Haven
Keeping an eye on your package so you don’t have to.
Smart package tracking for apartment living.
Haven is a cost-effective, camera-integrated package tracking solution designed to solve the chaotic and time-consuming process of retrieving packages in high-density apartment buildings. While residents struggle with “needle-in-a-haystack” scavenger hunts, managers and delivery drivers face mounting frustration due to misplaced parcels and complaints of theft.
Through human-centered design and systems thinking, I designed a lightweight, app-free solution that not only identifies and tracks packages in real time via computer vision but also sends residents visual notifications with exact package locations, without requiring major infrastructure changes.
User + Stakeholder Research
Informed by secondary research, I built and conducted a study plan to define clear user needs for the team through the means of conducting semi-structured interviews, observational studies, and synthesizing data over one week.
Research Questions
How do residents currently retrieve packages, and what challenges do they face?
What methods do delivery drivers use to organize and drop off packages in shared buildings?
How involved are building managers or staff in the package management process?
What tools, systems, or workarounds (if any) are currently used to track or organize packages?
What factors contribute most to package loss or delays?
I held observational studies at The Standard, a high-density apartment complex.
4 hour observation of residents navigating the package room and interacting with delivery drop-offs.
Noted delivery drivers' behaviors, placement patterns, and time spent organizing packages.
Documented staff involvement, including how often they were interrupted to help locate packages.
I interviewed 5 residents, 2 delivery drivers, and 5 apartment managers to understand frustrations and workflow gaps.
Spotlight: Joe Khalifa @ Kevington Building Corp.
Property Owner and Development Manager, owns multiple ~100 unit apartment complexes.
“Tenants complain when they can't find their package. Claims are made that staff or other tenants steal.”
“Delivery people just open the door and dump things.”
“A simple system that doesn't involve much in the way of capital expenditure or alterations to space would be desired.”
I completed a competitive analysis to reveal solutions to be hardware-heavy, cost-intensive, and still fall short in addressing the root problem of package traceability and ease of retrieval.
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Strengths: Secure and easy for Amazon orders; minimal maintenance; recognizable brand.
Weaknesses: Only works with Amazon deliveries; requires physical space; excludes large items and third-party carriers.
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Strengths: Versatile; supports all carriers and oversized packages via locker + room solutions.
Weaknesses: High installation and ongoing costs; relies heavily on QR-based workflows; still lacks real-time location visibility inside the room.
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Strengths: Seamlessly integrates into building access systems; supports multiple carrier types; minimal disruption to existing workflows.
Weaknesses: Doesn’t provide package tracking or location detail; package security still relies on human behavior (driver/resident compliance); residents may still waste time searching.
Amazon highlights proof of delivery as a key feature, yet...
Too often, packages are delivered without a photo.
Delivery photo provided, but which one is the users?
Making an affinity diagram showed clear patterns across high-density apartment buildings.
They rely on third-party solutions like Luxer One or Package Concierge, yet persistent issues like package misdelivery, reliance on delivery personnel accuracy, and lack of clear resident communication remain. Many properties invest heavily in staffing, some even outsourcing full-time concierge roles, yet still experience resident frustration, highlighting a gap between financial investment and user satisfaction in current package management systems.
Insights
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Residents routinely arrive at the package room only to find their deliveries aren’t where they were told or aren’t visible at all. With no system in place for precise drop-offs, they’re forced to dig through piles of boxes, wasting time and risking misplacement or theft.
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Due to high delivery volumes and lack of clear storage protocols, drivers often leave packages wherever there’s space like corners, floors, even neighboring buildings. This inconsistent behavior creates disorganization, accountability issues, and daily frustrations for both staff and residents.
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Smart locker systems and concierge platforms can cost buildings thousands in setup and ongoing fees, yet they often exclude oversized packages and disrupt daily operations. Property managers reported continued resident complaints despite having invested in these solutions.
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Residents don’t need an app, a QR code, or a fancy interface but want visual proof that their package has arrived and where it is. A visual location would drastically improve their trust in the system and reduce time wasted searching.
Problem Definition + Strategy
I collaborated with engineering and business to develop experience journey maps to visualize emotional and logistical pain points and held an ideation workshop for a solution that minimizes disruption and maximizes clarity.
Problem Statement: Property managers and in apartment buildings country-wide struggle with resident’s misplaced, delayed, or lost packages due to vague delivery notifications, lack of precise location tracking, and systems that are costly or disruptive to implement.
“The office spends a lot of time dealing with carriers and packages”
The Strand
New Orleans, LA
“We use Luxer One [...] residents are not always alerted to their package”
Three Light Luxury Apartments
Kansas City, MO
“This is a big problem for us [...] we receive around 900 packages daily”
The Victor
Dallas, TX
“We waste a lot of time [...] had to hire a 24-hour package-concierge”
303 East 83rd Apartments
New York City, NY
“We spend ~$12K a month on package-concierge [...] we are overwhelmed”
Park Fifth
Los Angeles, CA
I made experience journey maps for property managers, residents, and delivery drivers to clearly define stakeholders and their goals.
