For: CoStar Group
Year: 2024
Tools: Figma (concepting and design)
Figma files available upon request.

My Role

Information Architecture, Design

Contributors

Arjun Anandan - Key Product Manager

David Hanberry - Content

Background

As an apartment marketing portal, our product offers the ability for advertisers to integrate their tour scheduling software within our user interface. This feature has two main goals:

1. Allow advertisers to leverage their existing tour scheduling vendor on our site with little friction.

2. Maintain lead integrity so our product receives the proper credit for accommodating a tenant lead.

Problem

There was an outage on our tour scheduling integration API so for a brief moment integrations were not working. When this happens, the tour scheduling flow changes from ‘integrated mode’ to ‘request mode’, where the potential renter still goes through the scheduling process as normal, but the website instead triggers a simple email to the advertisers for them to consume and manage on their end. (this is how our tour scheduling product worked before the integration feature was launched).

Unfortunately, some property managers were unaware of the API outage and didn’t respond to these messages. When renters who believed they were signed up for a tour showed up to the property, our customers were confused and complained to customer service.

The API was eventually brought back online and normal operations were resumed, but I was asked to take a look at the “request mode” and make some UX adjustments to better set renter expectations if it happened again.

Analysis

There were a few issues that could be potentially addressed:

• Instructional language: the current ‘request mode’ flow featured a lot of similar language to the ‘schedule mode’ which emphasized user agency. “When would you like to tour?” “What time is good for you”? This might put the user in the mindset that they are making solidified choices rather than an inquiry.

• Renters were probably expecting to hear from us, not the property: Phrases like “How can WE get in touch” and “Now we’re waiting for the property to confirm your tour” imply that we are still involved with scheduling the tour after the request has been submitted, when in reality our system has completed its part in the process and the renter should be getting some sort of communication from the property’s management. 

• The confirmation panel is a huge red herring; even though there are some clues within the content, everything in the confirmation screen from the layout to the language is inadvertently implying the tour has been scheduled, and the renter is expected to appear at the property at the listed address, date, and time.

Solutions

Update the language so expectations are set better for what the renter is actually doing. 

• Rewrite content so it sounds less like the renter is making selections and more like the renter is expressing availability.

• Be more explicit that the property is still doing the majority of the work in confirming the renter’s choices. Our services are not in the picture past this process.

Redesign the confirmation page.

• Place a disclaimer about the additional steps required to secure the tour in a bright, yellow call out panel.

• Redesign the layout of the confirmation details to read more like a receipt to improve readability and not distract from the disclaimer.

• Simplify the header.

Results

Development is on-going, but the hope would be a reduction in calls to Customer Service regarding this specific issue. 

Future enhancements

I made some further improvements to the UX was designed to enhance the date and time selection screen, but this work will not be in consideration for development until at least Q1 2025.