Case study 03 · Kokoon Living

A hostel chain, run from one screen and one phone.

Kokoon gives students who’ve left home a room, food and care. I designed the system behind it from scratch: a web console for management, and a mobile app for wardens.

Role

Product designer, 0→1

Client

Kokoon Living · Pandya Group, via Moshi Moshi

Scope

Web console · Warden app

When

2023

Super Admin · Overview

9:30

Kokoon Pandora - Gurukul Pratibha

100NO OF STUDENTS

67IN - HOSTEL

33OUT - HOSTEL

Today’s Event

View all events

Physics DiscussionTime - 6:00am - 7:00am

New Student

Home

Notification

Profile

The console and the warden app: two ends of the same data. Names and figures are placeholders.

The brief

Manual data. Owners who need answers.

Rent, meals, electricity and complaints were tracked by hand across several hostels. Leadership wanted one place to see it all.

“

Simplify the management of the hostel, reduce costs and increase revenue, while giving students a better experience.The objective, from the project file

01 · DATA

Monthly manual entry

Wardens log food and electricity once a month.

02 · ACCESS

Three levels of access

Admins edit all. Wardens create. Accountants see finance.

03 · MONEY

Rent arrives two ways

Online from parents, or as cash to a warden, double-checked.

04 · ALERTS

Nothing waits silently

A complaint pending 15 days alerts the admin.

The workshop board: sticky notes and stakeholder cursors

02 · The workshop

Five experts, five versions of the product.

I ran one design-thinking session with everyone who had a stake (names changed), so disagreements surfaced before design, not after. The PRD I wrote came out of it.

Virendra Jain Pandya · CEO
Decider
Kovid Jain · Director
Industry
Mayank Burani
Design
Nida Ayman
Marketing
Suresh
Technical

Leadership asked for visibility. Operations asked for fewer steps on the floor.

Structure

Two modules, one source of truth.

Data is entered once, by whoever is closest to it, and read everywhere else.

Warden app

Students · inventory · food · electricity · attendance

Parent module

Rent, through the payment integration

Students & parents

Complaints and feedback

Entered once

Super Admin console

Read everywhere

Overview
Finance
Rent
Electricity
Salary
Food
Hostels
Complaints
Students
Employees
Leads

9:30

Finance

Hostel

Complaints

Students

Employees

Food

Home

Notification

Profile

Same map, two screens

The warden’s menu mirrors the console.

Same groups, same order: nothing to relearn between desk and floor.

Console	Warden app
Finance	Finance
Hostels	Hostel
Complaints	Complaints
Students	Students
Employees	Employees
Food	Food
Leads	console only

DECISION 01

Money opens the console

It’s leadership’s first question each morning.

DECISION 02

Complaints stand alone

Each belongs to a student, a room and a warden at once.

DECISION 03

Leads sit beside rooms

Whoever knows a room is freeing up sees the parent asking.

Super Admin · analytics

A dashboard that answers “should I worry?”

One month on one screen: the trend, the totals behind it, the best hostels and where the money goes.

ARevenue trend

BFour totals

CTop 5 hostels

DFinancial breakdown

Revenue trendThe shape of the month before the number.

Four totalsRent, electricity, food and salary, each with its change.

Top 5 hostelsCompared without opening each one.

Financial breakdownProportions, not ledgers.

1Insight line Overall expenditure has gone up by 22.4% in the last 11 days

2Direct / indirect

Income & expenditure

A sentence before the numbers.

“Overall expenditure has gone up by 22.4% in the last 11 days.”

The screen does the comparison. Costs split into direct and indirect, and red means bad news, not just a rise.

Hostel details

Rooms are revenue too.

Available rooms, rooms emptying next month and a floor-by-floor grid, ready when a parent asks.

AAvailabilityBFloor by floorCRoom mix Hostel details: room availability, floor breakdown and room categories

Vocabulary

Three states, everywhere.

In hostel, outside, or gone. It decides meals, rent and rooms.

In hostelOutside hostelEx-hosteler ↑ +20%↓ −16%Colour follows good or bad news

Type scale

Inter Medium, seven steps.

AaH1 · 42
AaH3 · 28
Rent receivedH5 · 16
Students in hostelBody · 14
Last 11 daysSub · 12

Warden module · mobile

The hostel, from the warden’s pocket.

Wardens enter most of what the console reads. Every screen is built for a corridor, not a desk.

Morning

Who’s in, and who owes.

9:30

Kokoon Pandora - Gurukul Pratibha

100NO OF STUDENTS

67IN - HOSTEL

33OUT - HOSTEL

Today’s Event

View all events

Physics DiscussionTime - 6:00am - 7:00am

New Student

Home

Notification

Profile

01 · HomeHeadcount first: in and out

9:30

Finance

Hostel

Complaints

Students

Employees

Food

Home

Notification

Profile

02 · MenuThe console’s map, in a pocket

9:30

Rent Log

Rent Amount2,25,000

Received1,84,000

Due41,000

Rent Log

Room noCategorynamePaid

1011AasthaYes

1022joeyeNo

1022LaraYes

1033AryaYes

1033RheaYes

1033RheaNo

1044RheaYes

View complete list

Home

Notification

Profile

03 · Rent logWhat’s due, in red, room by room

Rooms

From “what’s free” to one room.

