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Background
Overview
In the United Kingdom, housing prices are surging. London has a huge rental market and 83% of people choose to rent instead of buy properties in the city. With supply well below demand, this market moves quickly and it is extremely difficult for the average London resident to lock in their next home. Our product, Flats.co.uk, is designed to eliminate these pain points for flat renters by providing them with more information and data in their rental search experience.
⌚ Timeframe
2022
3 weeks
3 weeks
🗣️ Team
3 designers: Felicia Invedy, Jessica Via, and me
📦 Deliverables
Desktop web mockups
Constraints
- We wished to challenge ourselves by focusing on users that are not immediately accessible to us.
- As this is a completely new product, we focused on creating a MVP for the renters.
- Due to time constraints, our focus is creating a great rental resource first. We have proposals for how to monetize the product, but that is not the most important aspect for us now.
- As most survey participants expressed interest in searching for a rental property on their computer, our product is limited to the desktop website for the MVP.
research
Research overview
Since we were tackling a market that was unfamiliar to us, research was paramount to ensuring that we were delivering the correct product for the end users. We used a combination of methods, including market research, multiple rounds of surveying, and competitive analysis of sites existing in the London rental market space.
Market research
White paper research
After reading on the London rental market through news sources and forum posts, we learned what makes the London rental market different from others, key pain points, and what London renters valued. These insights are briefly summarized below.
What renters in London struggled with in 2022:
- Extremely competitive market,
- Steep prices, and
- Higher than normal cost.
What renters in London are prioritizing:
- High-speed internet,
- Specific amenities, and
- Proximity to public transport and shops.
Sources
Small open-ended survey
In order to receive personal opinions on the London rental market, we asked multiple open-ended questions to inspire participants to consider their answers more deeply. This survey was kept to a short length in order to encourage participants to spend more time on each question.
Gathering participants
We gathered participants through numerous channels including subreddits, Facebook groups, and discord channels. Included among these is r/HousingUK, r/London, and r/LondonSocialClub.
Findings and insights
- All 11 participants preferred to rent over buy due to monetary reasons.
- Participants had a wide range of features and amenities they would like to see in their next place.
- Accessibility to agent contact information was important to multiple participants.
- Size and location was another big factor in people’s decisions to live in certain places.
Rapid generic survey
Our primary objective for this Maze survey was to gather quick numeric data about which platforms our target audience would be using in their rental search as well as page-specific details. This survey was partially informed by our previous survey results.
Gathering participants
For this survey, we sought to reach as many participants as possible, posting in many discord servers and reaching out to personal contacts. Our efforts paid off and we received 44 responses to this survey.
Question set and findings
Q1. If you were looking for a place to rent or buy, which of the following platforms would you most likely use?
50% of people would prefer to search for rentals on their desktop.
Q2. What filter options are non-negotiable when looking for a place?
Price range, beds/baths, property type, availability, and amenities were the top contenders here.
Q3. What property information is a must when looking at property details?
Images were essential to the participants, including overall property images as well as floor plans with detailed size markings. Location and proximity to shops was also something that people prioritized in their rental search.
Q4. Is there any other information you find important in your rental search experience?
People are curious about the neighborhood. This includes walkability, noise level, and overall safety. Participants were also interested in understanding past renter experiences through reviews about their interactions with management, the community environment, and overall cleanliness.
Competitive analysis
We initially looked into 17 other residential real estate sites operating in London. We then narrowed the list to sites which were more well-known among Londoners, had a good amount of property data, and played into similar demographics as ours. In the table below, we examined our proposed feature set against three sites with a major market share in London: Rightmove.co.uk, Zoopla.co.uk and Spareroom.com.
Flats.co.uk differentiation
Why would someone choose to use our site over another? As this was a market that already had multiple established user products, we needed to examine exactly what made our site different. Without neglecting any of the key items that make a resource like this fit the needs of the market, we also needed to offer something new. Some of these identified new features included:
- Focus on amenities, including broadband connection.
- Increased focus on what interested renters in location, in particular the parks, shops, and transportation.
- Transparency about the rental market in the form of knowledge about popularity of listings and predicted time on market for properties.
iterations
Low-fidelity wireframes
Style guide and component library
We created a simple design system for our product that included typography, color scheme, iconography, and multiple reusable components throughout our design.
usability testing
Tasks
Our goal in the task formation was to capture a realistic experience of people using the site with saved items already. We asked for participants to give multiple features of the site a try.
Prototype usability testing
We separated our usability test into two parts. In the first part, participants walked through the prototype with tasks. I sat in a session with some of the participants and learned that many were frustrated with the slow loading times in the first few tasks, potentially explaining the higher than normal bounce rate.
Maze reportSystem usability survey
In the second part of the usability test, we asked partipants to complete a system usability survey (SUS). This is a predetermined set of questions that is meant to gauge effectiveness, efficiency, and overall ease of use of the system.
Maze reportResults
PositiveS
- 59% of people felt good about using our product.
- A SUS score of 89/100 indicates that our site is usable.
- Participants were asked to complete tasks in a scenario that simulates a real experience, which indicated they could navigate the pages with little explanation.
- People were actually interested in using the product again.
Room for Improvement
- There was some confusion about where to find amenities such as "washer and dryer".
- Further optimization of prototypes before usability testing is necessary.
conclusion
Future steps
- The site should include the landlord side of the letting and selling process so that it can self-source the listing data.
- We chose to focus on the desktop experience for the MVP due to the results of our survey. The mobile version still needs to be developed.
- We would like to incorporate buyable properties into our listings.
Takeaways
- Even if there are multiple established competitors in the market already, there is still the opportunity to create something uniquely helpful.
- Although the participants may not follow the prototyping path exactly, it does not indicate failure but instead shows the different ways people can interpret prompts.
