PROBLEM STATEMENT

Homie helps renters find homes in London without the hassle.

Overall goals

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Seamless user experience
Create a simple and hassle free experience for all renters until they find the perfect home.

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Democratizing
Design a Homie (operations) product to build efficiency and help the business scale up as demand increases.

Research Methods

Customer Feedback

Quantitative & Qualitative Research

Personas

Customer Journey

Design Sprint

Competitor Analysis

Wireframing

Prototype Testing

Conduct interviews with renters to understand everything about the major job to be done Homie wants to address, ‘Finding a place to rent.’

Focus on opportunities requiring the least amount of effort to product the highest returns.

Homies gather valuable feedback from their clients about the product which help us iterate effectively.

Customers Needs

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Time Poor
Busy individual and groups have limited free time to search, book and tour homes during the week.

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Save Money
Renters what to get value for money where ever they live and not having to take time off work to find a home.

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Agent Hassle
Renters loathe dealing with multiple estate agents and organising sporadic viewings.

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Expert Advice
Newbies to London don’t know where to start, which neighbourhoods and what they can afford.

Landing Page

Design a site that showcases the Homie service and benefits. Get users to sign up for a personal home-finder to take the hassle out of finding a home.

Problem:
• Users think we are another property portal.
• Get users to understand the value of the service and what they get for a one-off fee of £49 unlimited service.
• Explain how it works visually and simply

Solutions & Opportunity:
• Test and iterate content and design
• On point copy and brand propositions
• Explainer video

// 2019 Customer needs

Open search
Commute calculator
Affordability calculator
Neighbourhood matcher

Prototype Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/74c3gc3/screen/58225049

Productise the service into tiers of service. (Free /Single Tour / Unlimited Tours)
Minimise content and improved copy

Prototype Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/409944h/screen/58230527

// 2018 Customer Needs

New Explainer video
Service Matrix
Simple 3 step - How it works
Agents page

// 2017 Customer Needs

New brand - bright and punchy Show we are a start-up disrupting the rental industry 

Tell audience about our Story
How it helps each target group
Responsive web

To keep the on-boarding process to a simple, seamless and clutter-free experience

Problem:
• Large funnel (high dropouts, brand and product exposure) vs Small funnel (serious customers, high retention)
• Don’t fully understand the service.
• Assumed the site is another search portal (Rightmove)
• Why they had to create a profile to view properties.
• Users drop off in the funnel before sign up
• Users prefer to fill in their search criteria on one single form or breakdown the questions in stages
• Users prefer to search for themselves
• Some users don’t like to speak on the phone

Solutions & Opportunities:
• Shorten the search form to just the essentials
• Move ‘sign up’ down the funnel to avoid drop-offs (just before payment)
• Make landing page the start of the search process
• Make speaking with a Homie an option and productise the journey
• Remove Password and send a magic link to the user.
• Show a preview in the background on sign up (Desktop)

Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/1h5b85b6/screen/59819381

Following user testing we found users prefer searching themselves and having a curated list was a nice to have. There was a drop off when users were forced to sign up before testing the product, which in-turn resulted in filtering out dead leads.

Search

Homie was initially an end to end process for renters who wanted a curated search. This has evolved into the customers preferring to search for themselves and Homie provide tools to search the whole market.

Problem:
• Miss key service propositions.
• Users want an open search.
• Users want to test, explore and experience the product first before investing time in signing up and paying for the service.
• London newbies confused which neighbourhood to live in.
• View homes on a map
• View distance to nearest tube stations.
• Add homes they’ve seen online to their tour

Solution & Opportunity:
• Create an open search, so users can test out the platform.
• Give users search tools that will match the right homes
• Enhance the search experience; commute times and lifestyle needs.
• Add a map view, along with its price tag for quick reference.
• Ability to add links of homes they have found online.
• Banner to remind the key propositions and CTAs.

Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/40337ii/screen/58824491
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/93e6e78/screen/58929363

Users felt the design was easy to use and navigate and gave them a sense of ease.

We found that over 50% of the users were a mix of expats, international students and first time renters living in London. We wanted to give them the knowledge of areas in London that match their lifestyle and budget by injecting neighbourhood features into the product.

Property Details

Need to create value and informative content for each property to inspire, aid and match the user to make an informed decision on the area, lifestyle and not just the home.