Residents don’t just want packages delivered, they want delivery confidence.
Right now, the emotional cost of uncertainty, wasted time, and poor communication outweighs the convenience for many. Solving this with a system that’s transparent, searchable, and visual (like Haven) turns package delivery into a trust-building service, not a source of friction.
Property managers need centralized, proactive systems to streamline delivery flow, improve security, and reduce resident complaints.
By adopting smart lockers, real-time delivery dashboards, and standardized delivery protocols, they can transform delivery management from a daily headache into a predictable, managed process.
Delivery drivers operate in a chaotic patchwork of access systems.
Most aren’t given enough context to make good delivery decisions , leading to missed packages, re-deliveries, and tension with residents. Streamlining access instructions, improving wayfinding, and creating a unified “drop zone” system for apartments would optimize driver efficiency and build trust with residents.
I facilitated an ideation workshop with my engineering and business team using the Six Thinking Hats method to encourage diverse perspectives.
This structured format encouraged my teammates to think from different angles focusing on facts, emotions, risks, benefits, creativity, and process. This helped reduce dominant voices in the room and elevated ideas that were both technically feasible and operationally realistic.
Yellow Hat (Benefits) 🟡
Focus: What's great about current options? What value can we amplify?
Smart lockers and intercom systems help notify users and offer secure access.
Notifications are useful, but people want more detail.
Tracking packages more precisely could increase trust and reduce complaints.
Outcome: We want to retain the notification feature but enhance it with exact package location info.
Blue Hat (Process) 🔵
Focus: How are we structuring this session? What criteria are guiding decisions?
Our goal is a scalable, affordable, and resident-friendly solution.
We'll capture ideas in six rounds, each aligned to a hat, then cluster and vote.
We'll prioritize concepts that align with: low lift for staff, no app for residents, and real-time tracking.
Outcome: Clear evaluation criteria: cost, integration ease, no app, better visibility.
Red Hat (Feelings) 🔴
Focus: How do users feel about the current process?
Residents feel anxious and frustrated when packages go missing.
Property staff feel burned out and overloaded managing deliveries.
Delivery drivers want to get in and out quickly—they hate complex systems.
Outcome: We need a solution that reduces stress, builds trust, and respects time.
Black Hat (Cautious) ⚫
Focus: What’s not working? What could go wrong?
App fatigue, residents don’t want to download another app.
Lockers are expensive and don’t fit large packages.
Staff are already overwhelmed with managing packages.
Smart systems often require maintenance, disrupting existing workflows.
Outcome: Avoid high-cost, high-maintenance, and workflow-disruptive solutions.
White Hat (Facts) ⚪
Focus: What do we know? What data can we rely on?
Interviews showed residents lose trust when packages are missing.
Property managers report that over 50% of support tickets are related to packages.
Security cameras are already present in most delivery rooms.
Vision AI can track barcodes and movement effectively.
✅ Outcome: There’s existing infrastructure (cameras) and tech feasibility (CV).
Green Hat (Creativity) 🟢
Focus: What new ideas or alternatives can we come up with?
What if the camera did the tracking instead of a human or locker system?
Can we use CV to track package movement in real time?
Could a system email a snapshot of the package’s final location?
Outcome: A computer vision–powered, no-app, real-time package tracker.
Through this collaborative process, we collectively identified the need for Haven, a solution that…
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We discovered that many existing solutions required costly hardware installations and recurring fees. Our team prioritized creating a low-barrier solution that utilized existing infrastructure (security cameras) to keep costs minimal for property managers.
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User interviews revealed that residents were overwhelmed by app fatigue and preferred lightweight interactions. Haven uses email and SMS notifications, ensuring broad accessibility without adding friction or requiring new behavior.
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Delivery drivers often have limited time and face different systems across buildings. Haven was designed to align with their existing behavior, requiring only a quick barcode scan in view of a camera, no need for extra steps or training.
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One of the biggest frustrations for residents and property staff was locating misplaced packages. Haven uses computer vision to capture and track the resting location of each package, sending a visual snapshot to the recipient, reducing search time and package loss.
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They’re responsible for managing resident expectations, resolving complaints, and streamlining operations across the building. Since they control budgets and system adoption, they are Haven’s primary users, even though it is a consumer facing product. Residents and delivery drivers are secondary users whose experiences are directly impacted by the solution but don’t drive the decision to adopt system.
Interaction Design + Prototyping
I designed end-to-end user flows, high-fidelity visual messaging prototypes, and a product demo to communicate a streamlined package pickup experience to minimize confusion and enhancing resident satisfaction through clear, contextual cues.
I created user flows to illustrate how each user interacts with our package management system, ensuring their needs were accounted for throughout the customer experience by mapping each step with the following in mind:
Reduces workload, saves costs, and improves resident satisfaction.
Clear communication and visual cues reduce confusion and complaints.
Quick and intuitive delivery workflow.
