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Project Overview
The Domain Android app is the highest rated Australian property app in the Google Play store, and is a top lifestyle app.
In less than 18 months, the app has been completely redeveloped and the consumer rating has had a huge increase, jumping from 2.8 stars to over 4.1 stars.
Other key results have also been achieved; including more engaged users, improved brand recognition, increasing enquiries to agencies and revenue growth.
The app was featured by Google for it’s adherence to Android guidelines and framework, providing Android users with the best in class, innovative experience goo.gl/DPd4CP
Organisation
Team
Henrique Marassi
Gary Lo
Zarah Dominguez
Konstantin Burov
David Meier
Dan Johnston
Damon Pezaro
Paul McManus
Project Brief
Finding a new home, or selling a new home is a highly emotional process. Once entered into, the hunt for a property becomes much more than just a transaction, it becomes a lifelong interest. Our mission is to provide a stress-free experience to the users and empower them with tools to find their dream home.
Historically the Android platform was under utilised by many mainstream businesses, this gap in the market was made a primary objective starting mid 2013 at Domain. Our first and second versions of the Domain Android app fell into the common pitfalls of directly inheriting the iOS look and feel, resulting in an experience unfamiliar to Android users and a poor Google Play Rating (2.8).
We reimagined the app from early 2014 and the approach was clear - we prioritised creating a native user experience with emphasis on remedying areas of concern raised by consumers. We took full advantage of the Android platform, delving deep into native technologies such as notifications, geofencing, staged rollouts, android wear, social logins and native maps and native ui controls. A year later the app is a wonderful example of a living and breathing eco-system; continuously improving with frequent (biweekly) updates and features, continuously evolving with our audience needs.
Project Need
Domain thrives to innovate and to offer the best mobile app experience - we are early adopters of new technology and to date we have delivered some fantastic innovation to our Android app:
•Notifications: In the home hunting journey, being the first to know when a property comes to market can be crucial. http://goo.gl/e2Sgdu
•Android wear: users see a summary of new properties in their saved search criteria, and explore in more detail each new property. First property app in Australia to integrate with Android wear in July’14. http://goo.gl/9IhbkO & http://goo.gl/tTmnPj
•Geo location notifications: a location centric experience whereby relevant properties are surfaced by notifying users with succinct information which allow further exploration.
•Finger Search: immersive map search experience that allow users narrow down their home search to a very particular area.
•School Data: We have over 4000 schools catchment data in our database. It is a first for the Australian real estate industry and it is culmination of significant research and data collection by Domain.
•App Indexing: one of the first apps to adopt App Indexing in Australia, allows Google index Domain app and link directly to the correspondent pages.
•Google Now Integration: another Australia’s first. We have partnered with Google to integrate our app with Now cards. Delivering useful information for users when they need most. http://goo.gl/eFVf5u
•Home Price Guide: Everyone has access to free estimates of property values, sales and rental history, see similar surrounding properties - for 13 million Australian homes.
User Experience
Our UX and design team rose to the challenge to create a native experience to Android platform, the whole app was incrementally re-designed. From the map search interface, to search results, to property details page - all was thought through and a truly native experience was implemented. At every product development stage, we engaged with real users again to get their feedback and observe how they use the app. Thorough A/B testing was conducted throughout the reimagination process, so that all UX decisions were well tested and received by our audience.
We actively engage with our users, taking on board all feedback that will provide great user value. By being completely transparent and actively engaging with our customers to work towards a better product we have seen many of our audience, transition from those who had little time for our app to become very strong and loyal Domain advocates. In addition we have created Beta communities where we engage with early adopters and gather valuable feedback regarding features due to be released to market.
The effort and focus towards the improvement of the user experience has generated passionate feedback from our users:
“A pleasure to use Every aspect of the user interface has been well thought through for house hunting; intuitive, responsive, and visually attractive.”
“Simply the best Best real estate app on the market! Love the notifications and the option to write notes synced to all my mobile devices.”
Project Marketing
Following exceptional user feedback, the campaign proposition central to this campaign was direct and clear: ‘Download Australia’s Best Property App’. The simplicity of this message was a key factor in the success of the campaign as it was easily translatable into a multitude of on and offline environments.
The approach was to focus on both traditional brand channels such as outdoor, TV sponsorship and print whilst leveraging efficiencies of acquisition by implementing multiple performance strategies.
Executed in house by an experienced marketing team, the extensive experience across both brand and acquisition meant the project team were agile and able to take advantage of and invest in opportunities as they arose.
The campaign used a diverse multi-channel approach, blending both traditional and digital on and offline mediums in synergy to ensure the campaign was seen by, and resonated with the target audience.
•The fully integrated approach to the channel mix was key to the campaign's success, examples of this include:
•Brand impact: an extensive, impactful outdoor campaign where creative used was specific to the market it was featured in to heighten relevance.
•Using offline to drive online: newspaper wraps for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age which contributed to record app download days.
•High profile TV sponsorship: tactical sponsorship of The Block which averages 1 million viewers each show and has been driving a strong increase in direct traffic and usage.
•Leveraging social targeting capabilities: drive action and app download via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram campaigns
Project Privacy
At Domain privacy is very important. We have adhered to new Privacy Act in regency from July 2014. We are transparent with our customers and have disclaimers in data collection points such as enquire forms and sign up pages.
We also are very diligent with app permissions and no personal contacts are sent to our servers. The data we do collect is used to give our customers personalised user experience and to promote the services.
In addition, links to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy are easily accessible in Domain’s websites and apps.
Best Expanded Service or Application
Open to apps in all categories with updates and developments that truly enhance the user experience and take your app or service to another level.
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