HomeClip App
Case Study of Real Estate Application for Realtors and Home Buyers
Introduction
The case study began with a personal interest in real estate. It became a hobby to search and read the property listings (eye shopping for a dream home), and I was naturally using various websites and applications. I realized that these were just displaying property information, and I began to assume that there would be a need for a digital experience where property sellers and buyers could easily and directly interact with each other.
Challenge
This project is an application design for a conceptual real estate platform that connects realtors and home buyers. The residential sales activity of 2021 was more than double the levels from the previous year and there are over 60,000 registered real estate professionals in Ontario. However, the majority of home buyers struggle to find the right agent for the right house. On the other hand, realtors struggle to find clients especially when they’re new to the industry, and they manually search through social networks and internet communities to contact clients with the product that they can offer. The existing realtor apps and services are mainly focused on displaying the products. Hence, it is a one-directional advertisement rather than a platform that bridges the buyers and sellers.
Objective
The goal of this project is to develop a new real estate application that provides a platform for two groups of users, realtors and home buyers, in which, the realtors can easily connect with the clients who are interested in their listings, and home buyers can communicate directly with the realtor of the item that they want.
Research
While I had an interest in real estate, my knowledge of the market was very shallow. I had a vague idea of what I was going to design even before I began this project, but there was still a big gap between my understanding and the actual realtors and home buyers. I had to plan the research to clarify the underlying needs and the directions to what and how the application has to deliver.
Research Goals:
Identifying the user types and their attributes.
Defining the legal or systematic limitations.
Understand the user needs and requirements.
Understand pain points that affects the use of the application.
Market Research
I started with general market research to gather information and figures that helped me to get a big picture of the market, understand the market players, and provide validity to the project.
The property market is ever-growing 2021’s residential sales activity reported through the MLS® Systems of real estate boards in Ontario was more than double the levels from April 2020. Home sales were 46.2% above the five-year average and there are over 60,000 registered real estate professionals in Ontario.
User Interview
The interview over the phone and video call was invaluable in this project, especially with the realtors. As I had little to no knowledge about the realtors, the interview provided information that influenced the direction of the project - how they do business, licenses, ID numbers, etc. Below are the key signals from the interview:
Competitive Research
I have analyzed the existing applications mainly to see what functions are provided and how they’re being provided. The analysis revealed that all of these apps focus on home buyers to search property listings, and there were different approaches to achieve this. However, none of these apps focused on the realtor search or contact aspect. Another finding was that there were logical flows in some of these apps. Especially when there were too many functions, the hierarchy of menu structure was not organized, and instead, some functions (which I presume the designer thought that they weren’t as important) were just grouped into a ‘more’ menu.
Ideation - Sitemap
I made a list of product requirements based on my research and started to map the pages and features to visualize the relationships and hierarchy. Because the main goal was to bring interaction between the realtors and home buyers, I had to come up with two sitemaps. Although some features differ for the two groups of users (for example, realtors don’t have a property listing save feature, but it would instead show the realtor’s listings), I tried to maintain the same overall hierarchy, yet keeping the logical consistency.
Design and Prototype
Low Fidelity Sketch Design
Quick design sketches were done simultaneously with creating the sitemap. I quickly laid out elements onto screens to figure out what’s needed, how to deliver these, and the hierarchy in the architecture. I was able to quickly capture and examine my ideas, sometimes creating various versions of a screen.
Medium Fidelity Wireframe Design
I started to digitalize the sketches once I have settled the layout directions. Apple’s ‘Human Interface Guidelines’ was used as a reference as this application was designed for iOS. I focused on providing a logical structure among functions and navigation, as well as a visual consistency.
Design Library
Brand keywords - ‘home’ and ‘clip’, has been combined into a logo that represents the core feature of this app - to clip or save the property. The colours were chosen to send a visual message of reliability, connection, and approachability.
I’ve compiled a design library for consistent design standards, easy updates, and collaboration with team members. Components and styles were extensively used for rapid and efficient prototyping. Especially, utilizing the new ‘variant’ feature of Figma allowed for the quick and correct build of iterations of screens.
Final Design
High Fidelity Prototype
Quick design sketches were done simultaneously with creating the sitemap. I quickly laid out elements onto screens to figure out what’s needed, how to deliver these, and the hierarchy in the architecture. I was able to quickly capture and examine my ideas, sometimes creating various versions of a screen.
Key Feature 1: Clip
‘Clip’ is the identity of this app. The home buyers can easily collect the property that they’re interested in by ‘clipping’ it. When a property is clipped, home buyers who clipped it are shown to the realtors, giving them a channel to connect with the clients.
Key Feature 2: Associated Map View & List View
You can intuitively view the property listings of an area of interest using the map view. You can also switch to a list view for faster scrolling. The map view and list view are associated, so switching these views loads the same property list/location, vice versa.
Key Feature 3: Interaction Between Home Buyers and Realtors
This app is intended for both home buyers and property agents. The UI was designed for easy interaction between the two users. The home buyer can access a profile page of an agent through the property list or agent search function, where one can find contact information or send a message directly through the app. On the other hand, the property agents can view all clients who are interested in the items that they have, and send a message through the app to proceed with sales (when a home buyer ‘clips’ a property, the realtor of the property can contact that home buyer).
