Chari.ai

Finding the contact information of the property owner behind the business entity

Property owners are smart! They don’t want to be called so they put the contact information of middlemen like property managers, registered agents, and lawyers who can’t sell the property.

Everyone agrees cold calling sucks. But does it only suck because the tools you use lead you to the wrong person?

Companies spend hundreds of hours digging through public records and google searches to find the person who does NOT own the property. Investors want to speak to the property owner, not the property manager or agent who can’t sell the property.

That’s why my team made Chari.ai, a website mockup that is designed to utilize AI APIs in order to find the contact information of the property owner, rather than the middleman/real estate agent.

July 2023 - Present

Role: User Researcher, Product Designer

Tools: Figma

Understanding Users

In the context of designing a comprehensive real estate website, my team and I embarked on a thorough user research process to optimize the platform's usability and effectiveness. We conducted a series of insightful 1-to-1 interviews with a diverse cohort of 5 individuals, encompassing various roles within the real estate industry. To ensure a holistic understanding of user needs, I took the lead in interviewing professionals and consumers, gaining valuable insights from my interactions with key stakeholders. By engaging with a range of industry experts and clients, I was able to contribute nuanced perspectives to our research, enriching our understanding of the challenges and expectations within the real estate market. Leveraging the collected data, we crafted detailed empathy maps and ecosystem maps, offering a comprehensive visualization of user experiences and pain points. These strategic insights were pivotal in informing the subsequent design process, enabling us to develop a user-centric real estate website that prioritized intuitive navigation, comprehensive property data, and a seamless user experience.

Interview Questions

Below are some of the questions that I asked during my user interviews.

Insights:

What do these users want from a product like Chari.ai?

  1. Fast & efficient website

  2. Expanded information such as finance patterns and accurate contact points

  3. Something to make real estate research easier

  4. An easier way to sort data on these real estate websites

User Personas:

After talking to the users during interviews, we gained a better insights into Chari.ai app's users. Therefore, we created two personas to serve as representations of our target audience.

On the left, we have Michael, who is a real estate agent who needs a reliable website to conduct real estate research on. On the right is Sarah, a prospective homebuyer who wants to talk to the property owner instead of the real estate agent.

Time to Design!

🧑‍💻

Time to Design! 🧑‍💻

Design

Before I started my design, I mocked up different screens for Chari.ai based on my team’s brainstorm results and sketches. Below, the low fidelity prototype includes a start page, registration, dashboard, advanced search page, and personal library.

After creating this mockup, it was time for me to design and prototype. For the color scheme, I decided to go with a blue and grey theme to make it seem professional. The images below contain the pages for my prototype.

You can also view the final prototype and edit here: View Prototype

Results and Takeaways

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my team at Chari.ai for facilitating an enriching journey through the intricacies of real estate website design. This immersive experience served as a stepping stone in my journey of user experience design, and I was fortunate to collaborate with an exceptional team of industry professionals. Throughout this endeavor, I discovered that the fusion of diverse perspectives and expertise fosters innovation and cultivates a truly user-centric design approach. Our collective efforts, shaped by a fusion of unique ideas, insights, and cultural backgrounds, culminated in a robust and intuitive real estate website that addresses the varied needs of our target audience. Reflecting on this experience, I recognize the significance of a more extensive user research phase and the necessity for a comprehensive information architecture map to streamline the design process further. Moving forward, I aim to integrate more extensive field testing and enhance my proficiency in design tools such as Figma to ensure a more refined and user-friendly interface for future projects.