Problem:
• Information too minimal
• Couldn’t share property details
• Didn’t seem personalised enough

Solution & Opportunity:
• Open the property page in its own window instead of a modal so easier to share with flatmates and view mulitple homes to compare.
• Transport link and distances - Show nearest stations and walking times.
• Commute time for each property to work.
• Map view with areas of interest ie. schools, restaurants, transport.
• An area guide to give a flavour of the neighbourhood.
• Affordability calculator - show max rental per month based on the total household income.
• Similar properties nearby to give more options and continue the user journey.

Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/706d8eb/screen/58333802
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/45j2809/screen/57735785

We found that any time and distance metric used such as commute calculator was well received. Users mentioned Homies property design and content strategy has more value compared to sites as Rightmove and Zoopla.

Tour Basket & Scheduling

The section in the funnel that is vital for users to engage with and understand what a Tour entails, organise their homes and schedule a tour.

Problem:
Long period of wait between signing up and booking a tour.
Users can be confused on what a Tour entails.
Users questioned how many should they select?
Why am I paying? What are the benefits.
Self-qualifying form

Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a sense of urgency for the user
• Educate the users about this fast moving market with Homie Banner tips. eg. “Best homes stay on the market for an average of only 3 days!”
• Show ‘X’ amount of people have added this home to their Tour
• ‘Good Value” pill to highlight homes that should be considered.
• Design an e-commerce style “Shopping Basket’ when a homes is added to a Tour.
• Show a time estimation of how long a tour will take in relation to the number of homes they have in their basket.
• Show up to 5 days at a time when scheduling to give the message that it’s best to book a tour sooner than later.
• Nudge the user with a progress bar to maximise their time and book up to 10 homes for a tour.
• Copy changes to be clearer and concise.
• Add interstitial screen between scheduling and payment highlighting the self qualifying checklist is next.

Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/bh7i51e/screen/57521915
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/i036hbe/screen/58877430

We found that creating a sense of urgency by using Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) strategy made users schedule and go on Tour much sooner.

Qualification & Payment

To productise and automate the booking process. The Homie promise to agents are pre-qualified customers, so the flow is seamless and quick. Users don’t miss out on the fast moving London rental market.

Problem:
How can Homie cut operation costs and time spent on the phone with customers to qualify them for estate agents.

Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a self-qualifying check list for the users to complete. User research shows that users prefer to complete a form rather than speak and get interviewed over the phone.
• Provide an option to schedule a call if a user prefers.
• Give value in completing a key step to fast track themselves in the process. Once a user is qualified they proceed to payment.
• An interstitial animation between scheduling and qualification notifies the benefits of the checklist form so users understand the importance of the step.
• Homie and agent relationships improved knowing that Homie provides quality applicants that have been screened.
• Reduced the cost of Customer Support team

Prototype:
Desktop - https://marvelapp.com/bh7i51e/screen/57562840
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/i036hbe/screen/57757401

Tour

Once a Homie has contacted all agents to book a back to back viewing tour for the customer, they send the Tour itinerary to the customer and meet them at the first property. The Homie taxis them between each homes.

Problem:
Users were impatient and left in the dark about how long it would take to book the homes.

Users wanted to have a visual map of what their tour entailed.

Solution & Opportunity:
• Notifications every time a property is booked so the user knows there is progress happening.
• Included a map and times so users can visualise the route they will be embarking on with Homie in a black cab.
• Add commenting functionality for users and their flat mates to collaborate.
• Include FAQs about Tours to give users more information about questions they may be asking themselves.

Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/94ghjj6/screen/59284547

Make an Offer

Once users have completed their tour, their status changes on the app and they are able to make an offer on a home they liked. If they didn’t like any homes, they are able to select more homes and create another tour.

Problem:
To reduce making offers over the phone with Homie operations team to create a more automated, efficient and scaleable business.

Solution & Opportunity:
• To create a simplified experience for the customer to make an offer.
• Once a user has seen a property, they can make an offer on the spot using the Homie web app.
• Users are notified if the offer is pending, rejected or accepted.
• Make counter offers

Prototype:
Mobile - https://marvelapp.com/94ghjj6/screen/59284548

Design Library

Created a design library in Sketch for designers and developers to keep UI consistency. I had the role of maintaining the guides as the product grew and evolved in an agile way.

Handoff for Developers

I prototyped in Marvel and use this tool for testing and the Handoff feature with developers for ease of reference of the front end code.