Freelance project | December 2020 - January 2021
Farming.Cards
Designing an AI-powered marketing experience for real estate agents.
Farming.Cards is a start-up focused on AI-powered direct mail marketing for real estate agents. Through automatic postcard design and mailing list generation, our aim is to provide a convenient and effective marketing experience.
Responsibility:
I was the designer in a team of three, working with a PM and a Sales specialist. Throughout this project, I worked on conducting research, creating designs and gaining feedback on them through user testing, and overseeing the deliverables through development into its release.
Background.
What is Farming?
Once a Real Estate agent sells or lists a house...
They design a postcard for that property to reach out to potential customers.
Real Estate agents send the postcards to potential customers in the area.
So, what does Farming.Cards do?
With a single click, Farming.Cards will use an AI algorithm to create a curated postcard for the listing.
Instant Card Design
Smart Targeting
An AI algorithm which creates a targeted mailing list of high priority potential customers.
End-to-end Process
Farming.Cards handles everything in the farming process, from printing to shipping to quality assurance.
The Business Problem.
The original Farming.Cards website had a churn rate of 80%, resulting in a loss of potential customers.
In my initial audit, I noticed the website was not effective in communicating the services that Farming.Cards provided and also lacked an intuitive design, takng an unorthodox approach to a step-by-step experience.
The User Problems.
Using the original website, I did user and usability testing with 5 agents to see their impressions of the website. Based on my research, I discovered the three top recurring issues:
Information Overload
“Step 1 and 2 seem so complicated and long...I think I would probably leave the site just due to how long this process would take.”
Confusing Site Layout
“Oh, the actual form is on this page? I thought this was a static image...”
Don't know Value of Service
“I still don’t know what Smart Targeting is... Oh, Farming also does shipping? Or do I need to ship it personally?”
Design Principles.
01
Simplify.
How can I simplify the Farming.Cards flow to give users a more efficient, streamlined and understandable experience?
02
Educate.
How can I educate users on the features that Farming.Cards provides? (Smart Targeting, End-to-end, Card Generation).
UX Flow.
Hick's Law:
In the new UX Flow, I focused on separating the content on the landing page of the original site into more pages, giving each step of the farming experience its own respective page.
Hi-fi Testing and Feedback.
Based upon the UX flow, I created the first iteration of Farming.Cards' website. The colors and visual design were built upon the logo, with simple UI components to match the goal of a simple and convenient design.
The step-by-step process was my main focus for this iteration, breaking the process into 3 main steps: Build your Postcard, Campaign Details, and Checkout.
With this first iteration, I conducted a user feedback session with three real estate agents, walking through the Farming.Cards flow and observing their thoughts, behaviors and actions. My findings are as such:
Positives:
Participants were able to complete the Farming.Cards’ flow 150% faster than with the previous site.
Critiques:
Users would like more customization over postcards than templates.
01
Smart Targeting is still a concept that users cannot easily grasp.
02
Users didn’t know Farming handles the end-to-end farming process.
03
Addressing Critiques.
Color customization and QR code functionality.
To balance the design principle of simplicity with the agents' request for customization, I added color customization and QR codes to allow agents more control over personal brand.
01
Highlighting Smart Targeting description.
02
To make Smart Targeting's description more discoverable, I placed a video where users tended to ask "what is Smart Targeting" the most.
Emphasizing convenience of end-to-end process in site copy.
03
For end-to-end awareness, I changed the copy to emphasize more how Farming.Cards handled printing and shipping for a one time fee.
The Solution:
The New Farming.Cards Experience.
Informational Landing Page.
Step 1: Agent Information.
Form for agent and listing information.
The step is broken into two parts for simplicity.
Step 2: Card Generation.
An efficient card creation experience while also providing customization.
Step 3: Mailing Options.
Can choose between 3 mailing options: Smart Targeting, EDDM, or Custom.
Step 4: Checkout and Tracking.
Additional Pages.
Responsive Designs.
The Impact.
Increased customer Net Promotor Score by +90.
From -20 to 70.
Within first 9 months of launch, website has a churn rate of 7%.
As compared to the previous 80%.
Farming.Cards has generated a profit 6 months after new site launch, and formed partnerships with Keller Williams and other real estate agencies.
Reflection.
Approach high-tech as a non-expert.
When designing high-tech, innovative experiences like those involving AI, remember that users are going to be non-experts. For real estate agents, most are not well acquainted with technology; it is important to highlight what tech can bring, not what it is.
Be intentional with small details.
When designing user experiences, keep intentionality. Being intentional with the small details makes sure every component is optimized towards helping the user reach their goal. In this case, copy and content changes were enough to educate users on Farming.Cards' value.
Conducting Design QA with Devs.
Working with developers to not only communicate design details and overall information architecture, but also doing QA checks to ensure the end product is well-aligned with the designs.