I designed a text message mockup featuring a 0.5x wide-angle view of the package room with a green-highlighted box around the package location to clearly communicate visual context and help residents quickly identify where their delivery is placed.
I created a product demo video to clearly communicate the intended user experience and functionality of our package management system.
This video served as a tool to align the team, gather targeted feedback from instructors and peers, and surface design improvements before usability testing. The early visualization helped streamline our testing plan, ensured more focused feedback, and saved time by identifying confusion points upfront.
Validation + Iteration
I conducted in-person usability testing through service walkthroughs with apartment residents, iterating on designs to improve message clarity, location accuracy, and interface hierarchy.
I designed and conducted a series of in-person service walkthroughs with real apartment residents.
The goal was to evaluate how intuitive and effective our Haven solution felt when used in a context mirroring actual package delivery scenarios.
I conducted 3 sessions in a real package room located in one of our teammate’s apartment buildings to closely replicate authentic conditions such as lighting, spatial layout, shelving, and signage.
We staged the space with printed barcodes and mock packages, and installed a stationary camera (representing Haven’s computer vision system) to simulate the scanning and documentation of deliveries.
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Delivery Phase
Participants playing the “driver” scanned a package by presenting it to the camera and were then instructed to place it in an appropriate location. This simulated how packages would be logged into Haven’s system with a photo and spatial tag.
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Notification
Participants acting as residents then received a mock message via SMS or email. These messages included a snapshot of their package and a location pin, mimicking what they’d receive in a real deployment.
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Retrieval
Residents used the provided information to locate and retrieve their package within the space. We observed how easily and confidently they were able to complete the task.
Real feedback that refined the solution.
Visual Context Eases Package Retrieval
Participants responded positively to the image in the text message, especially the use of a wide-angle view and a green highlighted box. This visual context significantly reduced cognitive load and eliminated guesswork. Residents appreciated being able to immediately locate their package without scanning the entire room, validating the importance of visual clarity in pickup instructions with the camera angle.
Messaging Timing and Tone Matters
Classmates noted that the timing of notifications (immediately after delivery or when a package is moved) was crucial for trust. The tone also influenced user perception since friendly, concise language increased engagement and reduced the risk of texts being dismissed as spam.
Residents Value Live Confirmations
Residents expressed frustration and worry when they weren’t sure if a package had been tampered with or misplaced. They wanted features like “your package was moved” or “your package was picked up” notifications because it gave them peace of mind, especially in high traffic buildings.
Delivery workflow MUST prioritize ease and speed
Delivery drivers expressed hesitation about scanning packages into an overhead camera, citing that it disrupted their natural flow and added unnecessary steps. This feedback highlighted the need to minimize friction and preserve efficiency in the drop-off process to encourage consistent use of the system.
| “The wide photo makes a big difference. I can tell exactly which shelf and where to look.” - Resident
| “The location box and photo together is like having a visual receipt.” - Resident
| “The wide photo makes a big difference. I can tell exactly which shelf and where to look.” - Resident | “The location box and photo together is like having a visual receipt.” - Resident
| “What if someone moves it to a different shelf? I wouldn’t know where to look.” - Resident
| “I’d feel more secure if I knew when the package was actually picked up not just when it arrived.” - Resident
| “What if someone moves it to a different shelf? I wouldn’t know where to look.” - Resident | “I’d feel more secure if I knew when the package was actually picked up not just when it arrived.” - Resident
| "Sometimes residents think their packages are missing when they’ve just been moved for space.” - Property Manager
| “Tenants ask us if we’ve seen their package even after it’s picked up. We need something that tells them it’s already gone.” - Assistant Property Manager
| "Sometimes residents think their packages are missing when they’ve just been moved for space.” - Property Manager | “Tenants ask us if we’ve seen their package even after it’s picked up. We need something that tells them it’s already gone.” - Assistant Property Manager
I updated the user flow to reflect new system interactions, incorporating feedback from usability testing and service walkthroughs to present a more transparent and reassuring package experience for residents to my team.
Added a "Your package has been moved." text notification to inform residents when their package changes location within the package room.
Introduced a "Your package has been retrieved." confirmation message to notify residents when a delivery has been picked up.
Delivery drivers now only scan the package to get into the delivery room for the camera to beginning logging new packages.
Before:
Camera positioned at a side angle, limiting visibility of package placement
Only one text message sent to residents, providing minimal context
Delivery drivers required to scan packages using overhead security cameras, disrupting their workflow
After:
Photos now include room landmarks (e.g., shelves, signage) to help residents quickly understand the camera perspective and locate their package
Added text confirmation when a package is picked up, giving residents peace of mind
Added notification when a package is moved, improving transparency and trust
Delivery drivers only scan once upon entering the room, streamlining their workflow and triggering the system to begin tracking new deliveries automatically
Results
My final text prototypes increased residents’ sense of trust and control over their deliveries. After I edited the final demo, users reported reduced anxiety around package status and appreciated the added transparency as especially reassuring in high-traffic buildings.
Here’s how Haven works:
*Real computer vision technology developed and shown
