Fannie Mae

HomePath
Client Customer Care for HomePath Washington D.C.
My Role UX/UI Designer
Date 2020

Overview

HomePath is a consumer facing website that enables homebuyers to discover and submit offers for Fannie Mae owned or real-estate owned properties (REO properties) and connect with Real Estate Professionals who submit and manage the purchase offers. HomePath manages all its inbound interactions through the Consumer Resource Center (CRC) that uses a vendor for pre-negotiated fixed costs for any interactions via phone, chat, or email.

The Challenge

Due to a decrease of call volume after the 2008 housing crisis, the vendor rate was renegotiated, and soon costs for any customer interaction would now triple. For the incoming inquiries of today, 40% of those inbound calls are related to REO properties that are mostly owned by Fannie Mae.

With HomePath already set up to display and access Fannie Mae’s inventory, the hypothesis seemed pretty clear: People either weren’t finding HomePath in the first place or they weren’t finding what they needed at the HomePath website.

Team

Working in a team of five, we all worked collaboratively as UX/UI designers where we performed research, tracked key metrics, and created user flows and wireframes based on insights and recommendations.

Result

Improved the HomePath user experience and accessibility to information about REO properties to make it easier for homebuyers and real estate professionals to self-serve. We addressed barriers to access by addressing content, revising information architecture, streamlining decision making, reducing time to complete tasks, and optimized flows for improved usability and expectation.

Tools Sketch Excel PowerPoint
Deliverables User research Heuristic Scorings Wireframes User Flows
Platform Desktop Responsive Mobile Native Mobile

Heuristics

The team started by identifying usability gaps through a Heuristic Evaluation for each persona: the Homebuyer and the Real Estate Agent. We assessed the HomePath platform across all platforms including website, mobile responsive site and native mobile app to quantify the overall user experience for the product through the lens of the homebuyer and real estate professional.

The heuristic scores guided the focus of our design recommendations and helped us to prioritize between high, medium and low.

heuristic evaluation scores
heuristic evaluation priority list

Recommendations

Define REO homes and explain the buying process

  1. Help users connect the dots between industry terms and Fannie Mae branding.
  2. Define "Fannie Mae owned properties" and make a connection with the industry term “REO home” in a clear and transparent way.
  3. Add easily findable content to explain the differences and similarities in the process of buying REO homes vs. the traditional home buying process.
The Ready Buyer Page was the #1 most visited page, accounting for 13% of total traffic

Keep the buyer informed in real-time

  1. Better inform buyers of their offer status in the event the agent is not communicating effectively with them.
  2. Better explain terminology such as "online offer" or "new" with graphical icons. Make status definitions clear through the design to help users understand what the status signifies by creating consistent and intuitive graphical elements.

Improve reading comprehension

  1. Rewrite the content throughout the site to resonate with a broader audience. This will help lower the risk of alienating users.
  2. Reorganize the site's information to surface in strategic places, which will help to increase users' comprehension and retention. 
Homepath content scored somewhat difficult to read, with readers needing to be between the ages of 18-19 years old (college level entry)

High Impact Changes

Next, we applied the findings of the heuristic evaluations through mockups and wireframes, redesigning a more optimal user experience to address some of the shortcomings.

An Improved View of Search Results

  1. Better maps
  2. Better listing details page design

Real Estate Professional’s Journey

  1. Stronger error prevention
  2. Optimized and re-designed “Make an Offer” workflow

All Journeys

  1. Improved home page
  2. Consolidated FAQs
  3. Mega footer