Real Estate Website UX Case Study
Project Overview
The product
Cozi Place website that allow users to quickly find the apartments in big city, and also help them with the Home Loans.
Project Duration
June 2023 — July2023
The Problem
Cozi Place aims to develop a product that can improve the apartment hunting experience of its users, increase customer satisfaction and thus positively affect sales, contribute to building customer loyalty and help the company’s efforts to minimize the friction.
The Goal
The goal of this project was to ideate solutions and create prototypes of a product whose development process and iterations are based on the insights gained from user research studies and usability tests.
My Role
UX Researcher
Responsibilities
User research, wireframing, prototyping, Visual design, usability Testing, conducting Interviews.
Understanding the user
- User research
- Personas
- Problem statements
- User journey maps
User research: summary
I conducted interviews and surveys to understand the users I am designing for and their needs. Through my research, I identified students and working adults, typically people over the age of 20: who relocates to metro city for job are the my primary user group.
This user group has confirmed assumptions about the Cozi Place’s customers wanting map view search. However, this is not the only issue that was addressed; the user group has confirmed that they wish they could filter the results.
User research: pain points
- Users can’t see the exact location until unless they have contacted the person and asks for the appointment.
- Users may find listings without proper images or visual representation of the properties. This makes it challenging to assess the property’s condition, layout, and suitability.
- Users face limitations in search parameters, such as the number of rooms, location, or amenities. Websites may lack comprehensive filtering and sorting options to refine search results based on users’ specific preferences. requirements.
- The listed prices of properties on the website not align with the actual market rates. Users may struggle to determine the fair value of properties, resulting in confusion and difficulty in making informed decisions.
Persona: Gazal
Problem statement: Gazal is a Jr Architect, and she got promotion. So, she wants to move out of the hostel and live in her own rented place. But it's hard to find the rented place as a bachelor, and once she got scammed by broker, she found online whom she sends some rupee, and he ran with it.
Problem statement: Raviraj is back-end developer and his office transferred him to Mumbai. He’s family man so he wants to buy a place which is close to office and has a School nearby for her daughter. And wants to view the places from map view so that he can know exactly how the place is far from his office/ School.
User Journey Map
Starting the design
- Paper wireframes
- Digital wireframes
- Low-fidelity prototype
- Usability studies
Usability study: findings
I conducted Usability studies. Finding form the study helped guide the designs revealed what aspects of the mockups needed refining.
Based on the theme that: Map View Option, an insight is: we need to add Map on the product page. So that user can be able to find the property based on the distance from his office.
Based on the theme that: More Images: There has to 10+ Images and 1 Video / 1 Virtual tour should be available on Cozi Place
Based on the theme that: Nearby Locations: User should be able to know the nearby locations from the Apartments like Hospital, School
Refine the designs.
High Fidelity Prototype
Accessibility considerations
- Provided access to users who are vision impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers.
- Used icons to help make navigation easier.
- Used more and more images for apartments different room to help all users better understand the designs.
Takeaways
The app makes users feel like Cozi Place website really thinks about how to meet their needs.
One quote from peer feedback:
“The website made it so easy and fun to find the apartment! I would definitely use this website as a go-to for a home hunting, fast, and even recommended to my friends.”
