Design and redesign of Aasthy
Real Estate investment platform
RESEARCH • RESPONSIVE DESIGN • DESIGN SYSTEM • TESTING
OVERVIEW
Aasthy is a prop-tech product that allows users to invest in fractional real estate opportunities. It's the first of its kind as it is entirely data driven and users can invest in assets that lie between low risk - low return options like Fixed Deposits, and high risk - high return options like Crypto Currencies. As an emerging concept that deals with finance, establishing trust through data backed results were of utmost importance. We built an experience that lets people invest seamlessly and understand all underlying technicalities of their investment with ease.
MY ROLE
Designing and redesigning the product end-to-end, creating a design system, working closely with engineering and business teams to craft first time user and repeat user experiences in detail.
THE TEAM
Solo designer, with guidance from a Lead design consultant, 1 Business lead, 1 Program Manager, 4+ engineers.
TIMELINE
May - Nov 2022;
Live with rolling updates
THE PROBLEM
The Real Estate industry has been traditionally looked at as an asset class that had always had a high barrier for entry, often plagued by transparency issues and accessibility. This remained unchanged for several years causing frustration that created a cloak of uncertainty for investors.
With the current market scenario a 20 something year old would not even consider an investment in the real estate sector owing to entry prices that are out of bounds.
THE VISION
Democratising real estate investments to bridge the multi-trillion dollar gap through technology, data and investment structures
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Real estate data helps acquire the right assets
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The fractional investment model with an entry ticket of Rs.5000 (~$60) makes it very affordable to the new age investors
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Diversify portfolio and generate returns of about 12-18% p.a
How I helped with the vision
The starter version of the Aasthy web had a poor first user experience and content flow, so visitors didn't convert into users. It was crucial to understand the target user and curate the content and journey to ensure they are informed and delighted by this ground breaking concept.
USER PERSONAS
Using the existing user data and behavior, ad-hoc personas were developed. Through user interviews and further data the previously made assumptions were validated and strengthened. User archetypes were discovered and this gave us the primary target group for our product as well as a secondary persona and those user types that were to be accommodated.
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Primary Persona
Archetype 1 : The Up-and-Comer: Thrifty, Idealistic, Tech-Savvy
CHALLENGE
Over-conservatism. Individuals in this group tend to be young investors, and understandably have a fear of the often unpredictable market.
STRENGTH
The up-and-comer is completely plugged in to the always-on digital world – comfort with technology is a given. As the world of investing becomes increasingly more digital, this group is ready to dive in!
OPPORTUNITY
Up-and-comers should keep in mind that it’s nearly impossible to grow their wealth without taking on some amount of risk.
Secondary Persona
Archetype 2 : The Accumulator: Efficient, Multitasking, Forward-Thinking
CHALLENGE
Accumulators can struggle to overcome their own to-do lists and find the time to manage or grow their investments. Most in the group are comfortable with technology, but some might be hesitant to give up the old ways of paper statements and one-on-one advising entirely.
STRENGTH
Accumulators are efficient. They’ll likely run with the right investing strategy once they can identify it and pencil it in to their schedule.
OPPORTUNITY
They have been instilled with the ideology that real estate is traditionally the best investment. This can be leveraged.
My major focus areas during redesign
User interviews revealed core problem areas in the product. Through iterative design and testing these areas were improved. Post-release data proved that the updates were performing significantly better.
Click a topic to view in detail
Help users navigate and explore the product easily
Navigation bar for web and mobile
Help user understand who we are and how the product works
About us, FAQ's and story telling (2nd fold)
Deliver a great first impression with the right info & visuals
First fold of the landing page
Bing bong! Your latest investment just went live!
Notification feature and push notifications
SCROLL FURTHER FOR PROJECT DETAILS
Help users navigate and explore the product easily
NAVIGATION BAR FOR WEB AND MOBILE
The very first improvement that needed to be addressed was the pre-existing design of the navigation bars which had several UX as well as visual consistency issues.
BREAKING IT DOWN
Inconsistent elements in the bottom nav bar
Exploring a product becomes a heavy task if the navigation isn't smooth and consistent. The icon styles, spacing and alignment needed a complete revamp.
Most used features are not accessible
The core product offering (assets, real estate heatmap) are not quickly accessible when a user is on the verge of making a decision.
