Condo Dork
Website Redesign
M O R E C O N D O S . L E S S W O R K .
Condo dork are inventing checkout for real estate.
Condo dork are building the end to end workflow required to facilitate lower touch, efficient, real estate transaction experience. Their software helps buyers, sellers and professionals simplify real estate transactions online.
Project: Case Study I Services: Website Redesign
Year: 2023 I Tools: Figma, Adobe Photoshop
Creative Brief
Project Objective
Improve user experience, making the site more intuitive and user-friendly, improving navigation, and simplifying the user journey to make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for and create a more modern, professional, and appealing look and vibes to enhance the brand image.
Deliverables
Website Redesign
Problem Statements
The current website works well, but several aspects can be improved. Many users generally like to have images to showcase properties when looking to buy or rent a property. High-quality photos can help potential buyers or renters visualize themselves in the property and get a better sense of its layout and features. The current website lacks images, especially the homepage, which is the first page that users visit when they visit the site.
As a result, users lack interest in exploring the site and proceeding to the next page, which causes low-rate conversion to the property showcase page.
The challenge is improving information architecture and adding visuals to enhance the user experience without losing the company identity.
Design Process
I decided to follow IDEO’s Human-Centered Design, and there are five key stages of the Design Thinking process – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Validate.
01. Empathize
Persona
I created a persona with assumptions about the target audience that will use this website. Creating personas is an effective way to ensure the website redesign is user-centered and focuses on meeting the target audience’s needs.
02. Define
Defining the challenge
Understand the objective of the website redesign based on the persona’s frustration.
I compiled three main goals I wanted to improve from the current website.
1 - Adding more visuals
The first impression matters. The homepage is the first page where the user comes. One of the concerns is the homepage lacks visuals. Although the website is efficient with categorizing, most users will likely go through pages if the information catches their attention and is explanatory.
2 - Information Architecture
Another improvement side I observed is the navigation and how the pages are categorized. For example, the navigation. Navigation is crucial since not all users like to browse all the pages or click all the buttons; one of my suggestions may be to do the categorizing but keep the easy access as well.
3 - Dedicated Pages
Most users like to browse, read and look at the property on the pages before making an appointment with the agent. Based on my observation, the property details are in pop-up behavior, and the “the about” section is too text heavy. I believe dedicated pages on the property is more suitable.
03. Ideate
04. Wireframes / Prototypes
05. Current vs Redesign
Navigation Bar
Based on my observation, the initial idea was to categorize and compact the navigation bar. I proposed a different approach for the navigation bar. Here’s the point that I make changes:
1. I add extra padding on both sides so there is more room to breathe.
2. I remove the filter function that currently next to the logo. This filter function will move to another section, which will be more visible and have better user flow.
3. Add the “Home” state, which helps the user understand which page they are on.
4. I change the active state to a different color.
5. I take the “more” group section to the navigation bar: News, Condo Pros, and About pages. Some users want to know more about the company before they go through the site, which explains in the about, or they want to learn more about the site’s knowledge, which the user can browse from News. I took it out so users could figure it out easier.
6. I changed the bookmark to “Favourites,” which contains all the properties users like on designated pages.
7. I put the contact number in the navigation bar for easy access for users who want to contact the agent without browsing the site.
8. I replace the account icon with a more familiar one so it is easier to acknowledge that the icon is to sign in, sign up or sign out.
Footer
Since the footer is at the bottom of the layout, I figure that it been better if it is simple yet could provide information compactly. Below are the comparisons between the current and what I proposed :
1. I removed the listed cities and replaced them with the About company.
2. Keep the social icons, but change the layout to the bottom of the About.
3. Put information such as an address, contact, email address, and phone number in one column for better categorizing and flow.
4. Adding the latest properties on the footer to replace the listed cities is an excellent filler for advertising new listings, also giving more visuals to keep it more relatable and exciting.
Homepage
Homepage_Hero Image
I believe changing the layout direction can help improve the user flow. Here’s the point that I make changes:
1. I changed the headline text to the left so there is more room to showcase the property on the right side.
2. The current website had a filter next to the logo in the navigation bar and a search bar below the headline text in the hero image section. My redesign proposed to combine the filter and search; rather than ask the user to write the full address to search (search condos by address, building, city, neighborhood, MLS#, etc.), I use a drop-down filter system which the section is more visible and easier to fill in by the users.
Homepage_Additional sections
I believe four additional sections will help the user flow and give first-time users ideas about the company. The four sections I added on the homepage are Popular Areas, New Listing, New Articles, and Our Client Review.
For Sale
For the Sale page, there are several things that I change,
1. The filtering system is the same as what I apply on the homepage, so it will always be consistent.
2. Limiting the number of properties shown on the pages.
3. Changes on the UI for the maps section on the right side.
4. Adding more padding and white space on the page makes it easier to look at.
Property Page
On the current website, the property is in the pop-up. I believe creating separate pages is necessary since it will give more information about the property and provide a better user flow. Also, separating the information based on the category in the pages will give a breathing space so the user is more comfortable reading and understanding the information.
News
Good and updated content is the key. I did not make many changes to the news page. There are three things that I do change,
1. The visibility in the navigation bar, so the user had an easy way to get to the news pages
2. The Filter system below the newest carousel pages features the updated content first without being confused by the filtering system
3. Limited to four thumbnails, so the pages are not too long, and give users a choice if they want to filter the news.
Condo Pros
On the current website, Condo Pros is under the “More” section, but in my observation users likely want to go straight to browse agents available and listing, so I redesign and make the Condo Pros as in the main navigation.
About Us
About Us is under the “More” section on the current website. But, in my observation, first-time users especially want to know more about the company, its mission, its vision, and its reputation. I change the about us to be visible; separate pages in navigation make it easier for users to find out. I also add sections such as Testimonials to provide more credentials, FAQ to provide more information, and Contact for easy appointments with the agents.
Thank You.
