Who are we /
Apartment List is a smart and simple renting platform that’s dedicated to making the rental process fair and transparent for both sides of the marketplace. We make finding a home you’ll love easy and enjoyable, with a personally curated search feature that gets to know you as an individual.
Responsibilities /
Product Designer
Role /
iOS, Android, Web Design, User Research, Design Systems
Brand Refresh
Overview/
Around mid-2019 we partnered with design agency Koto in order to refresh our brand which included the logo, typeface, colors, and tone of voice. The deliverables that Koto provided were much more marketing focused, which gave our team the freedom to figure out how these new materials should be implemented into the product.
Check out some of the refreshed screens in product 👇
Location Preferences
Overview/
In an effort to provide more relevant search results to our users we set out to capture more specific location preferences up front by adding a neighborhoods quiz step.
Hypothesis/
Users that enter more specific locations will receive more relevant matches
- Increase Positive Interests relative to Match Count
- Increase the amount of Proactive Contacts
- Guardrail: registration rate is neutral (+/- 3%)
- Increase Positive Interests relative to Match Count
- Increase the amount of Proactive Contacts
- Guardrail: registration rate is neutral (+/- 3%)
Outcome/
Summary: While we weren't able to get users to say "yes" to more properties, we were very successful at showing them more relevant search results, leading to them contacting properties more often.
- 30% of users subsequently chose a neighborhood after entering a city
- Percentage of Positive Interests remained neutral
- Percentage of Proactive Contacts increased by ~10%
- 30% of users subsequently chose a neighborhood after entering a city
- Percentage of Positive Interests remained neutral
- Percentage of Proactive Contacts increased by ~10%
Neighborhoods on Android
Matches Page
Overview/
During several research interviews, the team noticed that users thought the hero section of the page (which was the "best bets" category) was nothing more than an image banner and did not recognize it as the first category they could click on. In addition, we wanted our users to view the listings we thought were the best matches for them because they matched all of their preferences.
Hypothesis/
Reformatting and reordering the category page will have no effect on search metrics
Outcome/
Summary: We thought that moving around categories wouldn't have any negative effects on our metrics, but in fact it improved them. Not only were we able to show renters better results earlier in their experience, but we were also able to get them to view and show interest on more properties.
- Avg. Listing Views up +8.1%
- Positive Interests up +5.2%
- Redistributed engagement to Exact Matches categories while maintaining engagement with Best Bets. All other categories were down given the redistribution.
- Avg. Listing Views up +8.1%
- Positive Interests up +5.2%
- Redistributed engagement to Exact Matches categories while maintaining engagement with Best Bets. All other categories were down given the redistribution.
Next Steps/
We continued to iterate on the design of the categories page after learning that we could redistribute engagement. We further distinguished the Exact Matches categories from the ones that "flexed" users preferences by making them more photo-centric. With the brand refresh, we again reimagined the way we could present these categories to users.
Control
New Categories Layout
New Categories + Brand Refresh
