Sucasa — A step closer to shortlisting homes (UX Case Study)
Project Overview
In today’s day and age, finding a home is a tedious and troubling process. The ordeal doesn’t end at finding the ideal property; undocumented rules enforced by the society, miscommunication with brokers and owners continue to bother users long after finding the right property and sometimes even after moving in.
There are many apps which aim to simplify the process of finding a home, but none of them sufficiently solve the woes of the user, why?
With Sucasa, the user can buy or rent properties in a whole new way. It focuses on being informative, secure and extremely reliable.
It makes house hunting a much smoother experience.
The Challenges
A very common problem while looking for a house is fake listings. It is frustrating and also a waste of time to visit multiple properties while hoping it’s the one that was listed. Brokers have access to phone numbers, which also can raise a concern for privacy. The locality details are unknown for the user until they visit the property. Information is very difficult to find. Also, owners/tenants face issues during or towards the end of the lease period.
The Solution
Explore the locality with a dashboard of data selected by the user which will give information like Traffic Analysis, Rent Trends, etc. To ensure privacy, the app will have In-App Chat and a KYC process for all users. Owners can now select fixed timings for an open house for users to visit the property, saving time. Sucasa also provides an end-to-end property timeline to record any owner-tenant history or transactions.
The Process
The process followed is a commonly used metaphor, in the field of UX, the iceberg. The priority is based on experience design and begins from the bottom.
User Research
I started by researching the current apps and for features that enable users to find properties. Further, I studied the “non-app” approach to finding homes i.e. directly through brokers or even facebook groups.
I found that there was plenty of room for improvement in the market.
There was no easy way to shortlist homes due to an increase in fake listings and a huge deficit of time of the users. I created a research plan consisting of user interviews, surveys resulting in the building of my personas.
I gained a better understanding of my target market and their needs during house hunting.
UX Strategy Blueprint
Started by creating a UX strategy blueprint to have better direction and clear focus. I designed the Site-Map and decided what would be included in the MVP along with crisp navigation.
After knowing the needs of the user, card sorting is conducted to help understand what the flow and the features should be.
Following card sorting, we design the site map.
Low Fidelity
After understanding the data from user research and analysis, I then moved to the low fidelity wireframes. Below are the main screens of the wireframes before iterations.
User Flow
This is the user flow only for the rent section as it will be similar for the buy and upcoming projects segments
Prototype
I created a prototype based on the high-fidelity wireframes created in Adobe XD. My objectives were to find out if the navigation was natural and if the users understood the affordance of the features. I looked to assess how the user understands the app to help find a home and also to find the pain points, if any, along the way. Usability testing was conducted with 5 people in my class who were my target audience. I made changes to my prototype until it had zero errors.
Conclusion
The next step in the process would be to conduct several rounds of usability tests on my design prototype, click and navigation analyses and basic funnels and then iterate based on the test results. I would also work on follow-up features that would build on the new form of engagement based on user feedback. That might include expanding the dashboard for a wider spread of information to view and also integrate the google street view of areas where properties exist.
Behance Links
View the UX case study on Behance
View the iOS UI Presentation
View the Android UI Presentation
