UX/UI Case study: Socially responsible business.

Learning by helping is a Social innovation lab, whose methodology is designed for the creation and development of projects and start-ups regarding social impact and non-profit.

Together, in collaboration with Arrels, a NGO with the purpose of helping homeless people, we are about to create the website of a social real estate agency. Cool, huh?

RESEARCH

Our goal is to find out the values ​​and aspects that our users appreciate in brands and that condition their consumption decisions. In order to better accommodate and communicate our brand values to them.

But first of all lets have a first glimpse into what do people really think about Real Estate Agencies and their charged fees. (over 200 interviewees)

70% have a negative or very negative view of the Real Estate Agencies.

80% consider Agency fees too expensive and with no value.

Users think Realty Agencies lack transparency and proximity.

Yes, indeed. This is a difficult subject in Spain with a long way to go. Nevertheless we have no abandoned hope yet!

That is a reality and more and more, brands are seeking to have an impact on society, a purpose beyond selling products, they are called Meaningful Brands.

HOW MIGHT WE

How might we persuade new tenants and real estate buyers not to be reluctant to pay Agency Fees? As they consider the cost is disproportionate and provides no added value to the purchase.

IDEATE

We came out with lots of ideas and selected the one that provides real value for our users and the company. The Social Calculator, which is a feature whereby the customer can calculate with total transparency the commission over his/her payments and its impact on society.

TEST

Low-fi puzzle
Our fist prototype was the key to achieve a solid user flow. Each piece of paper communicates a different value, we ordered them to fit the mindset of our users.

BENCHMARKING & TASK ANALISIS

Again, the user determines the value. Through some research, we selected some of our competitors and similar companies, (as we couldn’t find any Social Estate company sharing our values). So, we asked our users to perform specific tasks in order to finish profiling the site map and the user flow.

Mid-Fi testing

Testing the mid-fi with 5 users shed some light on the difficulties.
5/6 missed bread crumbs
3/6 wanted a contact button very easy to find
6/6 needed to locate the flat on the map
6/6 required a form confirmation modal

Logotype

We wanted to transmit transparency and trustability, so that the client can know the values ​​and vision that the brand has and that differentiates it from others.

Style board

The style board plays an important role in the decision making on the direction that would be displayed out across the web of the brand.

Hight-Fi Prototype

Social calculator

Primary User flow

Microsoft Card Test

This methodology was first introduced by Joey Benedeck and Trish Miner in their 2002 paper, “Measuring Desirability: New methods for evaluating desirability in a usability lab setting.”
We have used this modified product reaction list with 5 different users, just after having completed predefined tasks in our site. Afterwards, we have ranked the words to identify the most frequently selected ones.

Data Driven Design

“In God we trust, all others must bring data”

__ W. Edwards Deming

A digital product is a living product that is constantly evolving. With a DDD mindset we will take a data driven design approach. Therefore, our product development or improvement process, will be based on things that can be measured, such as:

• Conversion rate. (Completed contact forms).
• Rebound %.
• Exit pages.
• Behavior flows.

What we have learned

The most difficult challenge we had to face was how to communicate the strong differentiating values of the brand, without distracting the user from its funnel.

Including User Centered Design processes and methods in each phase of the project, warranting that design thinking did not get lost at any stage of the product development lifecycle, ensuring a product which is desirable for the user, viable for the business as well as technically feasible.