indicator, is comparing the document to the Lease Application document previously in the project view by scanning both documents UID. When the dialogue box displays, the system displays to Sally-Sue a message (the new Lease Application to be newer than the one in the project view) and asks Sally-Sue to ‘Replace Previous’ or ‘Add as New’. Sally-Sue:
• presses ‘Replace Previous’ which pulls the data from the document because the structured fields that made up the form have been preserved through the electronic round tripping.

However, if Bekha had printed out the form, hand-wrote in the fields, placed it in an envelope and mailed it traditionally, Sallie-Sue, after receiving the mailed envelope and scanning in the Lease Application, would have had to:
• presses ‘Send’.

After completing the above, Sally-Sue:
• log into the system
• selects ‘Documents’ which has it’s own ‘Upload’ button
• press ‘Upload’ and browse to the scanned in Lease Application on her hard drive
• selects ‘OK’ which signals the system to OCR the document but since the structured fields are now unstructured whereby the data entered isn’t preserved, Sally-Sue must manually map the fields together, Name to Name, Address to Address, etc.

When completing the manual mapping, Sally-Sues:
• presses ‘Replace’
• selects ‘Lease Application, Original’ as the document to replace.

This scenario is more of an intense process but once Sally-Sue maps the data, the system can complete the tenant information as designed.

Sally-Sue uses an online service (www.beenverified.com) for the tenant background check which is external to the system. Because it’s external, Sally-Sue manually enters Bekha’s information to the site copying/pasting from the Lease Application in the system. The background site needs Bekha’s social security number. In order for the system to reveal it to Sally-Sue, she:
• clicks the lock next to the social security number field
• enters her password
• presses ‘Ok’ to reveal the social security number so she can copy/paste it.

Once Bekha is verified, www.beenverified.com provides Sally-Sue with a downloadable PDF report that she can upload to the project ‘Documents’ category. To do this, Sally-Sue:
• selects ‘Document’ category
• clicks ‘Upload’
• browses for www.beenverified.com document
• presses ‘New Upload’ instead of ‘Replace’ so the system can OCR the document.

Sally-Sue uploads a contract template

Bekha has passed verification and Sally-Sue fell ill for two days. The system, reacting against project creation date (September 15, 2010) and lease terms (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011), sends Sally-Sue an email reminder of open tasks left on the ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’, which are to generate the Lease Contract. Sally-Sue:
• logs into the system
• clicks ‘Tasks’
• selects ‘Complete Lease Contract’ which opens the document with fields pre-populated from the data gathered from all the documents before Sally-Sue fell ill.

As Sally-Sue skims the document a final time, she remembers she edited a Lease Contract Template to include a paragraph about her newly renovated private patio. She wants to use this edited version instead of the Lease Contract that came with the project template package. Sally-Sue:
• closes out of the current Lease Document
• presses ‘Upload’ to activate the dialogue box that has three buttons: ‘Compare’, ‘Replace’, ‘New’
• browses her hard drive
• selects ‘Lease Contract-Private Patio’
• presses ‘Replace’
• selects ‘Lease Contract’ from the dropdown menu to replace
• presses ‘Ok’.

With the new version of the Lease Contract uploaded to Documents, Sally-Sue:
• clicks ‘Lease Contract-Private Patio’ to open its view
• scans/review pre-populated information for validation
• selects ‘Email’ to activate the dialogue box
• chooses Bekha’s email from the ‘Send To’ dropdown
• presses ‘Additional Documents’ to attach ‘Addendums’ from the ‘Document’ category from the system which also require signatures
• writes a custom message (Hi Bekha! I have received your application and background check and happy to report that you are approved. Attached is the Lease Contract, two Texas-specific addendums, all in Microsoft Word format. Please review and sign/initial all and email back. Thanks again. Sally-Sue.)
• presses ‘Send’.

Sally-Sue manages a dispute with Bekha Monroe

When Bekha receives the Lease Contract, she notices that the paragraph for the private patio says she must maintain as is without alteration. However, Bekha wants to replace the small garden of herbs with a patch of grass 6’-0”x 6’-0”. Bekha:
• opens the Lease Contract in Microsoft Word to edit the paragraph to allow a patch of grass
• presses ‘Save’
• replies to Sally-Sues email preserving her address
• attaches revised Lease Contract-Private Patio-Grass.doc
• presses ‘Send’.

