Equity Multiple
Overview
Existing site redesign for client commercial real estate investment company.
Role(s)
UX/UI Researcher & Designer
Goal
To enhance the value offered by Equity Multiple’s website by improving upon the discoverability of informative and educational materials in their online resource center.
Team
Mariyam Elshrief
Will Heydt-Minor
Peter Hsiao
Heather Sterman
Tools
Paper + Pen
Miro
Figma
Methods
User Interviews • Persona Development • Journey Mapping • Design Studio Sketching • Wireframing • Prototyping • Usability Testing
Constraints
2.5 Week Sprint
Navigating Coronavirus Landscape
Background
Equity Multiple is a platform built for commercial real estate investment. Their mission is to make commercial real estate more accessible to individual investors.
My team and I were initially brought on in order to address content accessibility and findability of information on their resource center page through the lens of an accredited investor.
The timeline of this project coincided with the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent quarantine in the U.S. which forced us to adapt to a remote work environment. These unpredictable events required us to make certain pivots in our problem space eventually leading us to explore the needs of investors who are interested in getting into commercial real estate investing.
Collecting Insights
We reached out to our networks and interviewed 6 participants who had experience in public investing, but were new or unfamiliar to alternative real estate investing. We asked them questions, such as:
What expectations do you have when investing?
What challenges have you faced when searching for information related to real estate investing?
How do you feel about the language used on investing websites?
Here is How They Responded
After user interviews, the responses were synthesized into groups & trends based on their similarities. These “I” statements, convey insights from the user’s POV.
The Target User in Mind
Although Reggie has an investment portfolio, he is still somewhat new to real estate investing & is looking to diversify his portfolio so that he can earn more long-term income & distance himself from the unpredictable stock market. Reggie accesses a variety of online platforms to search for trustworthy information on investments, but is overwhelmed by site jargon & has difficulty sorting through these sites to find the information he needs.
Areas of Opportunity
This graph illustrates the journey Reggie goes through when going about searching for information related to real estate investing.
Based on the synthesis, the opportunities identified to help out Reggie were to offer real estate investment content specially tailored to varying levels of experience & to show a variety of articles from verified trade professionals.
With the User in Mind and Opportunities Identified…
How might we help Reggie find trustworthy resources from experienced professionals to help him learn more about investing?
State of the Current Page…
Articles section (resource center)
A heuristic evaluation was conducted to evaluate the general usability of the current resource center based on best practice guidelines. The overall site exhibited a strong and consistent visual design, however there were a few noticeable issues with the resource center. The articles section in particular featured endless scrolling of articles and a lack of useful search or filter capabilities making it difficult to sort through and locate particular articles based on needs.
Existing Platform Testing
Usability testing was conducted on five users in order to observe the user’s pain points and behavior in action. We wanted to understand how newcomers would react to Equity Multiple’s website.
Key Findings
Participants were unable to identify proper resources to educate themselves on real estate investing
Users experienced difficulty finding out exactly what services Equity Multiple offers
Design Ideation
Sketches
Through conducting a design studio session with Equity Multiple’s lead designer, a redesign of the resource center was brainstormed. Final results of the lo-fi ideation are shown here. The design aims to address the needs Reggie would have when looking for and accessing educational materials on Equity Multiple’s site.
Most notably, this includes a revamp to the way articles are discovered and organized in the resource center. This would be achieved through the implementation of a more in-depth filtering feature for the articles.
Mid-Fi Prototype
With the time constraints of the project coupled with the newfound challenge of working remote due to the coronavirus, we decided to translate our final low-fi wireframes to a digital mid-fidelity prototype before conducting usability testing.
Design Studio Sketches
Mid-Fidelity Iteration - Filter Screen
Test Results & Modifications
The implementation of more robust filtering capabilities was definitely needed in Equity Multiple’s current resource center page. Giving users the option to filter articles based on their interests or knowledge levels further adds value to the resource center by providing prospective investors tips and insights into the world of commercial real estate investment.
Filter Placement - Mid-Fi vs. Hi-Fi
High Fidelity Prototype
Next Steps
Testing high-fidelity prototype and iterate upon its findings
Developer handoff and collaboration on finalizing resource center findings
Information architecture evaluation for the navigation of the site
Takeaways
It’s important get a clear understanding of the business and their needs in order to best explore solutions that are valuable to them.
When confronted with a difficult or unfamiliar subject matter such as that of commercial real estate, it is greatly beneficial to ask for a subject matter expert to go over key concepts and terminology.
Reality is often unpredictable. Unexpected and inconvenient circumstances cannot always be planned for. One must be flexible in approaching problems from different angles and make decisive pivots when necessary due to changing constraints.