Funda is one of the best known real estate platforms in The Netherlands. In this post I’ll be reviewing the Funda real estate app for IOS. The focus of this post will be both on good UX/UI elements of this app, as well as some aspects that they can improve on.”
First Launch
When launching the app for the very first time, you get a pop-up about push notifications. The pop-up has a small animation that illustrates the use of push notifications. It is a fun way of showing the new user how the push notifications of the app works. By showing this animation on the very first use of the app, it creates a playful mood for the entire app. Something as formal and serious as real estate suddenly becomes easy and simple. The pop-up is nicely designed in the chosen style of Funda.
Privacy Pop-up
After enabling or skipping over the push notifications, you go to the homepage of the app. But before you can do anything you get another pop-up about their new privacy policy. The order of these two pop-ups seems wrong. Because after already enabling the push notifications you might decide you don’t agree with something in their privacy policy and remove the app. After the nicely designed notification pop-up, this default pop-up feels like a downgrade. It destroys the mood that was set by the push notifications pop-up.
Display Options
Something I noticed while going through the app, is that there are always various ways to view something. For example at the very top of the homepage. You can choose how you want to see the houses displayed: as big pictures displaying the houses, as a list displaying the most important data, or on a map displaying the locations of the houses. Users can change the display depending on their priorities. The micro-interaction makes the change between views look very smooth and playful.
Filter Form
The homepage is the most important page of the whole app. It displays all the available locations in a clean designed list. At the top of the page there is a subtle yet visible form where you can search, filter, and sort the houses that are displayed. When clicking on the bar you jump to a pretty big form. The form is very comprehensive. Maybe a bit too comprehensive. When first landing on the form it’s a bit overwhelming. The design of the form itself is clean and simple, which makes it relatively user-friendly. Every input is clear and no explanation is needed. But a microinteraction when clicking on the form would have made the transition less brutal.
Filter Results Form
On the submit button of the form the number of results that currently fit your filter terms is displayed. The number updates with every click. This is a very user-friendly feature. It helps users instantly see how many results their search would have. This saves the user two clicks: submitting the form to see the results and the click of going back to the form to adjust the filters for more or less results. It allows the user to experiment a little in their requirements for the house they are looking for.
Sort Form
Because the filter form is so comprehensive I did not expect the sort form to be so compressed. Every one or two sort options are collapsed. This results in a quite overwhelming first look at the sort form. This instantly reminds me of the Hick’s Law: The more options someone has the longer it takes to make the choice. I went to the sort form knowing what I wanted to sort it on, but when I saw all the collapses I completely forgot what I wanted to do. This results in a lot more clicks and time the user needs to figure out how they want to sort their results. This form is very user-unfriendly designed.
Detail Page
When you click on a house on the homepage it jumps to the detail page of the house. It is another brutal transition and missed opportunity for a small animation. The detail page itself has very basic styling. The ‘kenmerken’ of the house are all listed in one style. There is no distinction between important and less important information. No colors, icons or other style elements are used to make the text a bit lighter to read. For the user this will be a very energy-consuming bit of text. Another big annoyance I encountered when going through the page is that once you click the ‘see full..’ option, there is no way to close it again. So if you want to read the full description you’d have to scroll for quite some time to get to the specifications of the house. The only way to close it is to exit and re-enter the page.
View The House
There are three main options to view the house. The first option is a floor plan of the house. What is interesting here is that you can choose between a 2D and 3D plan. The 3D floor plan gives a clear view of what the house looks like when furnished. Even though the 3D plan has some small bugs it adds a lot of value to the floor plan.
The second option is a 360° view of each room in the house. If it works properly it could be a nice addition to the house. In smaller rooms, it feels very unnatural and sometimes they look deformed or even smaller. In my opinion, it does not add value to the house.
The third option is a video through the entire house. This is the option I used the most while looking through houses because it gives an honest view inside the house. A nice bonus for me was that while walking through the house, a small floor plan is shown in the corner. Because of the floor plan you know exactly what room of the house you are looking at and won’t lose your orientation. It is a nice combination of the two other options mentioned above.
Like
On a detail page you can like and save a house. There is a small animation when clicking on the heart icon. This is one of the only microinteractions I found in this app. The animation shows that it is working in the background to save the house. When it is finished the heart is colored red. This microinteraction makes it more fun for the user to save houses.
Notes
The icon next to the save icon is a button that lets you add notes to the specific house. At first, I had no idea what the icon meant, but after using it once or twice it was a really nice feature. It is an easy way to add advantages, disadvantages or questions to every house. When revisiting the house in the app you won’t have to go through all the data again. This icon has no microinteraction.
Timing
I was impressed by the timing of permission requests and the obligation to make an account. They are very well-timed. Permissions are only asked when absolutely necessary. The user can browse through the app, look at houses and make an appointment without having to make an account. But when you try to save a house or add notes you get redirected to making an account. The permission for your current location only gets asked when trying to use the map. Most apps overwhelm the user with permission requests before even using the app. Without obligating the user to do anything they don’t want to, the app is still 95% functional. Apart from saving houses or adding notes, they can do anything.
Profile
Making a profile is very easy. You just have to add your email address and password and you are good to go. You can also link your Facebook account. They only ask the information they need to make your profile and nothing more, not even a name! On the profile page, you get a list of the houses you saved and the notes you added. The profile page is very straight to the point. This makes it easy and fast for the user to use.
Conclusion
Even though the app works relatively well, some elements feels rushed and unfinished. Some elements are well thought out, for example, the timing of asking the user permission and when making them sign up. Design-wise some elements are rushed and not finished, for example, the lack of styling on the detail page and the lack of microtransactions. I would use this app when looking for a house, but in my opinion, there is still a lot of room for improvement.