Technology and Your Leasing Staff

Transcription

1 Technology and Your Leasing Staff Learning What Works and What Doesn t Dave Luciano, UX Designer, On-Site Christine Richards, Senior VP & COO, EdR

2 How do you know your leasing solution works?

3 How do you know your students are happy with your leasing solution?

4 Agenda Introductions Current Tech Landscape What is User Experience? Application of UX Methodology to EdR s Online Leasing Contextual Ethnography Usability Testing Five Second Tests Click Testing

5 ABOUT US

6 Christine Richards Senior Vice President & COO Has served in many roles at EdR since 2001 Currently oversees the operations of EdR s housing portfolio and directs the management services division. Studied education at the University of Memphis

7 Dave Luciano User Experience Designer At On-Site for a year and a half In charge of injecting the user into our product design process. Studied human-computer interactions at Stanford University

8 CURRENT TECH LANDSCAPE

9 What technology is out there?

10 80% of teens own a computer

11 93% of teens can access a computer

12 What about mobile?

13 83% of teens own a cellphone

14 44% of teens own a smartphone

15 22% of teens own a tablet

16 26% of teens own a tablet (may be more indicative of the future of tablets)

17 Counter Intuitively In a 2013 study on the college search process 82% of respondents said they d prefer to view a college website on a PC/laptop. 68% said they ve viewed a college website on their mobile device.

18 Is mobile not a concern for student housing?

19 On-Site s Renter Traffic, % 75% 275% Desktop Tablet Mobile

20 How about those stats for undergrads? 90% of undergrads own a laptop 42% own a desktop (which is trending down) 72% own a smartphone 26% own a tablet

21 What sites are popular?

22 Top 5 Websites, US

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24 The Landscape Students are using technology left and right. And increasingly so. Your future renters are adopting at younger ages. Mobile is essential. Website experiences are reaching new levels of delight. And your renters expect your site to match.

25 How do we get a leasing solution that fits into this technology trend and delights students?

26 Answer: User Experience

27 USER EXPERIENCE?

28 Soooooo User Experience?

29 User Experience = UX User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. - Nielsen Norman Group

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32 How do we use these disciplines?

33 Two Ways: Applying Design Guidelines User Testing

34 Design Guidelines Guidelines backed up by research. Used by designers as a checklist to find places where their product can improve.

35 Guideline Example Recognition rather than recall. Have your users select from a set of options, rather than make up their options.

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40 User Testing Putting actual designs in front of actual users to observe how they interact. You ll end up with hard evidence on how successful a design is or isn t. You can iterate a design until you reach a success rate you re happy with.

41 Types of User Testing Very Simple Low Touch Highly Immersive

42 Click Testing

43 Five Second Tests What do you remember about that mockup?

44 Usability Testing

45 Contextual Ethnography

46 Why?

47 Making products for the web is hard work.

48 We all suffer from the Malkovich Bias. The tendency to believe that everyone uses the web like we do.

49 User Testing to the Rescue! User testing helps combat the Malkovich Bias. We get hard evidence for how users use your product. EdR has been at the forefront of applying user testing to their leasing process.

50 A great experience must Delight users Get out of the way Improve the renting process

51 APPLYING USER TESTING TO STUDENT HOUSING

52 Types of User Testing Very Simple Low Touch Highly Immersive

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54 The Tour Met with: Josh, the property manager at The Berk Dawn Duckhorn, Property Support Manager Spent ~2.5 hours at the property. Got a thorough tour of the community, and spent time interviewing the staff.

55 Rooftop BBQ s and views of the bay?

56 Documents

57 The Office Calendar August Move In s October Renewals June Move Out s July Roommate Matching

58 Even the mail pile

59 Takeaways Contextual ethnography helped us to better understand the leasing process from those on the frontlines. Being able to imagine yourself in the leasing office leads to better products, too.

60 Types of User Testing Very Simple Low Touch Highly Immersive

61 Testing the Online App What s the app flow? Apply as a student for the floorplan you like. Answer roommate matching questions. Sign your lease online! Invite your guarantor. Have your guarantor sign their docs online.

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71 What does testing involve?

72 What does testing look like? A Test Lab The User The Moderator

73 What do you get? A video of the user s screen and what actions they took.

74 Roll the clip!

75 Let s talk about what we learned.

76 Types of User Testing Very Simple Low Touch Highly Immersive

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79 Click Tests A mock up is presented to a user, and they re asked to complete a task. Fill out a rental application. Find out how many floorplans there are. Users click through each of the screens to complete the task.

80 Let s validate an idea!

81 Go to: uxmachine.com/naa

82 Phones away!

83 The Experiences

84 Beagle Air

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86 Eagle Air

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88 The Test We ran this test for a week prior. Gathered 200+ responses. Split 50/50 between male/female.

89 87% completion 22s 57% completion 10s 70% completion 8s

90 82% completion 10s 99% completion 4s 100% completion 4s

91 Results Eagle Air 81% success ~16 seconds Beagle Air 35% success ~34 seconds

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93 Calls to Action It s what you want users to do when they get to your website. In this case, it s applying online.

94 Calls to Action A strong call to action: Is a dominant element on the page Does not blend in with the rest of the site Is clearly labeled/tagged

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96 The Berk s CTA: It does not blend in with the rest of the page Yellow is used sparingly in the design. It s clearly labeled with Apply Online Is featured prominently in the top right, and is consistent among all pages

97 Shall we prove it? Click Test Scenario: You're a student looking for an apartment, and you find a community you'd like to live at in the upcoming school year. Fill out a rental application. Remember: we re looking for that Apply Online button!

98 Average Completion: 14 seconds Success Rate: 85%

99 Average Completion: 17 seconds (+3s) Success Rate: 67% (-18%)

100 Do you know if your students are happy with your leasing solution?

101 Thank you!