Neighborhoods iOS App
Why Build an App?
Our team included me as Head of Design, a Product Designer, an iOS Developer, and a Project Manager. Our team collaborated on all aspects of the project, including information architecture, user flows, interaction design, animation, prototyping, and marketing efforts.
The project lasted approximately 8 months, during which we conducted user research using methods such as user interviews and surveys to assess user behavior and attitudes.
An issue with real estate apps, as we encountered when building our own, is that users often struggle to find the neighborhood information they desire. This is one of Neighborhoods.com’s key differentiators and an integral part of our brand. Our primary goal with the app was to continue paving the way for users to center their home search around the neighborhood, while maintaining consistency with the features we offer on the web.
We know our neighborhood information is unique, but our users currently do not find it. We curate photography and descriptions from locals who live in the area. The way we display and search for areas on the website would need to work differently in an app interface, so we had to devise a new approach that would work well and still adhere to our neighborhood-first philosophy.
Hello, world.
As the Head of Design, one of my most proud moments for the Design team, beyond the creation and successful launch of the app, was creating the marketing videos. This was a moment for one of the designers who has a passion for video, was able to grow that and edited the videos we published on Instagram, Facebook, and our blog announcing the release of the Neighborhoods.com iOS app.
App launch Instagram story.
Select images from the Facebook launch campaign.
App neighborhood walkthrough.
Our Process
To identify the features that would be included in the MVP, we reviewed and evaluated our existing website features and measured the Level of Effort (LOE) required for design and engineering. From there, a roadmap was developed and agreed upon with the stakeholders (CEO, COO).
The MVP focused on core features that would benefit from a native iOS app and implemented user requests from responsive mobile website interviews.