Case study

Unlocking Growth

Factory Network community credits and room booking platform

  • Redesigning membership economics
  • Increased engagement
  • New revenue streams
  • UX & UI transformation
  • System design
  • Product strategy
  • Community & coworking
Scope
Membership subscription model redesign, community credit system, room booking management UX/UI
LLI Role
UX and UI design partner
Industry
Coworking, entrepreneurship, community platforms

The problem

Factory Network operates vibrant physical campuses where membership value is driven by access, community engagement, and shared resources. Before the project started, two core issues limited growth and experience quality:

The existing subscription model was rigid and did not reflect how members actually contributed to or used the community.

Room booking was operationally complex and disconnected from subscriptions, payments, and campus systems.

This affected:

  • Members, who lacked flexibility and clarity in how they could access services.
  • Community managers, who had no structured way to reward engagement.
  • Operations teams, who relied on fragmented systems.
  • The business, which was leaving revenue and engagement potential untapped.

This was not just a UX inconvenience. It directly impacted retention, operational efficiency, and the perceived value of Factory membership.

Factory Network membership and booking experience

Why LLI

LLI was brought in to take full ownership of the design problem, not just screens. The client needed a partner who could:

  • Understand business growth goals, community dynamics, and operational constraints.
  • Design systems that fit real-world campus operations.
  • Translate abstract ideas like “community credits” into something usable, fair, and scalable.

Partial outsourcing or surface-level UI work was not enough. The challenge required strategic thinking, system design, and deep collaboration across teams.

What was at stake

  • Missed opportunity to monetise services in a fair, transparent way.
  • Growing operational friction as campuses and memberships scaled.
  • Risk of designing a system that worked on paper but failed in daily, on-site reality.
  • A poorly designed booking or credit system could have increased confusion, support load, and user frustration.

Without change, Factory risked outgrowing its own tools.

Our approach

We started by thinking before building.

Guiding principles

  1. 01

    Design around real behavior, not assumptions.

  2. 02

    Reuse and extend existing systems where possible to reduce risk.

  3. 03

    Prioritise clarity and simplicity for members, even if the backend logic was complex.

  4. 04

    Design mobile-first, reflecting actual usage patterns.

What we prioritised

  • Alignment between business logic, community incentives, and UX.
  • End-to-end workflows across subscriptions, credits, and bookings.
  • Operational realism across campuses.

What we avoided

  • Overengineering new systems where existing ones could be extended.
  • Isolated features that didn't integrate with the broader ecosystem.

We began with a Rails prototype to validate workflows, then transitioned to Elixir and Phoenix for production-grade performance.

The solution

We started by thinking before building.

Community credit system

  • Monthly credit allocation tied to membership.
  • Ability to purchase additional credits.
  • Manual credit awards by community managers for contributions.
  • Credits usable across Factory services and resources.

Room booking management

  • Integrated with subscriptions, payments, and credits.
  • Support for booking rooms and related resources using credits.
  • Consideration of invitations, access control, and campus operations.

Key design choices

  • Separate but connected workflows for credits and bookings.
  • Simplified credit logic built on existing payment functionality.
  • More advanced scheduling flows reflecting real operational complexity.
  • Mobile-first UI with full desktop coverage for edge cases.

How the solution addressed the problem

  • Membership became more flexible and personalised.
  • Community engagement could be actively rewarded.
  • Room booking moved from a fragmented process to a coherent system.
  • Business and operations gained a scalable foundation.

Technology stack

Design-focused engagement. Existing payment and subscription systems were leveraged to support the new workflows, minimising implementation risk, and ensuring maintainability.

Dedicated team

  • UX Designer

    research, workflows, system logic

  • UI Designer

    mobile-first interface design, consistency, usability

  • Product stakeholders

    business growth and community teams

Engineering standards

To build a trustworthy platform, tools alone aren't enough. That's why we emphasised our engineering approach:

  • Clean, readable, maintainable code

    Written for the next developer, not just the current sprint.

  • Consistent development and review practices

    Standardised workflows across the full delivery lifecycle.

  • Transparent documentation for future contributors

    Every module and decision documented for long-term handover.

  • Close collaboration between developers, QA, and project leadership

    Shared acceptance criteria and no surprises at delivery.

Results and impact

For Users

  • Clearer membership value.
  • More flexible access to spaces and services.
  • Mobile-friendly experience aligned with daily usage.

For the Organisation

  • New revenue opportunities through credits.
  • Stronger engagement incentives.
  • Better alignment between product, community, and business goals.

For Operations

  • Reduced ambiguity in booking and access flows.
  • Systems designed to scale across campuses.

Why this case matters

This project reflects LLI's way of working: We design systems, not just interfaces. We take responsibility for outcomes, not tasks. We balance business goals, human behavior, and operational reality. It shows the type of problems we are particularly suited to solve: complex, interconnected platforms where UX decisions directly impact revenue, operations, and trust.

When growth, community, and operations collide, LLI designs clarity, scalability, and long-term value.

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