Overview:
Zillow’s new construction team works directly with home builders to help new construction homebuyers find their dream home.
My role: Design lead
The Problem
Home buyers don’t know the good home builders from the bad ones.
Today buyers seek this information online and find an inconsistent, confusing mixture of sources (Yelp, Facebook, the Builder's website), none of which feel reliable, definitive and comprehensive.
Research shows 1/2 of all active shoppers indicate there is not enough information online regarding builder ratings and reviews.
Solution Hypothesis
Builder profiles with reviews from verified new construction homebuyers will help new construction home shoppers make a decision on which builder to work with for their new dream home.
Expected user experience outcomes
Get info and insights that she is looking for (across a list of homes) with less effort, higher satisfaction, and higher confidence
Help her assess the quality and value of the home.... with more confidence and accuracy, and less effort
Phase 1: Discovery
Competitive analysis: I started by collecting examples of how reviews were displayed on other successful platforms and made notes to share with the product team.
Understanding the users: As this project was tactical and on a short timeline I didn’t have time to conduct new research activities so I reviewed past research for insights on users which will help drive design decisions.
New construction home buyers start considering a new construction home shortly after determining a budget (early in the shopping process).
NC considerers have more money to work with than existing home buyers and have different priorities when it comes to making tradeoffs such as customization and preferred layout vs. charm and known quantities around location and timeline.
NC buyers use the widest breadth of resources and value online home listings the most (Zillow is the most used among NC shoppers)
NC homebuyers want more clarity on pricing, construction timelines, builder reputation and community plans.
Phase 2: Concept
Sketching and ideation: rough sketch to get ideas out quickly
White boarding for structure: I worked with a PM in a quick white-boarding session to understand and document all of the entry points
Next I iterated on certain components in low-fidelity and gathered feedback from stakeholders
Phase 3: Design
Finally I iterated with high-fidelity designs and information architecture
After gathering feedback from stakeholders I finalized designs and handed them off to the developers
