Australian proptech startup Homes.com.au saw an opportunity to develop a SaaS product for real estate agents to manage properties.
I was hired to review the idea, define an MVP, and then design and test a web platform and native app.
Over the course of 4 months, I undertook research, designed prototypes, tested with users, and delivered final designs.
The finished mobile app design is undergoing development. It will receive further testing an see the addition of new features in future.
I
• Off Market Research
• User interviews
II
• Persona
• User Journey map
III
• Affinity Map
• Prioritisation Matrix
• Concept definition
IV
• Prototype design
• User testing
• Test Results
V
• Leads screens
• Listings screens
• Feedback screens
Part I
Real estate agents often manage and sell Off-Market properties discreetly, catering to clients seeking privacy or unique opportunities. They rely on confidentiality, personal relationships, and a tailored approach to connecting the right buyers and sellers.
These properties are not publicly listed on real estate websites or advertising platforms. Instead, agents must turn to their personal network and various strategies to match clients.
To learn more about the challenges of listing and managing properties, I interviewed 3 real estate agents.
The interviews provided useful insight into the pros and cons of managing Off-Market properties.
Part II
Based on the agents I had interviewed, a persona was created to empathise with the user’s needs. The persona helped remind me of behaviours, motivations, pain points, and aspirations throughout the design process.
With Brad Andrews in mind, a User Journey Map was created. Initial ideas for product features were listed at each step.
Part III
As there were already a lot of ideas for product features floating around, an Affinity Map was used. This was a valuable tool to help categorise and prioritise features and functionalities.
Following the Affinity Map, a Prioritisation Matrix was used to determine what to focus on.
By offering exclusive access to Off-Market properties, Homes.com.au account holders were encouraged to update their Rich Profiles, which included preferences such as budget, property type etc.
We could then match these preferences against information collected about a property and develop an algorithm to give us a single score.
Part IV
We chose to test the process of listing a new property, alerting buyers, and setting up an inspection. For this test I pieced together wireframes into a prototype.
Nine real estate agents from across Australia were recruited for testing the initial designs. Their backgrounds and experience were varied and it was very helpful to gain insights into their different perspectives.
Notes were added to Miro boards during and after the testing.
Not all of the features were successful. The ability to manually suggest properties was not embraced by the agents.
The initial process for setting up inspections was unintuitive and led to dead ends.
I explored options for secure messaging between parties, but this feature was too overly complicated for our MVP.
However, suggestions by agents contributed to positive changes as well, particularly in regard to the info on the buyer profile.
With this Test and Learn approach, the design evolved and improved rapidly over 2 weeks.
By this stage, the UI was looking cleaner and the experience of managing inspections much improved.
Part V
Agents manage properties via their own CRM but can add new Off-Market properties via the platform.
A steady stream of notifications keep the agent updated about their properties.
The app was designed for both light and dark mode.
Property detail page shows who’s interested, who’s inspecting, and who’s making offers.
Agents can see a buyer’s profile to learn more about them.
Buyers receive notifications about matching properties and upcoming inspections.
Buyers can leave feedback to inform agents and vendors.
To conform to standard native app configurations, several changes were made to the Android version, such as the floating action button, relocation of the tabs and a burger menu.