9:30

Hostel

Available Rooms3 Rooms

LISTAvailable

Total Rooms40 Rooms

Occupied rooms12 Rooms

Empty by next month2 Rooms

Rooms Listing

Floor Breakdown

Floor 1

12345678910

Floor 2

12345678910

Floor 2

12345678910

Home

Notification

Profile

04 · HostelRooms available and emptying soon

9:30

Room Listing

Room noCATEGORYnameempty

1011AasthaNo

1022-Yes

1022LaraNo

1033AryaNo

1033RheaNo

1033-Yes

1044ThabNo

1044ShreyaNo

1044VeduNo

1044SaraNo

1055AafiyaNo

1055NoahNo

View complete list

Home

Notification

Profile

05 · Room listingAn empty bed reads “Yes”

9:30

Room 101

Unique ID#828323

Occupant NameSarah Khan

Inventory In RoomOwned By KokoonTable, Bed, Lamp

Inventory In RoomOwned By LandlordChair, Bed, Lamp

Room Category#2nd Category

ComplaintsNill

Electricity ConsumptionRs.200 per month

Room RentRs. 73883 per month

Security Deposit AmountRs. 73883

Room HistoryNill

Leaving Date31/12/2023

Home

Notification

Profile

06 · Room 101Occupant, inventory and rent

Once a month

The entries the dashboard runs on.

Every room has its own meter. Food is bought in bulk and loose. Both are logged here and become the figures on the director’s dashboard.

9:30

Electricity

Room Number

Choose Room

Entry Date

Enter Purchase Date

Open Reading

Enter reading value

Close Units

Enter units

Type

Indirect

Submit

Cancel

Home

Notification

Profile

07 · ElectricityOpening and closing reading, per room

9:30

Food Expense

Total Expense11,000

Bulk Expense8,655

Loose Expense2,345

Expense Log

Add Expense

Purchase namedateBill amount

Grocery13/09/22200

Market13/09/221,345

Fruits15/09/222000

Milk14/09/22485

Vegetables14/09/22780

Mixers13/09/22490

Flavors13/09/22560

View complete list

Home

Notification

Profile

08 · Food expenseBulk and loose, in a dated log

Follow-up

Nothing goes quiet.

9:30

Complaints

No of Complaints25

Resolved23

Pending2

Complaints Log

namedatePaid

Aastha13/09/22Yes

joeye13/09/22No

Lara15/09/22Yes

Arya14/09/22Yes

Rhea14/09/22Yes

Rhea13/09/22No

Rhea13/09/22Yes

View complete list

Home

Notification

Profile

09 · ComplaintsResolved and pending, up top

10 · ComplaintRoom, category and a photo

9:30

All notifications

Complaint No 121 has not been resolvedComplaint from Student

View

17 New Students has joined todayMonth of December

View

New notification link generatedCreated by warden

View

Complaint No 118 has been resolvedComplaint by student

View

Emergency complaint raisedComplaint from warden

View

Emergency complaint raisedComplaint from warden

View

Emergency complaint raisedComplaint from warden

View

Emergency complaint raisedComplaint from warden

View

Create Notification

Home

Notification

Profile

11 · NotificationsSystem nudges, plus the warden’s own

06 · Details

One form to reach every hostel.

The brief asked for a notification centre the admin could write to. One form sets the hostel, who receives it, the category, the channel and when it goes out.

NotificationsNotifications > Create Notifications

Notification title

Type your notification title here...

Notification description

Type your notification message here...

Hostel Name

Pearl

Notification to

Warden

Notification Link (Optional)

Paste your notification link here...

Notification Category

What changed.

Where hostel data lives

~~registers and notebooks~~ → one console

Rent

~~online and cash, tracked by hand~~ → both logged in one rent log

Status

Shipped · handed over to Kokoon’s team

Looking back

What I’d do differently

The workshop got the structure right, but I never went back to the wardens once it was running. Six months of watching them use it would have changed several screens.

Screens from the project file; names, photos and figures are placeholders.

← Sidewalk Next: Hibee →

A hostel chain, run from one screen and one phone.

Today’s Event

Manual data. Owners who need answers.

Five experts, five versions of the product.

Two modules, one source of truth.

The warden’s menu mirrors the console.

A dashboard that answers “should I worry?”

A sentence before the numbers.

Rooms are revenue too.

Three states, everywhere.

Inter Medium, seven steps.

The hostel, from the warden’s pocket.

Today’s Event

Rent Log

Rent Log

Hostel

Floor Breakdown

Room Listing

Room 101

Electricity

Food Expense

Expense Log

Complaints

Complaints Log

Complaint01

One form to reach every hostel.

What changed.

What I’d do differently