Member Portal for a Co-working Space

Created by Dana Thompson

Overview

Dana Thompson runs a growing co-working space that needed a more scalable way to manage bookings, requests, and member interactions. Manual processes like spreadsheets and back-and-forth messages were slowing things down — and most available software solutions were too expensive for her budget.

With Instance, Dana built a custom member portal that allows her to manage desks, rooms, and member requests all in one place. The result is a simple, affordable solution that supports her business today and scales as the co-working space grows.

The Build Journey

Dana was surprised by how quickly she could get her idea into a working product.

“The functionality was there almost immediately. It took me about a day in total, but most of that time was spent making the design more engaging for clients”

She began with a detailed prompt describing her space and the features she wanted. Then, she iterated step by step: first adding desk booking, then room booking, and finally authentication for members. This incremental approach let her test each piece as she went, ensuring everything worked smoothly before moving to the next feature.

Thoughtful Design

Dana invested extra time refining the look and feel of the portal to make it inviting and intuitive for members. A well-designed interface was important to her, since she wanted members to enjoy using the portal and feel that it reflected the atmosphere of the co-working space.

The first version generated by Instance impressed her with unexpected but useful features. For example, the ability to configure desks and rooms individually, which turned out to be essential for daily operations.

Handling Complexity

The most challenging part of the build was figuring out how to manage desk and room availability.

Instance provided a solid structure for bookings right from the start, which Dana then explored and customized to match her space’s layout and membership rules. While she needed to spend some time understanding how everything fit together, the setup process required no manual coding.

No Coding Required

Although Dana has some past coding experience, she didn’t need to write a single line of code for this project.

“I have a bit of coding experience from the past, which helped me explain the features I needed a bit better, but I didn’t write any code myself”

Instance handled all of the technical heavy lifting so she could focus on the experience her members would have.

Key Takeaways

• Speed: A functional portal with desk and room booking was running within a day.
• Flexibility: Instance included features Dana didn’t expect, like configurable desks and rooms, which made the solution more complete.
• Scalability: The portal is affordable and built to grow with her co-working space.