Zillow + UserTesting

Challenge

As a leading real estate and rental marketplace, Zillow empowers consumers by providing data, inspiration and knowledge, and connecting them with the best in professionals who can assist with the process. The real estate market continues to evolve, presenting rising challenges and driving consumers to seek out more information to support this critical decision. Zillow maintains its commitment to customers by continually making site improvements to help customers more quickly and easily find their dream homes. The User Experience team embarked on a redesign of their search results experience. While they were focused on optimizing the layout, they were also aware of the possible negative impact that comes with making such a significant change.

Solution

To ensure that the changes to the search experience aligned with what customers were seeking, the team worked with UserTesting to gather customer feedback on variations of the site experience involving the page’s map placement, advertising options and search results listings.

Results

While there are many factors that influence the selection process, feedback revealed that people loved seeing the map and the list of available homes side by side, with many noting that it helped them make the decision about whether to inquire on the listing. “UserTesting feedback showed us the importance of maintaining geographic context for home shoppers,” notes Hernan Savastano, VP of User Experience at Zillow. The inclusion of the map resulted in higher conversion: up to an 8 percent lift in customers reaching out to real estate agents to learn more about listed properties—which translates to a positive boost in the company’s bottom line