Understanding user behaviour for redesigning navigation
To do so, the user was explained about the task at hand. We asked repeat users to tell us their most used features on the product through a poll and what they found difficult in the current navigation.
RESULTS
With some iterations using the above poll results, the navigation bar was designed and tested for usability and clarity of the construct.
In the process of the Nav bar redesign, the following flows were also fixed
Empty state screens in logged-out user flows
Some features of the app were available only to the registered user. Previous experience would directly prompt login breaking the user flow abruptly. The redesign considered informing the user about the feature and a CTA for login
Introducing explore & dashboard tabs under investment
From the user interviews it was clear that a section in navigation should be dedicated to splitting investments into "current live assets" and "user investment dashboard" where all top actionable investment items could be easily accessed.
The support modal & the "profile click instances"
The big floating "help" which users found intrusive was replaced with a support icon in the top navigation. With addition of a premium feature, choose nominee etc, the profile card underwent a revamp as well.
PROFILE INSTANCES
LOGGED OUT STATE
LOGGED IN STATE
The empty states that previously led to login screen now informs user what the screen is about instead of breaking the flow of their exploration
All instances of the contents in the profile section at a given time
Features that are inaccessible in the logged out state is accessible through the same screens on the nav once the user has logged in.
Deliver a great first impression with the right info & visuals
REDESIGNING THE FIRST FOLD AND FLOW OF THE LANDING PAGE
With a new age concept that involved financials, it was very important to communicate the idea effectively and establish trust. Even the adventurous investor would be skeptic if their first impression was vague and sketchy.
APPROACHING THE PROBLEM
Key information about the product offerings
Deciding the content to be displayed such that the user would be fully informed about our offerings to pique their interest ( Targeted ads)
AB testing with two visual concepts
The core product offering (assets, real estate heatmap) are not quickly accessible when a user is on the verge of making a decision.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
To understand the current problem areas, I worked with our data scientist for the current landing page analytics
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Analysing the data and speaking to existing users provided these insights and course of action henceforth
Unclear messaging
As a new concept, users were not clear on how it works as there was no mention of "fractional real estate" which was the core offering
Unconvincing visuals
The users who were shown this for the first time expressed uncertainty as the first impression didn't seem trustworthy enough to explore
Investment structure
How are we able to assure the range of returns given the situation of the current market
Not enough incentive to sign up
The users who did browse the page had enough to go on, and without an intent to invest there was no incentive to sign in
Iterations tested
Focus on Fractional Investment and listing locations
Brand value + Real estate focus including all offerings and metrics
Returns focussed with mention of fractional investment
The selected iteration was the one that was best received and led to maximum conversions.
Help user understand who we are and how the product works
ABOUT US, FAQ's AND THE STORY OF TRANSPARENCY
From the aspect of user acquisition, the next step was to further improve our credibility and justify our model of transparency. We received user inputs and they always suggested that users try to know more about us and our offerings after gaining an interest in our concept.
we do
we are
choose us
Designing the notification experience for Aasthy native app and web
NOTIFICATION CATEGORIES, PUSH NOTIFICATIONS
We had started to list about 2-3 assets per month and this meant that the number of email/ whatsapp notifcations would be spammy for repeat investors. The aasthy native app launch with a notification feature was the solution to keeping our users updated at all times without being intrusive.
CATEGORIZE
A card sort with colleagues
I looked into all the different kinds of notifications we currently send and all the future requirements and listed them down on figma.
I created colour coded sticky notes for category/ subcategory and content and conducted a hybrid card sort.
CARD SORT SNIPPET
RESULTS OF THE EXERCISE
Notification categories & behaviour
The card sort helped in categorising our notification types into 3 main types, and 2 subtypes.
Assigning icons to notification types
How are we able to assure the range of returns given the situation of the current market
Deciding user actions on notifications
Mark as read, delete and snooze were some options that needed to be considered for certain alert categories
COMPONENTS
RESULT
The finished notification experience
The notification feature was prototyped and tested with a small group of existing users who were instantly able to connect the previous messages and mailers to these new concise in-app notification.
IMPACT
Aasthy's user base increased from 108 in June 2022 to 7523 in October 2022 throughout the cycle of the feature releases. It helped ten thousands of investors understand the concept and diversify their portfolio, generating high returns. Sign ups, KYC's and investment numbers shot up exponentially.