UPAD
Upad began in 2007 and has grown into the UK’s largest online lettings agency by offering a simpler, more cost-effective way to find tenants and let a property. This has proved equally popular among landlords who previously used a high street letting agent to find tenants as well as those who used classified channels.
Summary
I was commissioned to redesign Upad website a few years back. They had a simple and messy looking site and they were looking to make it more modern.
PROBLEM
The previous design was very outdated, they were focusing on getting funding and would use that funding more on marketing. The site would need a complete overhaul, they wanted a simple calculator added so potential landlords could quickly work out how much they would save with Upad before signing up.
Previous Design
USERS & AUDIENCE
The new site would give the current users a nicer experience, better user flow and a new modern website would attracts new landlords and tenants. The goal here is to grow the business which means attracting more users.
ROLES
I was the Product Designer for this project, I worked along side a freelance developer to build the site.
PROCESS
I began by finding out what new users need to understand how Upad works, they already had 3 steps to show how but I suggested they invest in a how-to video using the illustration style they already had in the brand book, this way it would give a much more detailed of the process in a few minutes, they hired a freelance animator for this and I would incorporate the video in the site later on. I made the 3 steps interactive, attracting the attention of a user straight away, a Click Me button bounce lightly up and down on the first step indicating an interaction, a step is bounded in a grey box as they hover over and blue when clicked on to show more information.
The calculator I built for them was simple and straight to the point, with questions and answers type, that way it can be targeted at all ages without making it complex. Landlords really like to see instantly how much they would save by going with someone else without inputting so much information like a comparison site. I also designed a pricing table, again keeping it minimal and to the point, which services offer what, all these are accessible on the top of the site, above the fold, this way they are all within a click away when the site loads up.
CONCLUSION
Upad was fun to work with, they were happy with the outcome but the most important was the conversion rate, we got 3x more new landlords than before and current users loved the new site, it was intuitive and not as cramped as before. New users liked that the steps were clear and the pricing was all there instead of having to write in for it. The calculator is a big hit since it convinces a lot more landlords to sign up when they can have an estimation of how much they would save and get the control back from paying so much for high street agents.
The whole experience was smooth, the developer we hired was up to the task, and the stakeholders were easy to get along with which made everything ten times better.
WEBSITE
View the full website below.
