Real Estate Platform · 2020 to 2022 · UI and UX Designer

SkySlope

SkySlope builds real estate transaction software. I improved the UX across DigiSign, Forms, and Breeze, and led Breeze from concept through launch.

Impact

Cut digital signing mistakes by ~50%
Made paperwork delegation easier for whole teams
Drove a 15% increase in cross product usage, opening new customer pipelines

Role

UI and UX Designer

Work included

UX, UI, Interaction design, User Research

Goals

How might we reduce the time spent on complex real estate documents?
How might we give agents more time with clients?
How might we create one unified experience across all products?
How might we push the real estate software industry forward?

DigiSign, interactions

ProblemAgents kept hitting friction when placing blocks in DigiSign.

SolutionA clearer placement interaction and a preferences page to support existing user behavior.

Research

Usability Test & Research

To understand why users were struggling, I conducted targeted usability tests. We found that agents struggled to place and assign signatures correctly.

Quantitative
4 of 10	testers were frustrated placing and assigning blocks
5 of 10	struggled to change the properties of a block after placement

Interaction design

Interaction

Our DigiSign tool had an interaction pattern deviation from most other e-signing tools where the signature block stayed selected after placement.

digisign.skyslope.com

The block stays selected after placement, holding the editing panel open.

When users are placing blocks a common pattern is to put one signature field for one recipient, then another for another recipient. With our existing UX it resulted in users accidentally changing who a block was assigned to instead.

digisign.skyslope.com

Switching signer reassigns the block already on the page.

Ideation

Solving this was not simple, since many long time users were used to the old interaction. The survey split was even, so I built two things, a preferences page to choose the selection behavior, and a clearer flow for changing signers that cut effort and confusion.

digisign.skyslope.com

The new interaction for placing blocks.

Result

We launched the new interaction and saw a 50% reduction in digital signing mistakes.

Forms, team access

ProblemForms was created to serve individual agents, but agents work with transaction coordinators (TCs) who handle much of the paperwork.

SolutionShared access, per agent file filtering, and file history, so teams can delegate and manage paperwork across teams.

Team management

Team management was key to supporting both agents and transaction coordinators (TCs). This allowed us to increase the stickiness of Forms by allowing entire teams to use it together.

Sharing and requesting team access in Forms.

Choosing which team member a new file is created for in Forms — Allow TCs to work under different agent teams

File management

Transaction coordinators (TCs) often manage files for many agents. I added a filter by agent, so delegating paperwork is easier and much faster.

Filtering the Forms file list by collaborator — Filter by one or more file owners.

File history

Agents needed to know who changed what for compliance. I added file history, so every update is auditable.

Envelope history, with a summary of recipients and an activity log of sends, views, and signatures — Track which editor made each change.

Impact

An all inclusive document management tool for real estate agents which enabled us to grow our market share across large brokerages.

Breeze

ProblemCalifornia Real Estate transactions require many complex disclosure forms, and completing them by hand is slow and error prone.

Breeze launched as a new web app, building on earlier work to guide agents through those forms.

SolutionA wizard flow based product that guides users through completing forms, tracks client progress, and features a mobile first design for on-site completion.

Disclosures

Data showed 90% of California transactions involve several key disclosure forms, MHTDS, SPQ, TDS, and EQ. When designing Breeze I focused on optimizing a flow for each form.

Selecting disclosure forms in Breeze — Users pick the disclosure forms for their package.

Management

I built a dashboard for agents to track clients' progress on completing documents so they had a way to review package completion and step in if the client was blocked.

Tracking document completion in Breeze — A clear overview of single document or full package status.

Mobile first

Agents often work on the go, so Breeze is mobile first. Speech to text on visual inspection forms lets them complete forms on site by typing or dictation.

Breeze on mobile, the dashboard with Start New Disclosures and a list of clients and properties

Breeze on mobile, an AVID inspection question with a notes field and a dictate option

Breeze on mobile, the summary screen for reviewing recipients, property, and observations before finishing

Impact

Drove a 15% increase in cross product usage, and created a new inbound customer pipeline.