Redefining Project Opportunities
OppSites Project Creation
OppSites is a platform aimed at connecting real estate professionals and local businesses with local governments for real-world development projects. Project Creation was part of a larger project spanning 6 months, with 2 months devoted to strategy/research and 4 months for design/implementation. I served as the only Product/UX Designer on the project, along with 2 engineers, a UX consultant and researcher, and a project manager (our CEO). I’ll be going over the Project Creation portion of the project below.
Project Overview
City Leaders and Economic Development Organizations identify where they wish to see new development or redevelopment by creating Project Opportunities. Thus, Project Opportunities are a core component of OppSites and creating them a core feature.
I was tasked with redesigning the process of Project Creation, making the process easier to understand, simpler to accomplish, more broadly defined, and ultimately better at allowing Users to create Project Opportunities.
Final Deliverables
Project Creation Modals
Project Detail Modals
My final design reduced the Project Creation process from five separate steps to just one, along with creating a consistent interface for Users to view Projects.
What is Project Creation?
Simply put, Project Creation was the action that Users took to put their Project Opportunities on the platform. Users would designate an area of land (parcel), enter information, and that Project Opportunity would be created on the OppSites platform to share with other Users.
Identifying Problems and User Goals
Two main problems existed with Project Creation:
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1) what Users considered Project Opportunities was different from what we assumed to be Project Opportunities.
2) a lengthy and complicated Project Creation process did not encourage Users to create projects.
Better Understanding "Project Opportunities"
What we understood as Project Opportunities and what Users understood to be Project Opportunities weren't the same. We thought of Project Opportunities as unused, underdeveloped or undeveloped parcels of land.
OLD Project Detail Page
The previous Project Opportunity information page. Project Opportunities in OppSites were unused parcels of land that were underutilized.
To understand what our Users thought were Project Opportunities, I conducted several User surveys and created User Personas from the results.
User Personas
Mock User Personas I made from User research and interviews.
A Complicated & Lengthy Process
The old Project Creation process focused on having thoroughly detailed projects. However, this method proved too complicated and long.
Old Creation Process
When creating Project Opportunities, we asked our Users for a lot of information upfront.
What were the issues with the Project Creation process? I focused on writing down and identifying the User goals and their problems.
Problem: The current Process was the exact opposite.
Unsurprisingly, everything inhibiting the above goal became a point of friction - the lengthy forms, wait for necessary documents, unclear call to actions.
Goal: Users wanted to share Project Opportunities quickly and effectively.
A Users' priority was not necessarily to have most in-depth sites, but have enough information to discuss and/or share with others. Creating opportunities was very much a numbers game.
Devising new schemes...
With the problems and goals made clear, I started the ideation and redesign process. I focused on a few things:
Keep it Simple
What kind of information was the User asked to fill out? How much of it was truly essential?
Increase Scope
If Project Opportunities were not simply physical sites, then what were they? And how do I best show that?
More CTAs
How can Users be encouraged to create more Projects? How can I make that more apparent?
Keeping it Simple
Determining Essential Information
What did the User think was the most important information when creating Project Opportunities? And how did that compare to how Users actually create Project Opportunities? I evaluated both of these questions.
Essential Information // User Survey
I analyzed how much weight we gave each section of the old Project Creation process. I then compared that to User surveys asking how important they though each section of information was.
Essential Information // User Behavior
A vast majority of opportunities only use a few fields, which were the most emphasized in the page’s design.
What became increasingly clear was that Users thought that identifying the location was most important. Everything else was secondary. The information needed to focus on giving Users an ability to identify location quickly and then be able to determine their next steps (either contact the person posting the opportunity or share it with others).
The Question of Parcel Designation
Knowing that location was the most important information for our Users when creating Projects, I began thinking of ways to further simplify even the designation process. One aspect that immediately came to mind was the parcel-based designation system.
Example of parcel subdivisions. Parcel data was a sensitive subject for many of our Users, particularly on the government side. It was often outdated or unavailable, and manual changes to parcel data were often requested.
What were the advantages and disadvantages of using a parcel-based system compared to a simpler, address-based system? Gathering feedback from engineering, leadership, and our Users, I assessed both strategies.
Ultimately, I felt that the simplicity of an address-based parcel designation system would be most beneficial moving forward given all considerations.
Sketches and Lo-fidelity Wireframes
When ideating and sketching, I focused primarily on keeping the process down to one step - keeping simplicity in mind.
Sketches
I focused on condensing all of Project Creation into one modal, only including information about the opportunity or directly describing it.
Lo-fidelity Wireframes
It was important that the fields were not overwhelming when viewed all at once (Project Creation). The same can be said for viewing the detail page (Project Detail).
Increasing Scope
As previously stated, the old assumption that Project Opportunities were undeveloped or underdeveloped parcels of land proved incorrect. So what were Users considering as Project Opportunities? I referred back to my User Personas:
In many instances, our Users did not even mention undeveloped or underdeveloped land as Project Opportunities. Project Opportunity had a much broader meaning for our Users, from new incentivized business opportunities, value-added investment projects, to simple space for rent/lease. And in many cases, Project Opportunities would fit into many of these definitions.
I designed a responsive label system to denote Project Opportunity types and help Users better understand what kind of Projects they could create.
More Calls to Action
The previous Project Creation process was triggered only from two sections of the website, the 'Marketplace' and the 'My OppSites' page. So whenever Users wished to create a Project, it was a deliberate effort that interrupted what they were doing.
Both Project Creation CTAs were hidden within the Marketplace and My OppSites section of the product.
The Importance of Modality
I started to think of ways to create a process that was not such a high friction task for the User, especially once Project Creation became simpler. I began to think of Project Creation as a modular experience, one that did not take away from what the User was previously doing.
I explored areas where it made sense for Users to begin creating projects.
The full impact of modal design was seen when developing other features of the OppSites Product, letting Users quickly create a Project and then immediately jump back to the page (task) they were doing before. A modal design implementation also had implications on the development of future features, which I kept in mind.
Modals // Project Creation
Modals // Project Details
Several other features were places where it made sense to allow Users to create/view project opportunities (Place Pages, Profiles, Home Feeds). Having a modal also opened up design space for future features to incorporate the Project Creation process.
Final Designs
A look at the final wireframes for both the Project Creation and Project Detail modals.
Project Creation
Project Details
Conclusion
Redesigning the Project Creation process was a critical element in improving the User experience with a core feature of the OppSites platform - the creation and sharing of Project Opportunities. This work would also prove vital in providing Users with an easy way to add Project Opportunities while they are in other parts of the platform.
As is often true in design, more information is not necessarily better. In the case of Project Creation, it created an obstacle that made creating project opportunities time-consuming and confusing. You can follow the work on oppsites.com!