01
Barcelona
The original house, where a growing community and past clients were already asking about new locations.
The original house
Real Estate
Circles House
I redesigned the Circles House website for the Andorra expansion and planned the content strategy, aligning it with the head of marketing.
Tools I used for this project
WixWebflowFigJamFigmaGoogle AnalyticsPhotoshopTikTokInstagramLinkedInJiraGoogle MeetCapCutWixWebflowFigJamFigmaGoogle AnalyticsPhotoshopTikTokInstagramLinkedInJiraGoogle MeetCapCutWixWebflowFigJamFigmaGoogle AnalyticsPhotoshopTikTokInstagramLinkedInJiraGoogle MeetCapCut
Role
Web Design Strategist
Timeline
Oct 2024 to May 2025
Live project
Visit website (opens in a new tab)Team
MarketingSalesDesignEngineeringLeadershipCommunity Manager
Overview
Circles House is a real estate business creating coliving spaces for entrepreneurs, startups, digital nomads, and remote professionals.
Bookings were the first priority in the business model, followed by coworking and then community.
My work covered the UX audit, Webflow redesign, SEO structure, Wix implementation, and social content strategy.
Take a quick look at the new design style, highlighting the homepage and opportunities pages.
UX audit
Before redesigning anything, I mapped the site and reviewed it page by page with another UX designer, then presented the audit to leadership.
Questioning the user journey was the 1st step, then we analyzed 7 other digital areas and built the FigJam UX audit below.
This mattered because 2 different types of customers were arriving on the same pages, and the new strategy and redesign had to serve them both while also fixing the existing issues.
Same website, 2 personas
Coming for the community vibes
Arrive from social channels and want to benefit from the lifestyle, community, and people before checking accommodation details.
Social proofBelongingShared experiences
The challenges
After reviewing all 8 digital areas and discussing the issues, I grouped them into key problems focused on navigation, brand identity, SEO, and expansion.
The website had different fonts, buttons, and content blocks across pages, which made it not read as 1 product and confused multiple users.
The booking, coworking, and pricing pages were difficult to find, and even residents flagged this issue during UX interviews.
“The website looked scammy, and some information was hard to find, but I booked it because of good Google Maps reviews and Instagram presence.”
Several pages broke on mobile, with content missing or pushed off screen.
According to StatCounter, 62% of visitors arrived on mobile, where they were often seeing the weakest version of the site.
92%+bounce rate on mobile before the redesignInconsistent information and poorly targeted keywords made users bounce faster.
The new SEO tactics included consistent meta titles and descriptions, image alt text, targeted keywords, SEO articles, and internal linking.
The new editorial identity, prepared by the previous designer, was not yet reflected in the website or wider brand.
The structure served only 1 house, but leadership wanted CMS pages that could quickly support multiple locations. Wix did not offer this feature.
Moreover, a part of the website had already moved to Webflow, but it contained only dummy content.
The work came in 3 phases
Click a phase to jump straight to it, or scroll down to follow the work.
Designing for expansion
The Andorra house was already in motion, so the unfinished Webflow site needed clear booking and coworking pages while the existing Wix site stayed live.
My work here consisted of:
- Migrating all content to Webflow
- Creating new pages from the new design and collaborating with another designer to finalize the brand identity
- Restructuring, cleaning, and revamping the Wix website until the new one was ready
Figma files
Redesign roadmap
Positioning: a home for entrepreneurs
Leadership wanted to strengthen the positioning around entrepreneurs and startups first, followed by digital nomads and remote professionals.
The SEO strategy was built around this and consisted of:
- Writing SEO articles focused on link building and organic content
- Adding targeted keywords across key website placements
- Using resident interviews in blog articles and their feedback to improve website areas
- Built LinkedIn visibility through articles and brand engagement
Here are a few article examples:
- Why coliving is the new way of traveling and working remotely. Bye-bye Airbnb and Couchsurfing (opens in a new tab)
- Digital Nomad Visa Updates for 2025 in Spain, Barcelona (opens in a new tab)
- Why Entrepreneurs Thrive in Coliving Spaces in Barcelona? (opens in a new tab)
- Spring in Barcelona: The Ultimate Guide to Culture, Festivals, and Adventure in Catalonia (opens in a new tab)
As part of the positioning work, here is a closer look at the improvements I made to each key page type:
The homepage connects the Circles House story to its locations, helping visitors move naturally from discovering the brand to planning a stay.
Social media and growth
Since community was the third business focus, Circles needed a social content strategy to build awareness.
The third phase set a content calendar across 4 channels to reach new audiences and bring visitors to the website.
Instagram and TikTok
I increased weekly Instagram posts and created TikTok to test which audiences it could reach.
I revived a quiet channel to reach the entrepreneurial audience we were missing.
Website and blog articles
SEO articles and website updates helped visitors find coliving and coworking faster.
The articles were an important part of the SEO strategy and helped build the website’s credibility. See a few examples in the positioning section.
Content strategy
Member stories and life inside the house shaped the content below. Take a look at what was built.
A post about the flexibility of remote work and the freedom to choose your surroundings.
Short-form reels capturing residents, events, and house life.
Get a closer look inside Circles House in the full house tour on YouTube.
On top of that, I participated in community events and took images and videos to add more authentic content to the social channels and website.
The shift
Even though the original plan was to migrate and go live in Webflow, the company hit a blocker.
Andorra was postponed, new locations were still being discussed, and investor conversations were ongoing, so the team needed a new solution.
Paused expansion
Webflow was no longer a solution
With Andorra postponed, the priority became an affordable site the marketing team could update easily.
- No dedicated web-design role to keep the site active
- Design updates were too difficult for marketing to handle
- Webflow cost more than Wix, and paying for 2 subscriptions until the migration resumed was not profitable
My solution was to bring the Webflow direction into Wix, working around its CMS limits so marketing could create campaign pages faster.
Circles now has a live Andorra page based on my design template, with a few changes. The wider redesign is still rolling out gradually.
Impacts
After 8 months, Circles House saw significant improvements across its website and social channels.
40% more monthly visitors
From roughly 1.2k visitors a month, clearer navigation and updated pages helped lift traffic by 40% during the 8-month project.
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Reflections
Working for a coliving taught me a lot from a design perspective, and it also showed me how much community matters in my own life.
01
Small businesses need fast decisions
When a new problem hits, sometimes the best solution is to go back to what worked before.
02
Consider future business plans
Even before the next locations are confirmed, design and marketing should ideally plan the site around possible expansion.
03
UX interviews are better in person
Since most interviews happen online, meeting someone face to face helps you understand their needs and expectations more deeply.
