Lee & Associates
Reshaping property market services for commercial real estate
Role
Lead designer
Deliverables
Audit, Research, UX/UI, Development hand-off
Team
Client
1 Product Manager
1 Developer
Overview
Lee & Associates, a real estate firm with 60 in-house agents, uses an external platform for Property Market Research.
To reduce costs, they wanted to replace their outdated internal Property Market Research and Client Invoicing system with a complete redesign.
I was brought in to work on the ongoing redesign, specifically focusing on the Property Market Research flow. During this process, I led design efforts while collaborating closely with the client, product manager, and developer.
*Note: Lee & Associates is an international firm with corporate locations located throughout California. This system operates exclusively from their Ontario location, which is why it has its own design system separate from corporate identity.
What's the issue?
While being onboarded onto this project, I was tasked with completing the user journey for a redesigned screen that was missing essential workflows; particularly in the search filters.
Solutions at a glance
After many, many Zoom calls with the Director of Operations and auditing their legacy system, these main features combined 3 existing pages into one, turning Search into a map first, all-in-one database.
Optimize search results to include city radius
Enable Save Search parameters
Improve Create Report visibility
But what is Lee & Associates?
Lee & Associates is a commercial real estate company that helps clients find the perfect property for their business needs.
Database Search (before):
Input parameters to search the database
Search Results (before):
Select properties to create a report
Export modal (before):
Create a pdf report
Objectives
Real estate agents want to embrace the company's market research system without having to hack their way through it.
Increase user adoption of the new database with 60 in-house agents.
Design
Iteration #1: Filter Ranges
The legacy system originally displayed empty text field boxes with no clear hierarchy or categorization. Taking inspiration from Zillow, I introduced filters with a min and/or max range. This reduced the effort in manual typing.
The client liked the idea, but stated agents would still prefer to have an option to type in specific numbers as part of their workflow.
Iteration #2: Combo Filters + Text Fields ✅
Revising the earlier ideation, I added a Combo Filter creating hierarchy and grouping for similar parameters. Additionally, all Text Field Filters have descriptive placeholders indicating user action.
The client was really happy with this solution. Redesigned search parameters now contain categorized filters based on their dependencies with one another; tucked in a drop down menu to close and expand as needed.
Then our stakeholders changed
Halfway through the project, the Director of Operations left the Ontario office and we pivoted to onboard 3 new stakeholders to make sure they were up to speed. This meant fresh eyes and fresh opinions. Our goal here was to get 100% alignment from the new stakeholders.
Initial feedback
Upon first meeting, they approved 90% of the redesign but had a few thoughts on the current state of the properties panel.
"If I'm working with 20 or 30 properties, it's really not giving me a lot of information. In that particular view, if I see just four, I'm trying to filter it down to what I need." - Stakeholder
Design
During our initial meeting, I iterated on the spot going through a few design considerations with clarifying questions. Later I refined the typography, sizing, and spacing for approval.
All 3 stakeholders were 100% aligned with iteration #2. Not only did the property panel expand into 2-columns and collapse into 1, it displayed up to 5 properties within the viewport. This reduced excessive scrolling, allowing agents to view multiple properties at a time while filtering their search.
Other features
Create a Report
Previously, Create a Report was tucked away in a drop down menu found only in search results. Now it's placed on the toolbar in the main search page, a clear call-to-action placed in an obvious place.
Solution: Export a detailed report in 3 clicks.
Before: Export Report hidden in a drop down menu. Can you find it? 🔍
Future
At this stage, front-end development of Property Map Search is complete, backed with 100% stakeholder buy-in. Based on stakeholder feedback, we estimate 90% user adoption for agents to successfully filter their search, save their search, and create reports within the redesigned flow.
The full redesign of Lee & Associates' (Ontario) Market Research system depends on the completion of invoicing and property database creation. This is currently worked on by another team.
Takeaways
This project required dedicated research efforts in auditing and scoping out friction points in their legacy site. Here are a few takeaways I had from this redesign:
Treat your client's knowledge like a precious resource
Knowing this client used the legacy system at Lee & Associates frequently, I prioritized our sessions to make sure the technical pm, client, and I were aligned with the front-end experience behind each design update. These sessions helped highlight and tailor the redesign to target key friction points and trim away unused features.
Challenges of designing a piece of the puzzle
The Search & Create a Report feature is just one part of Lee & Associates' property market platform. Being tasked with only redesigning this flow, I created hand-off documentation for designers and devs, creating a trail linking the relationship between the legacy site and redesign for future project takeovers.