B2B / SaaS Web App / End-to-End / Real Estate
Saving clients a minimum of 10 hours per week, per closing
Modernizing back and front-end experiences to meet the needs of a new generation of real estate professionals.
WHAT’S SNAPCLOSE? SnapClose in a small organization, yet an old company. They specialize in real estate closing SaaS software that allows real estate professionals to generate closing documents with ease while reducing closing times.
2019 - 2020
DURATION: 6 Months
PLATFORM: SaaS Web App
ROLE: Principal Product Designer,
Studio b Creative Co.
METHODOLOGIES:
- Product Demo
- Competitor Demos
- User Interviews
- Stakeholder Workshops
- Qualitative and Quantitative Audit
- Requirement Gathering
- Roadmap Creation and Prioritization
- Survey’s and Questionnaires
- A/B Testing
- Usability Tests
PROBLEM:
After inheriting SnapClose, the founder’s daughter saw the outdated software and rigid back-end driving customers to modern competitors. To appeal to a younger, tech-savvy audience and stay competitive, SnapClose needed to upgrade to React, create a reusable design system, and overhaul the UX/UI for a modern, engaging experience.
SOLUTION:
Our goal was to craft a modern, intuitive user experience to position SnapClose as an industry leader and drive growth. Despite the October 2020 event's cancellation due to COVID, the beta was completed on time, and usability testing continued.
IMPACT:
The release of the beta version reduced client operating costs, boosted efficiency, and saved clients an average of 10 hours per week, per closing.
Plan, discover, define
I began by meeting with stakeholders to understand business goals, the product vision, and existing processes, uncovering a lack of historical data collection. Under new leadership, data collection had just begun.
To deepen my understanding, I scheduled product demos and worked with Customer Service Reps to identify common customer issues. Using Miro boards, we mapped workflows, pinpointed pain points, and identified improvement opportunities. This allowed us to move beyond legacy constraints and focus on aligning the design with real user workflows.
I conducted a competitor analysis, auditing platforms like Quail, SoftPro, and ResWare, and collaborated with the Product Owner and Lead Developer to establish and refine requirements based on business goals and evolving user insights.
USER NEEDS:
• More Integrations; Outlook and Quickbooks
• Paperless Closings
• Granularity in Search Criteria
• Support Multiple Users in a Single Order
Materialize, prototype, test
Concept A
Concept B
I designed two conceptual approaches for the platform, which were A/B tested with end users, resulting in a blended solution. While I didn’t facilitate the test, I collaborated with the Product Owner on the strategy and reviewed the results to understand the problems behind proposed solutions.
Despite not participating directly due to my part-time role, the testing provided valuable insights into functionality and workflows. These insights guided documentation and ongoing feature iterations as we validated the design.
LEARNINGS:
Users preferred the wider view of the second design
Both concepts were intuitive enough for users to jump in without training
The order number needed to be more prominent
The first design felt too busy, while the second was clearer and bolder
OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES:
Weekly Syncs and Reviews
Design Principals
Sitemap
High-fidelity Wireframes
Prototypes
Usability Tests
First Impression Survey, System Usability Scale (SUS), Questionnaire UI Satisfaction (QUIS)
Design System
Testing, iterate
I worked with the SnapClose team to create testing strategies aligned with their UX maturity, identifying key features for testing with a small user group. While they conducted the tests and shared their insights, I supported usability test implementation and collaborated on iterations until they hired a full-time UX Designer, though budget constraints prevented retaining my services.
…She was able to quickly grasp layers upon layers of complexity and understand the use cases for our very tedious project. The ability to look at a set of requirements from multiple angles and come up with an entirely new approach was absolutely astounding to us…
Johnathan Garcia
Sales & Product Director, SnapClose
The design
SnapClose is extremely user friendly; its existing format allows seamless information access for each closing transaction. Its ability to enter, transpose, and email information to our clients and customers assures a streamline of efficiency.
Bea Demirakos
President & CEO, OnPoint Land Service Corporation
Outcome
By October 2020, we had a tested beta ready for a trade show, later canceled due to COVID-19. I established a streamlined design process and a comprehensive design system to support scaling. The beta reduced client operating costs, improved efficiency, and saved clients an average of 10 hours per week, per closing.