Equator.com UX Redesign
Equator is a company that traditionally dealt only in the foreclosure real estate market. As market trends have limited the amount of this type of inventory on the market, it was decided that more focus should be on the engagement of the greater real estate community, by offering compelling content to drive traffic, a more robust property search platform, and a more contemporary design.
I principally designed all patterns used in this effort, maintaining a strict adherence to branding guidelines and responsive best practices. Competitive analysis greatly informed the UX strategy of the endeavor, as well as SEO methodology. A collaboration between Product Managers, Marketing and Developers during this process was inspiring, informative and productive.
Notable objectives:
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Improve upon current property search functionality and behavior, by managing MLS data so as not to create unnecessarily large cognitive load for user.
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Design section where articles can routinely be posted and curated in order to drive unique visitor traffic through content.
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Organize overall content, such as corporate info and marketing into easily manageable pages, notably through an accordion layout.
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Page elements and breakpoints to be designed to be fully responsive for a consistent experience across multiple devices
Personas
It was essential to develop empathy for our target audience in order to create a viable and competitive product in the already saturated marketplace. After interviews with customer support, sales and agents in the field, we got a clearer picture of who our audience was and how to best take advantage of our unique position in the real estate business.
Feature Prioritization
Shown below is an exercise, in which I "codify" the features which will inform the design. This was helpful in attaining buy in from all relevant team leadership and product owners. Getting involved early in the specification process is key, in my view, to ideating a string product and avoiding wasted or duplicated effort.
User Interaction Flow / Marketing Funnel
Below is a diagram that I put together during the discovery phase to inform the architecture of equator.com. This diagram is a hybrid between a marketing funnel and an interaction flow and details the desired path of ingress and value derivation from content an product.
Prototyping
Below are prototype examples for both desktop and mobile, showing responsive behavior. Overall, a strict adherence to design patterns, branding guidelines, and above all, an emphasis on creating an experience for the user, which was easy to use and felt familiar, was key to the success of the project.
