Homies - Home buying Helper
In the dynamic and often overwhelming world of real estate, first-time home buyers frequently face hurdles in navigating the market confidently. Blend, our client, identified a critical need to engage and support these potential homeowners, aiming to transform their initial hesitancy into a commitment to their platform. We introduced 'Homies', a home-buying platform designed to connect and empower first-time buyers.
MY ROLE​
UX Researcher, UX Designer
DURATION​
March 2021 - May 2021
CLIENT​
Blend
TEAM​
Bennet Huffman, Kazi Jawad, Lucy Cho, Zach Fan
Research
Understanding and breaking down the problem space
The goal of our research was to familiarise ourselves with the home buying process and identify the hurdles related to the process that is causing first-time home buyers to feel uncommitted to the process. We used both generative and evaluative research methods with over fifteen unique participants.
Journey Map
I created a customer journey map to better understand the home-buying process as a whole and to identify the pain points and opportunities along the home-buying journey. It allowed me to understand the emotions and actions that home-buyers have to go through.
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Background Research
As a team, we all performed background research on who first-time homebuyers are as well are their general demographics to help us better understand whom we are designing for.
Think-Aloud Interviews
We employed think-aloud protocols to help us understand how first-time home buyers might use a home-buying website or service. Specifically, we used the UK mortgage platform Habito, identifying areas of low confidence and factors contributing to their hesitance in committing to a home purchase.
Synthesis
Through affinity diagramming, we identified the relationship between the level of commitment and methodology for finding homes
Insight #1
People are concerned about the personal relationships involved in home-buying.
Insight #2
People want emotional assurance throughout the home-buying process.
Insight #3
Having the flexibility in options and preferences in a platform is important for a home-buyer.
Insight #4
People are hesitant about giving their trust, without having security or a personal connection.
So how might we
Encourage first-time homebuyers to commit to purchasing a home by improving their emotional preparedness?
Ideation
Generating 40+ ideas through crazy 8's and storyboarding
After voting on the most impactful solutions, we developed storyboards. The storyboards encouraged the team to think broadly about potential solutions to the specific needs we found.
Testing
We speed-dated the storyboards with 10 participants to validate or invalidate ideas.
Most interviewees validated the need for emotional assurance throughout the home-buying process. They spoke about the emotional burden one would expect in the home-buying process and that they would strictly prefer receiving emotional assurance from people they are familiar with over strangers or CUIs.
Findings
People feel more confident in the home buying process if there is flexibility, familiarity and trust.
FLEXIBILITY
Having flexibility in options and preferences in a platform is important for a home-buyer. Being able to customize their preferences allows users to feel more confident and trustworthy using the platform.
"Being able to put in my preferences helps me pick the most suitable candidante that I think might be able to help me best during my home-buying process."
"Knowing someone you've talked to that's in the neighborhood you've moved to is nice, almost like a bumble for pre-moving somewhere."
FAMILIARITY
People want emotional assurance throughout the home buying process. People prefer getting emotional support from people they know, can be close with and are there for the right reasons.
TRUST
Most people are hesitant about putting their trust in those involved in the home buying process, especially depending on professionalism and familiarity. They want security measures to ensure a certain level of trust.
"I am glad I can chat with my matches beforehand as well as read reviews on them to help gain trust and see if they can help me during my home-buying journey."
Solution
Designing Low-Fidelity wireframes
The solution focuses on improving potential home buyers' emotional readiness for committing to homeownership. Homies connect hesitant and inexperienced potential home buyers with new homeowners in the area they intend to live in. Potential home buyers have the opportunity to match with homeowners who have recently gone through the home buying journey based on the user's preferences. Homies create a community of support where hesitant first-time homebuyers can become more confident and committed to homeownership as well as more emotionally prepared and dedicated to the process.
Solution
Designing Mid-Fidelity wireframes
Direct connection to Homies from home-buying platforms like Zillow to find target audience.
Customise your settings and preferences to find the most-fitting matches for you.
Filter through potential matches before matching.
Chat directly with other home-buyers in your area to increase your emotional preparedness.
Rate your experience with a match to help other home-buyers select their matches.
