The “Element Collage” approach
Borrowing from Dan Mall's Element Collage approach to design exploration, we set out to design a modular set of components, rather than mocking up fully realized pages. Considering this was going to be built in to a CMS and knowing we weren't engaged to write content, this approach seemed like a perfect fit.
A strong partnership with our client
In an effort to partner closely with the client, we invited them in to this process from the very beginning of our explorations. Together we established the components we should focus on and the types of content their team would be working with. From there, we prompted input from the client as much as we could throughout our design sprints.
The UI Kit
Once we clearly established and gained alignment on the patterns we were establishing, we needed to document it all so that our client, our developers and our design team were all on the same page with what we were creating. This also allowed our developers to hit the ground running even while design was still happening.
Page Design
Throughout the process we had to ensure the set of modules we were creating would work in the greater context of a page, so we regularly tested things out in sample pages. As we were in the throws of development, we were confident it would all come together in a cohesive way because of this.
An over-the-moon client
When all was said and done, our client at Realogy was proud and excited about what we accomplished together. I'll conclude this post with a few words straight from them...
“As a 40 year veteran in the industry and as a Realogy employee I think it is the best real estate website I have ever seen. It is representative of our company resources and our mission statement and I believe it truly raises the bar as to what a real estate company can and should be doing to improve the lives of people.”
“Thank you for your great partnership and teamwork to help us take the new Realogy.com from the drawing board to the web. ”
“It’s live and it’s awesome. It’s a great feeling to see something come to life that you know everyone on the team has been working hard on for so long. From design to development and a hard deadline at the end, it all came together to create the outcome we were aiming for.”