Sally-Sue receives an email notification by the system indicating an incomplete task. Sally-Sue:
• logs into the system
• clicks ‘Tasks’
• selects ‘edited Lease Contract-Private Patio-Grass’ activating a dialogue box which triggers a comparison based off the documents UID matched to a previous version stored in the project view.

When the system completes the comparison, the dialogue box displays a report of the changes. Sally-Sue:
• selects the edited paragraph, which activates a simple txt editor with ‘Accept As Is’, ‘Accept with Edits’, and ‘Deny Edit’ buttons where Sally-Sue can revise, delete or accept.
• enters (must maintain grass at tenant’s expense and replace private patio to original condition at move in on move out or forfeit security deposit.)
• presses ‘Accept with Edits’ which closes the simple text editor and brings Sally-Sue back to the document view.
• selects ‘Email’ from document view which activates the dialogue box
• chooses Bekha’s email from the ‘Send To’ dropdown
• writes a custom message (Hi Bekha! I have received your edits and I approve them with my additional edits. Attached is the Lease Contract, two Texas-specific addendums, all in Microsoft Word format. Please review and sign/initial all and email back. Thanks again. Sally-Sue.)
• presses ‘Send’.

Bekha reviews the new Lease Contract and signs and initials all appropriate areas and resends to Sally-Sue. The system sends Sally-Sue and email notification of an incomplete task remaining. Sally-Sue:
• logs into the system
• clicks ‘Tasks’
• selects ‘signed Lease Contract and Two Addendums’ activating the document view
• signs/initials in all the appropriate places
• presses ‘Save’ which activates an email dialogue box to send final copies to Bekha.

Sally-Sue completes the project (Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129)

Since all parties have signed the Lease Contract ending the round tripping document cycle, Sally-Sue wants to close, or lock, this project to signal its completion until the expiration of the term lease expire. After final email is sent to Bekha for her files, Sally-Sue’s screen returns to project view. In the right-hand corner is a lock icon in the unlock state. Sally-Sue:
• presses the unlocked icon to lock it which activates a password dialogue box
• enters her password for encryption which activates a system countdown clock for the project only based off lease terms. Also activated is an alert, 45 days out from lease expiration date, that will trigger a system email reminder to Sally-Sue when the time arrives
• presses ‘Ok’
• logs out of the system and heads to work.

Sally-Sue creates a renew lease for Bekha Monroe

After eight months of apartment living bliss, Bekha emails Sally-Sue requesting an early lease renewal for another 12 months. Sally-Sue, being ever so pleased with her lovely tenant, obliges Bekha with a kind email response stating that she will make the necessary adjustments to the current lease, which includes a rent increase of $25. Bekha agrees to the increase. Sally-Sue begins the new lease process by:
• logging into the system
• locates the project ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’ using the global search field at the top
• clicks on ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’
• clicks on the lock icon to unlock it for editing purposes
• enters password telling the system she is the administrator privileged to this project and it’s content
• presses ‘End’ from beneath the unlocked lock icon to stop the system’s countdown
• clicks on ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’ to activate a dialogue box which has three button choices ‘Archive’, ‘Duplicate’ or ‘Erase’
• presses ‘Duplicate’ to activate another dialogue box with pre-populated project fields
• edits ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2010 Lease for Unit 129’ to ‘Turtle Creek Apt 2011 Lease for Unit 129’
• edits lease terms to ‘June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012’
• edits rent to $975 from $950
• reviews the remaining pre-populated fields
• presses ‘Create’ which duplicates all documents/photos attached, tenant information, notations, etc from previous 2010 Lease but with the updated information edited in the ‘Create’ dialogue box.

Sally-Sue goes through the round tripping process all over again until the documents are signed. Sally-Sue locks the lock icon and logs out of the system. Sally-Sue is very happy she chose the system as a seamless, non-intrusive way for her to manage her property and live her life with no impediment.