Finding your dream apartment is not an easy task, regardless of buying it or renting it.
This UX case study aims to find the answer to the question of how to incorporate trust and transparency in the process of finding or selling an apartment?
Home sweet home - conceptual apartment searching responsive website offers some design solutions for this problem for people who would like to find an apartment in a stress-free and reliable process. The typical user is between 25-50 years old, professional or student.
1,5 months
Sole UX and UI designer
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
Finding apartment can be a stressful process, quick decisions have to be made, several times it is also emotional. The biggest problem people encounter during the process is Trust issue. They feel that many times real estate agents are looking out for their own financial gain, also sellers and landlords many times hides the flaws of the apartment.
Make a website that has an inbuilt quality check, so real estate agents can be rated according their competence and service. Create a user guide for sellers and landlords, how to upload their advertisements that will be checked by admins before appears on the website. Make the process as seamless and stress-free as possible while improving on the trust factor, so people can find their home.
I conducted user interviews first, which I turned into empathy maps to understand the target user and their needs better. I discovered that many target users miss the trust factor from the process. They feel that they cannot trust the sellers, and many times they have encountered bad customer service. They would like to see real and transparent information, be able to connect with reliable and trustworthy agents and sellers. In one word build the trust factor into the process.
Lack of trust was highlighted by users the most.
The competence of the agent was questioned by many users. The service they provided is not sufficient.
Time plays an important factor in the process.
Good apartments go very quickly, and making a quick decision is crucial.
So people have to make decision under time pressure.
Several times people encounter themselves that reality does not match the uploaded photos of the apartment.
Age: 32
Education: International Relations MA
Family: Married
Occupation: PR assistant
Hometown: Oxford, England
Finding a nice apartment in a safe area at a reasonable price,
that I can call home and has a nice view
Lena is 32 years old married woman, who works as a PR assistant for an international NGO. She wants to buy an apartment with her husband in a safe area, but still close to their workplace. She frustrated with real estate agents, finds many of them unprepared. She also feel disappointed when she finds a great apartment but it turns out to be in a bad area of a good district. She would like to find a perfect apartment which is big enough to expand their family in a few years.
Lena is a married PR assistant who need a website to search for apartment
that offers a great variety of apartments with the help of trustworthy and competent real estate agents.
Because she would like to buy an apartment in a stress-free process that she can call home.
I created a user journey map of Lena’s apartment searching experience to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.
.png)
.png)
Redirecting to new page every time they wanted to check an advertisement was a pain point for users, I took that into account when ideating and designing.
My goal was to add new features that would address the users pain point and would improve the overall website navigation. The structure I chose was designed to make navigation flow simple and easy.
I did an ideation exercise crazy 8, in order to come up with ideas, that would help solve users pain points, such as make the process more transparent and clear. I wanted to come up with ideas that aimed to find solution for the following question. How to make a design which would foster building trust between parties and make the process more seamless for users?
Next, I sketched out paper wireframes, keeping the user pain points about the new features and navigation in mind.
The home screen paper wireframe variation to the right focus on optimizing the searching experience for users.
Because My Apartment’ users access the site on a different devices and different screen sizes, I created designs for additional screen sizes to make sure the site would be fully responsive and a great user experience.
Moving from paper to digital wireframes made it easy to understand how structuring the website could address user pain points and improve the user experience.
My strategy was to make searching experience as clear and easy to understand as possible.
To create a low-fidelity prototype, I connected all of the screens involved in the primary user flow of searching for an apartment and schedule an appointment with the agent to view the selected apartment.
User wanted to stay on the same page when they open an ad, and not to be redirected to a new page. They also wanted to have search functions by map and by type as well.
Scheduling options was welcomed by users, and they also wanted to see the the upcoming and past appointments listed.
Include a rating function so user can rate the service of the real estate agent that would serve as a quality control.
Based on the insights from the usability study, I made changes to improve the search function. One of the changes I made was adding the map option that gave users more freedom to search and see the location.
I included considerations for additional screen sizes in my mockups based on my earlier wireframes. Time plays a huge factor when searching for an apartment. I felt it was important to optimize the browsing experience for a mobile device as well, as user search for apartments on the go.
.png)
My high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including the design changes made after the usability study.
I used icons that has a universal meaning and paired them with labels for clear understanding
For clear visual hierarchy I used different text sizes, so user can scan the site easier.
I used landmarks to help users navigate the site better.
Our target users shared that the rating function would make the real estate market more transparent, and they would feel they have more control. Building trust between sellers and buyers is so important in the process. Make design changes that would elevate trust and make the process stress free.
I learned that by really empathise with the user and design for them, adding functions can have a huge impact on the user experience. The most important takeaway for me is to always focus on the real needs of the user when coming up with design ideas and solutions.
Conduct new usability testing and iterate on design if necessary
Identify any additional areas of need and ideate on new features
Check for possible edge cases
