FIRST time home buyING ASSISTANT

For this month-long project, I worked as a UX Design Consultant to an American real estate company with 2 other designers. The goal was to create a comprehensive app that would guide a first time home buyer from start to finish of the buying process. I entered the project during the Discovery Phase and continued through the Design Phase to completion where the interactive prototype and all supporting material were handed off to the client to build.

DISCOVERY PROCESS

The Discovery stage of this project was critical to understanding every step of this notoriously long and complicated process. Virtual journey-mapping sessions were held with many different stakeholders, such as real estate agents, mortgage brokers, insurance experts, home inspectors and others. These sessions allowed us to piece together a very detailed and comprehensive ‘start to finish’ map for the buyer, seller and agent.

DESIGN

Our Discovery learnings and the journey map we created allowed us to design an app that guides and educates the first time home buyer every step of the way.

The app login information is first sent to the home buyer by their real estate agent.

The user is then asked if they have purchased a home before in order to tailor the app experience to their level of knowledge.

In the case of a first time home buyer, our target user, the app pairs them with a virtual assistant named Ping.

They are then introduced to their team and main dashboard, where they will have easy access to everything they need to complete the home purchase as quickly and smoothly as possible.

MAIN DASHBOARD & FEATURES

The main dashboard is split into 2 tabs, Transactions and Moving.

The Transaction tab gives the buyer an overview of where they are in the buying process and how far they have left to go in 4 areas: Mortgage, Title, Insurance and Inspection. It also has a handy to-do list and a list of latest completed actions.

The Moving tab is more experiential, sparking delight by suggesting videos about moving and other helpful content like checklists or tips.

At the top of the dashboard the user can also find a Timeline, a summary of their Home, a way to contact their Agent and access to Ping, the virtual assistant.

Ping in particular is split into 2 tabs: Learning and Notifications. We as designers saw an opportunity to distinguish between the many reminders the home buyer will receive from the tidbits of home-buying advice and education Ping can offer to a curious user who wants to learn more.