Case Analysis: Immowelt User Experience Design

In 1991, the company named Data Concept GmbH was founded by Carsten Schlabritz and
Jürgen Roth, which was later rebranded to Immowelt AG. It provided a software for real estate
agents that was easy to use and helped save their time and expenses.

Note Taking Feature:

The case describes the development of the note taking feature with the help of user
experience design. This feature was used by Immowelt users to take a note of details regarding
the property of interest. Markus Teschner, the head of product management was responsible to
design this new feature without interfering existing feature. The basic characteristics of the
feature were defined based on the user surveys conducted.

The primary aspect of the feature was that only the logged-in user could access the note
or edit the note for property listing which helped the company to retain its customers. This note
was supposed to be visible on the wish list, result list and respective exposé. Deletion of property
listing results in deletion of respective notes. Considering functional requirement, a note contains
input field, property status history and property address. In the process of designing note taking
feature various techniques like Storyboard, click dummies or graphical mock-ups were used to
visualize the user needs and implement solution.

The design decisions were verified by user groups called Personas which represented a
group of people sharing a common search characteristic. During the process, there were many
changes to be made and the team came up with different versions of the placement of the
feature in the exposé view.

The final version displayed the feature with the link named “Machen Sie sich hier eine
Notiz zu dieser Anzeige” (as shown in Fig.8 of case study). The result of this link was dependant
on user being logged in or not. If user is logged in then the link directs to “Meine Notizen” panel
(as shown in Fig.15 of case study) where he can take notes or edit the notes using the button
“Schnellnotiz” (as shown in Fig.16 & 17 of case study). And if the user is not logged in the link
directs to log in page and then to “Meine Notizen” panel on property listing. When user takes
note or bookmarks the property, it will be displayed in the wish list automatically. Once the
property listing is deleted, notes and bookmarks made are also deleted. Also, the signed in user
will have an option to print the notes in the exposé view (shown in Fig.8 of case study).

Design Compare with Persona:

To achieve design decision one of the user analysis used in the case was Personas. By
considering the information shared by five Personas called Ben, Wolfgang, Sonja, Daniel and
Bianka and the characteristics of different version released I would like to do the assessment of
the best suitable version of the feature.
Versions of feature in the exposé view:

-Detailed information of the property

Version 1 (Fig.3)
-Two options available for note taking: 1. Notizen Anhängen 2. Notizen
- Two tabs available: 1. Notizen Hinzufügen (used to add to existing notes
Version 2 (Fig.4)
2. Notizen (used when there is no note taken before)
- Tab “Meine Notizen” (used to add new notes) on the right side of the site
Version 3 (Fig.5)
-The notes displayed b with good visibility in yellow box without any symbol
Version 4 (Fig.6) -Tab “Notizen” on the right side of the site with no extra tab for existing notes
-Tab named “Meine Notizen” under the picture of the property
Version 5 (Fig.7) -Tab “Notizen” removed from the right side of previous version.
-No existing notes displayed.
-Tabs replaced with a single link placed below the picture of the property named
Version 6 (Fig.8) “Machen Sie sich hier eine Notiz zu dieser Anzeige”
-No additional tab for note taking

Perspectives of Personas:

Ben -Read all the details given completely

-IPhone usage to access the site, so would be good to have small icons
Wolfgang -It should be simple and easy to use
-Finds it hard to read on PC
-Bigger font size and good quality pictures
Sonja -More concerned about the property images
-Easy access to all the details
-All the details/functions at one place that would help in distinguishing
Daniel -Quick recognition of property in result list
-All details available at a glance without much effort
Bianka - Less reading with precise data
-Printout option for notes
-All the required details available in notepad that would help with comparison
- Clear and large pictures

Recommended Design:
Based on the above perspectives from Personas, it is clearly evident that the main concern
or most common characteristic shared is visibility and ease of access to all the functions or details
at one place. So, the final version does not fulfil this characteristic for this feature. My choice
would be the version 3 (Fig.5 of the case study) as it gives clear visibility of the feature with
displaying it in yellow box which makes it different from all the other versions. Probably Mr.
Teschner would have ignored it as he might have considered it to be too “showy”, but my
suggestion is that version 3 is adequate, considering the accessibility of the important features
in User Experience.