Arx Urban: A Case Study
Arx Urban is an investment firm focused on redeveloping real estate projects
that are mutually beneficial to lenders, investors, and their community.
Project Overview
Upgrade the website's design to reflect both the high-quality and innovative nature of the company:
- A better way to display real estate assets with images and investment details
- an "About" section of the company’s leadership
- a detailed representation of track record and growth
- a new logo.
The Design Team
My Role
UX/UI Design
Focus Areas
Research, IA, Visual Design
Project Duration
3 weeks
Biggest Challenge
Arx Urban is a younger company (5 years to be specific) and consider themselves to be “the new guys on the block” in an established, old-time industry. One of the main messages they wanted our new designs to reflect was the credibility of their company - and having restricted access to the company’s investors and their insights was an obstacle for our research process.
Overcoming the Obstacle
By conducting research in multiple areas (i.e. competitive analysis, contextual inquiries, surveys, mood boards, user testing) we were able to stay on track for our deadline. I also reached out to real estate investors in my network and gained valuable insights about what helped investors deem a newer company as credible. So although Arx Urban did not provide us direct access to many of their investors, I was still able to seek out and gather useful feedback to help guide our designs and meet business goals.
The Design Process
(Bite, Snack, Meal)
Our approach to this project came from the concept of offering a "bite" of information that would entice users of the website. This "Bite" would consist of a call-to-action to sign-in, or learn more with a "snack" of more detailed information. By providing just enough information to users, the final goal, or, "meal" was for them to contact Arx Urban. We implemented this concept throughout our entire redesign process.
Stakeholder Research
Upon reading Arx Urban's project requirements, we hopped onto their website to see what we were working with. We soon realized there were still so many questions that needed clarification before we could begin our research. Specifically, we wanted to learn the background information of the company; such as the story behind the origin of their business, the roles and concerns of each employee, and the process they used to design their current website.
We reached out to our point of contact to get as many of these types of answers as we could.
To our delight, Arx Urban had thorough documentation of their business goals and design process up to that point, and sent us iterations of a potential new logo, along with elements of other websites they hoped to incorporate into their own.
This was a great starting point for us to launch from!
Competitive Analysis
To familiarize ourselves with the Real Estate investment world, we each conducted a competitive analysis of websites with good design. I began to notice patterns with each website I researched; i.e. the language and terms used, information architecture, and the target user we would be designing for. One website we compared was Redgate:
Contextual Inquiries
We asked people if they would be willing to complete a set of tasks we had scripted to gain insight about the usability of the current website, and had them talk about their thought process. Unanimously, participants were turned off by the frequent use of insubstantial buzz-words, and felt the site did not tell them who Arx Urban was as a company. People were also frustrated that they could not click into the portfolio project, and could not view before-and-after photos of the redevelopment, or read a story about how Arx Urban made a difference - by helping the community through re-developing work-force housing. What was their track record of success, and where do they define their mission for the future?
This feedback was critical to the success of our designs, and guided our next phase of research.
Surveys
1. Mood Board Survey
Based on our understanding of Arx Urban’s background and company values, I suggested each member of our team generate a mood board to help get a sense of their brand identity. Collaboratively, we sent out a survey asking participants to list keywords that came to mind for each mood board.
2. Investor Survey
Next, we sought out answers from the actual users.
With consideration of their financial clients, Arx Urban wanted to be the liaison between investors and our research. We certainly wanted to be respectful of both the time and information we were asking of Arx Urban and their investors. So we narrowed our [extensive] list of questions down to a 5-minute, website-specific survey. In this survey, we asked targeted questions geared towards the current experience of the website, what information they would like to see more of, and if they would be willing to be contacted for a follow-up interview.
Investor Interviews
Arx Urban gave us consent to contact two investors who volunteered for a follow-up interview. However, we were unable to extract much of the information we were looking to gain because of their financial position.
Example questions:
1. What do you look for when sizing up a new partnership? How do you determine credibility?
3. What information do you want to see when you visit a real estate investment site?
4. Do you think there is anything missing from the Arx Urban website currently?
With our deeper questions still unanswered, I decided to personally reach out to an outside Real Estate investor in my network. The information we gained from this was a defining moment in our research.
From this investor we learned the importance of quantitative information; because Real Estate is a numbers game, a track record is something investors want to see immediately. But Arx Urban lacked a quantitative track record completely. We only found out through our meeting discussions that they had acquired 21 properties in 5 years - a number our interview participant mentioned was extremely impressive. We absolutely wanted to highlight this point in our designs.
Site Map
As a team, we mapped out the IA of their current website. Based on our research, I drew out a new site map that we used to restructure the new pages of our redesigns. For example, we included the company “Values” section on the “About” page. But based on research, we also included "Values" in the main menu, because we learned they are one of the factors users will look for when deciding which company they want to invest with.
Design Studio
With a newly defined IA, we finally had enough information to begin wireframing!
As a team, we time-blocked rough sketches of each new page. We pulled from the elements we liked best, and iterated to create a solid template for each page design.
We then divvied up the pages among each team member and generated our MVP wireframes, which we then digitized in Sketch to begin testing. I was responsible for designing the "About" and "News" pages.
Logo Re-design
Using the logo re-design research Arx Urban had provided us with, we were able to iterate on their designs; softening the sharp edges of their typeface to portray a warmer, more inviting look, and giving the logo a larger, more pronounced presence on the home page in general.
Website Design and Implementation
Arx Urban had expressed their troubles with configuring & updating their current WordPress website. So, rather than taking our designs to a high-fidelity prototype to hand off to them, we decided to build them an entirely new website. After researching multiple platforms (we even met with a newer platform called CoreDNA to see if this would be something Arx could potentially use), we chose to move forward with Wix.
We chose Wix in particular because of its ease of use, especially for a smaller company lacking a tech employee.
Once we opened the new website, the immediate response we received was “This is FIRE”. Arx Urban was beyond impressed by our work. As we presented their new site designs, we explained to Arx Urban we also designed an easier management system (i.e. updating new photos and projects, integrating a possible news feed in the future).
My Individual Design Asset Contributions
- Information Architecture
- About Page
- News Page
- Mood board
- Color theory and palette
- A/B Testing
- Typeface selection
- Implementation
While the entire team had their hands in the research and design process, the areas I personally re-designed were the “About” page, the “News” page, and the overall color palette. I condensed Arx Urban’s 6 values into 4 core values and added relevant icons that associated with them (Contextual Inquiry participants found that 6 values were too many, and the icons did not relate to their message). I also suggested they hire a professional photographer for their headshot and project photos and designed a space for their company bio, as well as bios for their leadership. Based on research, I re-structured their 3 investment approaches, prioritizing their most important & profitable project type by placing it on top so it is the first one the user sees.
To promote Arx Urban’s mission of helping communities through long-term Real Estate investments, I had originally ideated an area on the “About" Page to feature projects the company is most proud of with a “success story” with detailed information as well as before and after photos. However, after I implemented this into my designs, I found the “About" page became too overwhelming; so we decided to keep the section but move it to the “Home” page and label it “Featured Projects" instead.
Thoughts on Future Iterations
- Portfolio filters for easier navigation
- More prominent social media engagement (depending on activity)
- Newsletter signup in footer (if desired)
- Further logo explorations
- Scalability & Implementation Platforms