UrHome by UBank Property App (iOS & Android)

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Context

• In Australia, the average person will look for a home for six months, spend 300 active hours searching and $600 on research costs.

• UrHome is an app that assists property-buyers and upgraders through the complex and often emotional buying/upgrading process.

• The business goal was to increase home loan conversions by engaging customers at an earlier stage in the buying process.

• Our team consisted of a part-time product manager, senior business analyst, two test analysts, senior visual designer, three agency-side remote developers and their project manager.

• Project was completed in 2014 over six months. My process has changed significantly since then.

Key features included:

• Property discovery

• Property listings

• Improvement estimates

• Repayments calculator

• Property ratings

• Income vs expenses calculator

• Home loan application

Activities

Requirements gathering

Get to know the domain

I'd never considered buying a house at 24-years old so the property-buying process was completely new for me. I interviewed members from change management and the product teams to understand the process, mostly on the pre-approval and day-of-sale steps of the customer journey. I mapped out the steps and decision points. There were a lot.

Conduct user interviews

"Users" meant family members in this case, because there was no research budget. Like I often say, do the best you can with what you have. I asked what they considered when they searched for a property, the tools they used to manage the process, how they documented the property information etc.

Map the IA

I broke down the information architecture using the requirements doc as a guide. I filled in any gaps that I could see in proposed flows. I wrote questions for the team regarding the solution that came up as I did the documentation.

I used the existing concept screens that were used in the business case to form the backbone of the flows. I then sketched the gaps and the functionality I saw fit to complete the tasks and consulted with the team for feedback.

Identify use cases

The more I understood about the home-buying process and proposed flows, the more I could identify alternative use cases e.g. Saving a property listing for the first time vs the nth time would differ since we were teaching customers new concepts during the creation of their first listing.

Iteratively wireframe

I collaboratively wireframed with the team to sense check my understanding of the information shown and seek alternatives. The ordering and presentation of a borrowing power calculator is important.

Usability testing

I conducted guerrilla testing with UBank employees outside of the home loan and tech teams. I was only able to test the mobile app (not the tablet app) which lead to significant a changes in navigation between steps. That was a big win.

Challenges and solutions

1. The overwhelm I felt from being given a complex domain and massive requirements document.

Solution: Timebox the context-building phase to a week and begin work knowing it’s enough. Consult other people to help make sense of the info.

2. Working remotely with people at home or off-shore

Solution: Our team agreed on collaborative ways of working including daily standups, Thursdays as in-person work days and in-person team bonding with the New Zealand development team.

3. The mental stamina needed to collaboratively wireframe, learn the domain, answer the business analyst’s questions, make constant changes to the design because there were new data sets coming through frequently.

Solutions: Honestly, get on with it, exercise and meditate.

4. Low buy-in for customer research

Solution: Like I said, do the best you can with what you have.

Outcome

• UrHome has an average 3.5 star rating on the App Store

• The app will be re-skinned by UBank's parent company, National Australia Bank, to service their own customer-base.

Responsibilities

Role: UX designer

• Project & system requirements gathering

• Stakeholder meetings & presentations

• UX discovery

• Feature prioritisation (with team)