Search by MRT

Searching For Properties Near By MRT Singapore

PropertyGuru is Asia’s leading property technology company, an online property search platform for people who are looking for their dream home. Also, a marketplace for property agents and property developers to advertise their properties to customers. PropertyGuru is now running the business in 5 different countries, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Property seekers can access PropertyGuru via website or app.

PropertyGuru company website:
https://www.propertygurugroup.com/our-company/

PropertyGuru website based on market:
Singapore: propertyguru.com.sg
Malaysia: propertyguru.com.my
Indonesia: rumah.com
Thailand: ddproperty.com
Vietnam: batdongsan.com.vn

ABOUT PROPERTYGURU

PROJECT BACKGROUND

MRT is one of the popular public transportations in Singapore for commuting. From these data, in 2020, on average approximately 2.2 Mio people in Singapore use MRT per day. It is approximately 40% of the population in Singapore uses the MRT as their daily commute option.

Also, we found out from past research that:

When looking for a home, a lot of people in Singapore have a high tendency and consider easiness of access to public transportation as one of the important keys to home searching. Not only that, but the property buyers also prefer the homes should be within minutes walking distance to public transport.
Most research participants also mentioned that location is the most matter thing that should be inputted first. When it comes to location searching, we learned that public transport (MRT) really matters when it comes to searching for property.

Knowing all those facts, made us think that our user needs to know the information of how long the walking distance from the property location to the MRT and an easy way to find the list of properties that are near from MRT station.

How Might We help users find properties that are nearby MRT stations?

01 Empathize

Previously, we had past research studies about MRT-related property searching before I joined the company. I gathered all the findings and turned them into insights that can help me to figure out what exactly a user needs and to answer “How might we help users find properties that are nearby MRT stations?”

MY ROLE

I was working as a Product Designer who has responsibility to

Designed the solution concept & experience into wireframe, high fidelity, & prototype.
Created an interactive MRT map asset from scratch and visualized the map to look exactly like the MRT map Singapore from LTA. So, users don’t need to think hard when selecting the stations as they are familiar with the Singapore MRT map.
Conducted usability testing and synthesized the research insights. Finalized the design based on the usability test result.

The outcome of the design is already live on PropertyGuru website and app (Android and iOS).

DESIGN PROCESS

02 Define

I synthesized all of the findings and got these key points:

Users tend to look at the MRT line, station, and map whenever searching for property.
Users usually type the MRT station name in the search location bar.
MRT grouping categorization can help users to get more property options.
Users need to know the exact walking distance information from the property to MRT.

So, “How might we help users find properties that are nearby MRT stations?”

From the above data, we figured out that:
MRT map, complete with the stations and lines is the easiest searching tool for users to filter out the property search result as they are already familiar with the MRT map. Also, the walking distance info can help them make better property buying or renting decisions.

03 Ideate

i. Sketching & Wireframing

First thing first, I usually start by sketching the various ideas. The purpose of sketching & wireframing practice was to get all ideas, how it looks, how the end-to-end flow in mobile (app & mobile web) and desktop experience, and to get the final product concept before committing to high fidelity design.

ii. High Fidelity Design

In the design approach, I tried to cover all the key points above (Define):

Ability to search by MRT map (stations & lines): To provide a better experience when selecting MRT stations and lines, I used the interactive MRT map approach as the main tool to select the stations. At first, I thought it was easy because you only need to draw the line and add a station point. But I was wrong, to make it interactive, I need to create an SVG code map in order to provide smooth interaction. I faced difficulties when generating the SVG map using Figma, because the export of SVG produces different SVG code formats and the engineer can’t use it. But finally, I found the correct tool for producing interactive maps so that the engineer can use the SVG code, I use Sketch to make it happen. Basically, what the user can do with the map is to enable the user to select multiple stations from the same lines or different lines.

Ability to search by MRT groups/lines, MRT station name, and future line. By adding search by MRT station or line name, it will help users choose a specific station or line faster. Looking back at the reality that some MRT lines in Singapore are still under development, I see an opportunity that there will be a scenario when users are looking for property nearby the upcoming MRT lines. Hence, I decided to add future line option as part of MRT line and station selection.

Provide walking distance to MRT. Walking distance information is very important to the user. Because user really needs to know the estimation of walking distance from property to the nearest MRT station, There are 3 placements but team decide to release the phase 1 first.

  In Phase 1, we managed to show the walking distance information in the Listing card and listing detail page. The reason why I put the information in the listing card is because it’s the first summary information that users can scan in search results before reading more detail to listing detail page. And then if the user is interested in a specific listing, the user can get more walking distance information from 2-3 nearest MRT stations around the listing location. 
In Phase 2, we are planning to have the walking distance filter inside the Search by MRT feature. The purpose is to make it easy for users to filter out listing search results that match with the walking distance specification that user needs.

And here is the end-to-end flow of selecting multiple MRT stations with the Search by MRT feature. I will only show you how it looks in the mobile experience. For desktop, I won't show it here, but you can check on propertyguru.com.sg (it's live on production - web and app).

04 Prototype

Let me show you how this feature works on the mobile experience. For desktop, I won't show it here, but you can check on propertyguru.com.sg (it's live on production - web and app).

05 Test

Before we ran the AB test experiment. I did usability testing with a few Singaporean locals and a few expats who are living and working in Singapore and use MRT as their daily commute. In the usability test, I tested desktop web and mobile web view prototypes to the participants. From this activity we learned:

After that, our team rolled out the MVP 1 of search by MRT with these features:

Enable users to select stations on MRT map
Enable users to select future lines and stations
Enable user to search MRT line and station name
Provide walking distance information on the listing card and listing detail page.

We ran the test for MVP 1 with an AB test experiment for 50% of users in Singapore (app and web). The metrics we measure are conversion rate (CTR to Listing detail page and number of leads - people contact agent). The result after 2 weeks of running was successful. It managed to increase conversion rate by ~25% on Android and iOS and ~4% on website and mobile websites. In the latest update, now this feature is available for all users in Singapore (since 2020) and Thailand (since 2021).