How we designed and built the future of real estate transactions

Platforms

Responsive Web

Deliverables

Research, UI, UX, Product Strategy,
Design System, Development

Buying and selling homes made easy

Buying and selling a home shouldn’t be as difficult as it is today. On the sell side, property owners are expected to go through a mountain of red tape just to get their home on the market. Buyers, on the other hand, are deliberately kept in the dark about homes they are interested in and lack the data they need to make informed decisions.

pocket solves both of these problems. It simplifies the listing process by automatically collecting property data on behalf of the sellers and handling all staging, photography, and 3D mapping. On the buy side, pocket organizes and visualizes real estate data at the property, block, neighborhood, and metro levels so that potential buyers can make better, more informed decisions. Additionally, the platform leverages a transparent open auction system to make sure that all interested parties know exactly where they stand.

Designing a premium experience

pocket approached us with early sketches and a basic idea for a platform that would improve the buying and selling experience. After conducting workshops with pocket and speaking with potential customers, we mapped out the end to end experience to identify areas for improvement. We then ideated on solutions, produced wireframes, and conducted usability tests to refine our design.

Our focus during the design process was to create a premium experience that felt lightweight and intuitive. To achieve this, we used neutral shades of white and black, minimized interactions, and limited scrolling. By streamlining the platform, we were able to create a user-friendly experience that met the needs of all our customers.

Working out complex flows in low-fi

What would bidding look like in all the stages of the process, from pre-auction to post? What data should we surface on a home’s listing page? How often should it be updated? We addressed all these questions through multiple rounds of low-fidelity designs.

We went through several iterations of rough sketches of the dashboard and bidding box to test all possible scenarios and understand what information to show the user at each stage. Working this out in low fidelity meant we could quickly iterate without creating complex UI that would be difficult to change.

Creating an atomic design system

The design system for pocket was one of the most ambitious we’ve built at Goji. It was the first time we fully embraced the use of Atomic Design principles.

In practice, this meant creating the small pieces (atoms) first, then creating larger pieces (molecules) next. For example, we would create an icon and a simple input field, then create a fully fleshed-out form field component. With many building blocks complete, we created organisms like the entire listing page module!

Approaching the design process this way meant that we could make modifications within the design system that worked across all designs, saving us hours of production time (even during development).

Developing an informative bidding process

During development, we integrated with CoreLogic’s Neighborhood Scout and RealQuest API in order to get up to date real estate data and automate most of the listing process. This data also provided our customers with accurate, real-time data on neighborhood demographics, crime, and schools. We also developed complex charts with price history data and a robust bidding platform that transparently shares its bidding data to everyone.

In the user dashboard, we implemented a complex series of steps that trigger one after the other as the user progresses in their buying or selling journey. This is especially powerful after an auction has ended; the platform automatically generates a purchase and sale agreement contract with all its fields filled in, then sends it to the buyers and sellers to be signed via Docusign. No middlemen necessary.

The Last Word

pocket was successfully launched in the Seattle area. We’re really proud of the beautiful UI and informative experience we created with this product. We think it’s going to change the way people buy homes. Check it out here.