Property Match
A property portal with a swipe technology
Project Overview
Project Scope
An App
Tools
Figma & Adobe Illustrator
Role
UI & UX Designer
Timeline
60 Hours over 2 Weeks
Brief
The task for this project was to design an app for buying and renting properties. The goal for this project was to design an app that will make it easier for users find the right place for them. The app will also include business values to support it but it will be based on the users needs.
Problem
Finding the right property isn’t fun. It can be a long, stressful process. I’ve wanted to make it easier, fun and save some time for our users.
Proposal
Swipe technology has become very popular among users. Users are able to swipe left and right until they reach the product that interests them. Property Match will be an app that allows user to swipe left and right on the property that they like or don’t.
The app will allow users to communicate with agents, pick locations and instant bookings via the app to confirm their viewing date.
Design Process
1 Empathize
Researching will help to dive deeper into my understanding of potential users - not only their frustrations, but also their hopes, limitations, reasoning and goals. It will help to create solutions in later stages. In order for the project to stay on track and better guide the consistency of the design later, a research plan is vital for this phase.
Research Plan
Research Goals
To find our direct competitors.
In-depth interviews to get a better understanding of the users. This is will provide qualitative data about the target audience, their needs, wants, fears, motivations and behaviour.
Building a better understanding of potential users by creating a User persona.
Research Questions
Who are the target audiences?
What do users think of swiping to find the right properties?
Would user prefer contacting Agents via the app or would they prefer to use email?
What are people’s behaviour when searching for a new house?
What are people’s expectations of the place they choose to live in.
Assumptions
A lot of people would prefer using an app to search for their new house.
Searching for a new place to live can be stressful and a very long process to find the right property/location.
Home buying apps can reduce the time considerably. By picking locations, distance price and number of beds; users can able to find their shortlist very quickly.
Arranging home viewings, locating nearby schools can feel like an additional part-time job when users are house hunting.
Methodologies
Secondary Research:
Market Research: To understand the property market and if the pandemic has affected the market in way.
Competitive Analysis: Learn about potential competitors and how they are meeting their users needs, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
Primary Research:
User Interview (5 people, 5-10 minutes each): In order to understand people’s experience with house hunting, if they will use an app like Property Match (which by the way will save them a lot of hassle). Finally, what are their expectations.
Participants:
Age between 18 and 50.
Work full time.
Have experience on moving houses.
Enjoy using mobile apps.
Timeline:
Day 1: Conduct secondary research (Market Research and Competitive Analysis).
Day 2: Conduct primary research (User Interview).
Day 3: Synthesise the research findings.
Secondary Research
Market Research
Understanding the market is very important in order to get the big picture. Market research will help get a sense of what we know and what we don’t know. As well as, who the users are, what recent trends and news are. The information I gathered from the market research will enable me to frame user persona and ask important questions in primary research.
Marketplace
In 2022 the housing marketing is going to return to normal levels of activity and will get more busy. With strong buyer demand which will continue throughout next year. A lot of homeowners are getting ready to sell their properties and find new places to live.
Overall: More people will be looking to move out and find new places, more people will sell their homes. Price may increase in certain cities in the UK but the market will get “closer to normal” (Rightmove).
Demographics
Age range from 22 - 50 are more likely to have a full time job and are able to afford having a their own place.
Young people are more likely to be renting.
Half of people in their mid-30s to mid-40s have a mortgage.
Overall: people from 20 to 50s are more likely to have their own, whether they are renting or bought.
Consumer’s Behaviour
Covid-19 has changed property purchase behaviour. The pandemic has driven people to find better homes.
Agents and developers have seen traffic double or nearly double compared to 2019.
Some of UK’s biggest property websites have seen their biggest uptick ever compared to pre-pandemic.
Spending more time at home during Covid has made buyers want to upgrade.
Online search for new homes as doubled compared to 2019.
Visits on property portals has jumped 54 per cent.
People are turning to property portals to search for new homes.
Overall: Desire to purchase or rent homes has increased tremendously since the pandemic. These results will benefit Property Match to attract more users and see a huge traffic on our app.
Competitive Analysis
It is equally important to research enterprises that pioneer in the market for properties. My competitor’s solutions to particular problems will help to gather better insights about their strengths and weaknesses. It will also be very helpful to identify any gaps that will benefit Property Match in order to stand out against our competitors. I analysed 3 direct competitors who are offering the same type of services but have different approach to delivering them to their users. The key point I was searching for when comparing our competitors is; who solves part of the problem better.
