Discovery, strategy, user experience
Alva
Making real-estate transparent in Norway by leveraging data and information
2019
Alva is a real-estate startup that is trying to redefine how property is bought and sold by increasing transparency within the real-estate industry. Their product virdi.no provides invaluable data on the real-estate market for the entire of Norway. Their objective was to increase page session per user and hits on virdi.no. In order to help virdi.no flourish, our team worked closely with Alva to evaluate and reconnect customer insights to their product assessment and development.
My role
Working along with the other designers I did market research and user interviews. In collaboration with other designers I synthesized the findings and we developed the design disciplines and guidelines. I did wireframing and testing the ideas and directions and developed some of the concepts further into high-fidelity sketches.
Challenge
Buyers and sellers do their best to demystify the market, but ultimately, they are forced to piece together what information they can source. Without any source of truth to turn for answers, people find themselves in a market full of uncertainty and ambiguity.
“How might we help Alva to leverage all their data to empower the public while simultaneously monetizing it in a way that allows them to continue?”
Providing objective insights
It can be difficult to know which agent can be the right one for your needs only based on the word of mouth. Virdi provides a set of objective insights into the performance of real-estate agents to help find the right match.
Monetization potential
Creating a mechanism that connects sellers and buyer with real-estate agents not only creates invaluable resources for the public, it has the highest monetary potential for Alva which will enable them to continue on their mission.
Agent profile provides insights into the performance of the real-estate agent by making the data relevant.
Connecting sellers with agents
With so much uncertainty and ambiguity, sellers feel they need the certainty and security that agents bring to the table. Virdi agent finder provides an objective base for the public to find a real-estate agent.
A set of different filters allows people to find the agent that is most relevant for them based on their criteria.
Approach
The best way to understand the market was to start the conversations with people in different processes in the real-estate market. We also talked to several real-estate agents, as well as the managers of different agencies and banks. All these conversations gave us a deeper understanding of the needs, motivations, concerns and goals people have when they enter this market.
Working with Alva, analyzing existing website and assessing user engagement, we set out to define and align their potential value offerings with the market. Interviews, SEO analysis and market research allowed us to conclude that providing Norwegians with an objective base to find answers and manage all things real-estate was a space to be explored.
