Project:
Property finder website design for independent people.
Duration:
May 2022 to July 2022
Role:
UX/UI Design | Research
DeptHogar is a hub that offers users a quick skim through houses and apartments for sale or rent, adjusting to user's preferences.
Finding a place to live online is a long task. Websites are complex and inconsistent with their content; many filters need to be found and applied beforehand, and scheduling a visit is a tedious process.
Design a straightforward property finder website that lets users find a home in a simpler and informed way.
I interviewed users to analyze their observations regarding the existing websites with the same purpose, and discovered that users spend a long time browsing, looking for details and reading, which is time consuming since the details shown in one property aren't necessarily consistent with the ones shown in another property (in the same website).
Given that finding a property to live is an important decision, not being able to review all the alternatives evenly frustrates them, as they want to know all the essential information instantly available while remaining concise to quickly skim through them.
The benchmark paints a picture on what are the best features and deficiencies the property finder websites have.
While the most common websites like Portal Inmobiliario and Houm are overall above the lesser known sites on functionality and intuitiveness, the latter proved to have a better and more complete display of information that is much required by users.
Mark decided to move in with his partner in 6 months, but realized that the price of having an apartment is really expensive and wants to find something that is within his paycheck, but also covers their minimum life quality expectations.
Users want to skim through many alternatives quickly.
Users want to spend their time visiting, not browsing.
Users want consistent information between properties.
The homepage features a clear view of the main elements required to start searching for a place.
Recommendations and additional information are placed below the fold.
The property's details page features different cards with visual information on its characteristics.
For user testing, I conducted an unmoderated usability study, requesting users to record their interaction with my design, answer questions and rate some of its aspects.
The results were mostly positive, but they requested changes on the same three aspects of my design:
Language
Users had trouble understanding industry language.
Map
Users wanted visual guidance on where the property is in the list or map.
Additional Information
Didn’t bring value to users in its current state, they asked for varied modifications.
The website accomplishes its purpose by allowing users to be well-informed and skim through different alternatives more easily.
Users appreciated the display of the main information, while being a lot, it achieved to remain concise and not overwhelm them.
The key takeaway was learning all the different needs users have regarding an ideal property; finding out the core common elements to keep at first sight and which not, and that it wouldn’t have been possible without real feedback.
I, too, had to overcome my own biases regarding property browsing as a user myself.
I added some elements because I thought they were useful for me so they had to be useful for the rest, and I was proven wrong and was able to accept it to adjust my design.