Primary Research
User Interview
Doing a thorough market research, breaking down the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors. It is time to look deeper and collect real insights from our users by doing primary research.
Before diving into a one-on-one interview, I wrote 4 assumptions I needed to validate from my secondary research.
User’s behaviour.
Traffic on property portals.
What users focus more on when looking for a property.
Frustration.
Time.
Here’s an interview Guide I created to facilitate the user interview process, with 9 questions listed to invite participants to share their experiences.
3 participants were interviewed about their home hunting and also to see if Property Match is an app they will use in the near future.
Assumptions Validated
People’s searching behaviour have changed since the pandemic.
More people are looking for new locations to settle in.
People have started to use property portals more since the pandemic.
People are more interested in seeing most important details about the property.
People are frustrated with having to spend hours everyday searching for new places.
People have a lot do do during the week and never find time to search for new homes.
Empathy Map
To synthesise the qualitative data gathered from user interviews, I created an empathy map to identify patterns across users, uncover insights and generate needs.
User Persona
I gathered key informations from the audience, as well as their goals and needs. I have used the user persona to represent key user segments. The user persona will help me focus on tackling important problems and to address their needs.
Thomas is a 32 years old architecture living in Newcastle. His job consists of him coming to London multiple times a month, sometimes he spends at least 2 weeks in London. Thomas’s wife and children are back in Newcastle and cannot afford to be away from his family every month. Thomas and his wife have made the choice to move to London but he is always busy at work and never finds the time to sit down and search for new properties.
My research was centred on our users. The goals was to understand what type of users would use Property Match and I also wanted to define the motivations for users visiting the app.
2 Strategy
By analysing the data I gathered, it was important for me to create a Point of View Statement, which will allow me to form an idea in a goal oriented manner. The question ‘How might we’ will help me to brainstorm in order to find solutions. The statements and questions below are formed based on the insights and needs I gathered in my Empathy Map.
How Might We..
I then brainstormed solutions around these questions. I spent a few minutes on each questions to ensure that user’s problems are solved and iterate later on if needs be. Brainstorm results.
Product Goals
With the help of HMW questions and solutions. I decided to make a list of project goals that will help as a guide for the development of the product and also what important features to include on the app.
User Goals - to find the right locations, to have most important information on property details page, to get a better understanding of what can be afforded, to see save time and have an easy process.
Business Goals - Users come first, Provide filter feature, include key informations, have a mortgage calculator, make it easier for users to look at properties and maintain a clear customer relationship.
Sitemap
I created a site map to include all of the proposed screens, in order to understand the structure of the app and show the relationship of the pages and its contents.
User Flow
I created user flow to identify different paths a user would to complete each of the tasks assigned. Whilst I was creating the user flow I looked back on my primary research to ensure that I understood their behaviours, why they would make certain decisions and how simple is the login/sign-up process going to be?
3 Ideate
Based on the research and strategy I completed. It gave me a clear vision of how I wanted the product to look like. In order to ensure that the product looked visually appealing for our users, I decided to take vital steps for the design by sketching ideas first.
Wireframes
Sketching Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Low Fid wireframes - The easiest way to generate design ideas is by pencil and paper, I sketched key pages based on user flows. Sketching allows me to design different ideas using the same user flow and asking my users what they like and dislike for each design. By doing this it allows me to iterate my final sketch based on their feedback and going forward with the mid fidelity.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
Prototyped the mid fidelity wireframes in order to test and iterate. Creating lightweight prototype, it helped me to test the product faster before moving on to high fidelity. I used Figma prototype to conduct interactive test with users.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
My next process was to design the high fidelity wireframes. I had to make sure that I was consistent with my designs, as well as typography and ensuring that the colours used for the design were accessible for all users.
Property Match App
Style Guide
I developed a visual style guide for Property Match. The style guide helped to serve as a guide for creative ideas and inspirations. I incorporated the logo design, typography, colour palette and imagery that brings the visual element to life. I created several logos to help choose the right logo that will fit the brand the way I imagined it. Before I sketched my logos, I looked at Property Match’s product and user goals. I wrote key words that aligned with the target audience’s preferences: Minimal, Modern and Catchy.
4 Prototype & Test
After I designed all the screens that are necessary for users to finish tasks, I linked those pages using Figma prototype and created a high-fidelity prototype for usability testing. Conducting usability testing using a high-fidelity prototype is useful for detecting issues in information architecture and flows that generate frictions for users.
Usability Testing
Conducting Usability Testing
Results Coming Soon….
Prototype
Final Thoughts
Coming Soon….