Camphor is an advanced AI property search tool tailored for homebuyers and real estate professionals. This involves establishing a comprehensive repository of property-related information that can be easily digestible and queried utilizing conversastional language.
Client
:
Shawn Patel and Roshan Srinivasan
Timeline
:
2024 | 3-week agile sprint
Role
:
UX/UI Designer
Team
:
Elliot Beak, James Rayo, Kim Sidhu
The Challenge
How can comprehensive real estate information be effectively simplified to enhance user experience?
Defining the Problem and Project Scope
Our client wants to make it easier for homebuyers to educate themselves about a property and connect with a seller/seller's agent. They believe home buyers should have direct access to residential listings and general property information without having to go through a MLS or title company
Camphor is Democratizing Access to Real Estate Data and Information Across the Entire Residential Real Estate Ecosystem
Identifying the Users
"Purchasing property is a little scary because there's a lot to consider since it's my first time."
"I found sellers did not disclose
information on their property,
this is a huge problem… I had to
discover this through my own
research."
Understanding Casual Home Buyers:
Navigating Real Estate Complexity
Individuals seeking to buy a home, whether for their first time, an upgrade, downsizing, or relocation, may not have frequent involvement in real estate transactions and may lack a profound understanding of the housing market intricacies. They typically approach the home-buying process with a more casual perspective compared to real estate professionals who engage in transactions as part of their business.
Who did we interview?
want to be able to discover more about a property in an easy-to-understand way
want a more personalized search for characteristics every buyer cares about
care about how information is displayed
We then created two personas to help identify Camphor's potential users.
Meet Alex and Sarah
Alex, a first-time homebuyer, needs a way to seek clear guidance and accessible information when it comes to purchasing property. Alex needs a better way to feel confident in making a big decision because he's seen misrepresented properties online.
Sarah, an experienced homebuyer, needs a way to find properties that fit her specific requirements because current platforms don’t offer as in-depth information as she prefers.
Empowering Homebuyers:
Navigating the Real Estate Maze with Confidence
Key Findings
Through our research and persona development, we discovered that users often seek additional insights from real estate agents and frequently struggle to find properties that align with their specific criteria.
Core focus and problem to solve
In today's expensive real estate market, the process of finding a suitable home can be overwhelming and filled with uncertainty. Prospective buyers want assurance about how a potential home will integrate into their work life, accommodate their family, and provide a sense of security. We recognize that home buying is a personal experience.
National language based search is a new feature, therefore most people will not be comfortable using it. So the biggest area of UX is trying to figure out for people to transition from a normal filter based search to a new filter search function. Making the filters understandable and digestible for users that are vising the service for the first time.
How did these insights fall into our scope?
Our Objective
Revise the layout and design of the property report to enhance user readability by incorporating more visualizations
Revising the layout for how filters are organized when a query is made to Camphor search
Mobile-First Approach
Recognizing the abundance of information to present to the user, we opted to begin designing mobile first. This approach allowed us to prioritize the correct information in the initial mobile designs, ensuring seamless transition to desktop iterations while maintaining coherence across platforms
Developer Constraints
But a 3-week spring is pretty short for this project scope, therefore our team discussed what features and functions should be prioritized. We thought of implementing a filters selection feature through the AI chat on the property the user is searching. However, the critical issue was developer constraints: Are these ideas that would not be feasible for a software developer to implement? How do we design placeholders for future branding and creative teams?
