Simplifying listings for real estate developers

Overview

Domain, a top player in the Australian real estate market, provides detailed property listings, data, tools, and valuable content to facilitate property transactions. In my role as a Senior Product Designer in the New Development team at Domain, I focused on improving the user interface and experience for managing new development real estate listings across the Domain platform.

Challenges

Complexity: Working in the real estate sector for new developments means dealing with a lot of intricate data that needs careful handling and clear presentation. I had the task of simplifying how developers and agents input, organise, and showcase new development listings.

Legacy User Interface: Developers and agents had to utilise outdated interfaces to manage their listings on Domain, which were inadequate in functionality and lacked essential features like bulk upload and editing.

One size fits all: The life cycle of listings for new developments follows slightly different cadences and status updates than a regular real estate listing, but the system was only designed to accommodate the regular life cycle.

Design process

Customer research: Conducted thorough research to understand user needs, including interviews, surveys, and usability testing with real estate professionals and buyers. Insights directly impacted design decisions.

Design system dev: Improved Domain design system for cohesive user experience and smooth feature integration across new development listings and other platform interactions.

Scrum team collaboration: Worked closely with cross-functional scrum teams to create agile solutions meeting real estate developers' and agents' needs, ensuring technical feasibility and business alignment.

User research findings

User research revealed varied approaches to project and listing management among companies. Some update weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly using CRMs, office apps, and social media. Enhanced processes were required, particularly for tasks such as linking listings. Users expressed the need for more visual cues, bulk updating, increased drag-and-drop functionality, and enhanced reporting.

Design roadmap

Enhanced user experience and efficiency: Quick wins for improved product usability and efficiency by adding visual indicators, enhancing drag-and-drop, and enabling bulk actions. These changes streamline user workflows, making tasks easier and faster, while reducing errors.

Integration and interoperability: Ensured seamless integration with various ecosystem tools like CRMs, office apps, and social media platforms. Robust API connections provided a cohesive user experience, leveraging existing tools for improved data sync and efficient updates.

Robust reporting and tracking: Enhanced product reporting and tracking with detailed dashboards, real-time data, and integrated tracking features. Improved decision-making and project oversight for users.

Summary

As a Senior Product Designer at Domain, I improved the user interface and experience for managing real estate listings, focusing on usability and seamless operations based on user research. I worked with teams to deliver agile solutions meeting developer and agent needs, implementing visual indicators, drag-and-drop enhancements, and bulk actions for efficiency. Additionally, I integrated the product with CRMs, office apps, and social media platforms, and enhanced product reporting with detailed dashboards and real-time data.