Improving retention and coverage for HomeViews

Homeviews illustration of a road with a Homeviews branded map marker.

Client: HomeViews
Sector: Property Services
Role: Product Designer (UX focused)
References: www.homeviews.com

The first residential review website.

Visitors can compare area ratings, browse reviews and leave a review of their own. The goal was to evaluate the site (using a set of heuristics) and disclose a prioritized list of opportunities to guide future development updates.

Form faster

The drop-off rate on forms for Registration and Reviews is very high. To improve form conversion rates, we proposed progressive disclosure patterns, improved form validation, and added onscreen guidance.

Addressing Privacy Concerns

A high percentage of visitors (34%, 50 participants) are reluctant to complete reviews because they are unsure if their exact location is obfuscated or made public. We proposed addressing privacy concerns up-front; on landing pages, tours, and social media posts.

Increase Coverage

A high percentage of visitors found the website useful, but coverage was lacking in some areas. Using social media campaigns and advertising, we targeted the areas with the least reviews.

Improve Variety of Properties

A high percentage of visitors found the website content showed a bias, favouring new developments. Visitors would like to see a wider variety of property types.

Improved Automation

Review moderation is a time-consuming task with little automation. We explored solutions to increase automation and reduce the time taken to moderate and publish reviews.

Review, review.

Testing revealed that the grouping of long form questions and multiple choice led to skewed feedback (users whizzing through the multiple choice without elaborating on their answers). We explore ways to improve the quality of reviews while reducing the time it takes to complete the review.

Building Empathy

Information Architecture

Using tree tests, we validate the information structure, ease of navigation and discovery with potential users. Based on the insights gained from the initial tests, audits, and card sorting, we defined a sitemap for HomeViews.

Customer Journey Maps

Mapping out the critical journeys helped us better understand the steps taken to write a review and have it published.

Prototypes

Low-fidelity prototypes were created and tested with users. Research revealed multiple opportunities: Key areas: Content, structure and the moderation process.

Summary

The initial evaluation identified 58 opportunities in total.  Key areas; Further improvements to the moderation process and improving the review quality by enhancing the existing review form (220 backend and front end updates).