The Search for the Right Home
Consuelo de la Vega is a high-end real estate agency in Bogotá, Colombia. The client wanted to cater to the high-end market by addressing users’ needs and mainstreaming the scheduling of appointments with agents.
Client: Consuelo de la Vega
Format: Corporate Website
With: Paperplane.co
Live Site: www.consuelodelavega.com
Year: 2018
Role:
- strategy
- researcher
- visual Designer
Tools:
- Figma
- Google Forms
Problem
Finding upscale real estate in Bogota that meets your specific requirements can be a challenging task.
Being the capital of Colombia, Bogota boasts a wide array of luxurious homes and apartments. However, the existing solutions in the market are primarily driven by word-of-mouth recommendations or platforms that aggregate all types of listings, making the search for a prestigious home considerably more laborious and time-consuming.
Process
Understanding the preferences of customers when searching for a home while also addressing business goals
I was able to impact the progress of this project by suggesting the importance of gaining deeper insights into the key factors customers prioritize when searching for a home. By utilizing quantitative data, we were able to make informed decisions regarding the layout and content architecture, resulting in enhanced user experiences and improved user journeys.
Impact
A responsive site that allows customers to identify possible listings based on neighborhood and key requirements
The responsive website has been a resounding success for all stakeholders, enabling the client to efficiently guide customers to the most relevant listings, resulting in increased business deals. The developed search tools have significantly enhanced productivity and speed for users as they search for listings based on geographical values or specific listing qualities.
The Market
Every city's real state market works differently
Like any other city, Bogotá has an elite group of buyers looking to buy a home with exclusive qualities, but their needs go beyond how high the apartment is located or its square footage.
Consuelo de La Vega is a known name within the high-end real estate industry, but primarily through word of mouth. The goal was to create a digital footprint that would mainstream business and open new opportunities for other enterprises.
The Niche
Framing the client's value proposition
Consuelo de la Vega's proposition was to create a real estate website that reflected both the lifestyles and needs of users looking to purchase high-end real estate by focusing on the following key aspects:
Listings of a Specific Price Range
Elevated Visual Aesthetics
Make listings relevant to user needs
Working closely with Consuelo's Sales and Marketing Team, we evaluated the value proposition to identify key aspects that might guide the design process. This included SWOT analysis, as well as competitive analysis and trend research
Strengths
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educated agent team on the target market
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company reputation for quality homes
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exclusive selection of apartments
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diverse property types in the portfolio
Opportunities
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the target audience is tech-savvy and web-driven
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a growing number of families looking to own a home
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Introduce properties for rentals
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offer early project offerings
Weaknesess
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discovery relies on word of mouth
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no digital presence to echo social media posts
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geographically segregated listings
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circumvention of agents from listings online
Threats
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new competitors
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changing market trends
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resilience to the digital discovery of real estate
Variables
Results
The survey was crucial for the mapping and designing of the website. It helped us put concrete priorities on how products were displayed and discovered. At some stages of the process, the client was set on including specific details, such as recreational areas, and we could always come back to the user research and explain its relevance.
Listing Thumbnail
Defining the visual hierarchy of key values
Based on the survey results, we sketched different directions for ways to help customers learn more about a listing. We explored both graphic and typographic communication, always giving a high priority to the listing's images, the location, and the price, which ranked the highest in the survey.
The two most important variables in the research were the overlay actions we animated by highlighting and increasing the name size and price. Other details like square footage, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and garages remained in the bottom bar of the listing thumbnail.
Location, location, location
Interactive listing map and search
The location being the most important variable in our research, we opted to give it a dominant role. We figured that users were more familiar with looking at Google Maps and getting a sense of neighborhoods visually than providing an address. Therefore, the map became a way to filter and locate listings based on location.
Filtering
Improving user's journey through easy sorting
For the filtering, we went back to our card sorting survey and used it to prioritize which filters would be dominant. We layered the filters, setting the first eight most essential variables on the main bar and all subdominant listing variables in a "more filters" tab. This allowed us to keep the screen from cluttering and to keep a full visual of the map and listing thumbnails.
Responsive Design
Enabling search anywhere on the go
Consuelo de la Vega's demographic is highly technological and, as such, performs many of their searches via their mobile phones. For this reason, it was vital that the site would be able to adjust to different mobile screens as well as tablets and other devices. Beyond the buyer, it was also crucial that agents could access listings and their information on the go.
The team and I designed the mobile device search interface, allowing the same level of flow and versatility that the desktop version offered.
Take Aways
Conclusion
It was a pleasure working with the Paperplane team in developing this site, in conjunction with the client's sales and marketing team. I learned a lot from working with the client's sales team, understanding their perspective on how the website could make communication with their clients easier and more productive by providing more information about listings.
I joined this project while shopping for a home in New York, and it was fascinating to engage with local apps and then come back and apply direct experience to the needs of the Colombian market.
Looking back at this project, it would have been great to do more mid-fidelity tests with potential users, but given the time and budget, we had to skip these. I have tracked the site since, and it has grown to include pre-construction projects and other listings that we did not initially consider, demonstrating the system's flexibility. I would have liked to add a feature that filtered the listings by grouped neighborhoods, which in Bogotá is a popular segmentation.