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User Research

Data and Analysis for Highly Functional Product Development

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Problem Definition

  1. To create a prototype to showcase the property search experience through new AI technology
  2. To have a product with a clean, modern design that is easy to navigate for users

Product/Organization Goals

  • Have a property search experience that is as seamless and enjoyable as possible
  • Find a housing with their own words
  • Find housing from an image of a house that they want

User Goals:

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Methods

  1. Internet Search
  2. Interviews and Surveys
  3. Competitive Analysis

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Internet Search

Nearly the same amounts of Americans view AI favorably as they do unfavorably

A third of Americans thinks AI will fundamentally change American society

Americans don’t fully trust companies to develop AI systems with the public’s well-being in mind – while 25% have a great deal or somewhat trust AI companies to do so, 75% have little to no trust

Americans report having ever used a text-based or visual generative AI system, such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, Bard, Midjourney or Stable Diffusion

Favorably: 39%

Unfavorably: 43%

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36%

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Great deal or somewhat trust: 25%

Little or no trust: 75%

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16%

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https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/americans-hold-mixed-opinions-ai-and-fear-its-potential-disrupt-society-drive-misinformation

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Internet Search

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/artificial-intelligence-ai-technology-trust-survey/

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User Interviews

&

Surveys

  • Learn about users’ needs such as criteria, priorities, and satisfaction levels when they search for properties online.
  • Learn about our competitors and how users interact with them.
  • Understand users’ pain points with our competitor’s products.
  • Understand people’s perspectives on AI.
  • Get ideas on how UX design can help increase trust in our product.

Goals for User Interviews

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User Interviews & Surveys

  • Many users spend about 1-2 minutes looking at photos before reading descriptions.
  • Some users have had a hard time connecting with agents through websites so they end up calling them directly.
  • Users decide if they use filters based on the number of results that comes up.
  • Ads are annoying but understandable that businesses have to have them.
  • Users don’t like when they have to download a mobile app to open a listing that was shared with others.
  • Users prefer less text-based information in the description.
  • Many users use a property cost calculator and they seem to trust it.
  • Some users open Google Maps in separate a tab or a window because they feel that maps on the website are not easy to navigate/ not detailed enough.
  • Users often have a hard time finding apartments’ names or their official websites in the description.

Key Findings about Online Real Estate Search

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User Interviews & Surveys

  • Their familiarity level with AI drops significantly compared to other technologies.
    • Other technologies: Average Score: 6.2
    • AI: Average Score: 2.5 out of 10
  • Users are intrigued by AI’s ability to generate something personalized from scratch.
  • Users felt that Google has a bigger database than chat GPT.
  • Users felt that Chat GPT was taking longer to present initial results, but they were more tailored than Google so the overall process to find what they wanted was quicker.
  • Users did not like that Chat GPT doesn’t provide references for information
  • Some users feel that the chat-based search is a little too much
  • Users felt that if they don’t work things correctly, AI has a hard time understanding them
  • All of the users said that they skip informational pop-up boxes when they start using new software because they didn’t seem to answer users’ questions and gave them unnecessary information.

The Key Findings about AI:

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Competitive

Analysis

  • Strength and weaknesses
  • Content Organization (Filtering)
  • How they navigate users to find what they want (navigation)
  • Design Patterns

Objectives:

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The Key Findings: Home Page

  • Having Photos of homes instead of Illustrations works better

VS

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The Key Findings: Home Page

  • Simple Header (Navigation Bar)

VS

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The Key Findings: Home Page

  • Differentiate Offered Services from listing suggestions

VS

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The Key Findings: Home Page

  • Organized Footer Dropdowns

VS

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The Key Findings: 1st Result Page

  • Having a search bar below the header

VS

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The Key Findings: 1st Result Page

  • Being able to switch between “List View” and “Map View”

VS

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The Key Findings: 1st Result Page

  • A Page for detailed information for a listing opens in a new tab

VS

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The Key Findings: 1st Result Page

  • Listing Status is shown

VS

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The Key Findings: Listing Details Page

  • Organized Photo Section

VS

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The Key Findings: Listing Details Page

  • General Info and “Contact Agent” area is in a fixed position

VS

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The Key Findings: Listing Details Page

  • Information is easy to navigate through tabs or drop-downs

VS

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The Key Findings Design Patterns:

  • Hierarchy in Types

VS

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The Key Findings Design Patterns:

  • 2 Accent Colors instead of 1

VS

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The Key Findings Design Patterns:

  • Give an enough breathing space

VS