Zillow Web/Mobile app critique

By Matthew Berrett -

In this post I will discuss/review the Zillow app/webpage for helping find homes for sale or rent within the United States. Zillow has a webpage and app that can be accessed on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device and a mobile app. This review will discuss the mobile app's usability, design, and functionality while also depicting how the app works by showing screenshots and, lastly, proposing several suggestions on how to improve the app. The app is user-friendly, making finding a home to rent or buy easy.  

Once opening the app, you can see a search bar at the top where you can type in the exact state, city, or zip code you want to search in. You will first want to select the filters button on the top right of the page, as depicted in figure 1, to specify if you would like to buy or rent, how many bedrooms and bathrooms you'd like, and any other specifications you would like. Remember that the more specifications you input in filters, the fewer houses will be listed. After specifying the different filters, you can either type in a state or city or zoom in on the screen to the specific state and city, as shown in figure 2. Now that I have zoomed into Las Vegas, a bunch of red dots are shown, indicating which homes are for sale with my chosen specifications. I can even shrink my search by selecting "draw" on the right side of the screen, and once done, I can select "List" to show a list of the houses in that specific area, as shown in figure 3. Now I can scroll through the list of homes, as shown in figure 4 until I find the one I like.

The design of this app is easy to use and has a good amount of white space. Also, the app doesn't have contrasting colors that might distract from its primary purpose. Another great feature of the app is that the color scheme remains the same throughout when moving between different screens, which helps to maintain the app's readability. This app's features are straightforward to understand, especially for new users who may have yet to use it. The app is very responsive when searching and even shows past searches.

With this app's great design and functionality, it was hard to come up with recommendations for improvements, but after pondering on it for a while, I came up with three recommendations to improve the app. The first recommendation would be to set up a notification button for the houses you select as favorites. It would be nice to receive a text message or email from Zillow informing of a price reduction, increase, or any other specific news on a house, such as an open house. The next recommendation would be to add a link or icon to find a realtor. Sometimes when people are searching for a home, they also need to find a realtor, and if they don't know anyone in the area to receive recommendations, they have to google and search for a realtor on their own. If Zillow had a section for realtors on their app or webpage, it could be a one-stop shop for all your home-buying needs. The last suggestion or recommendation to improve this app is improving the preciseness of the market value of a home. This could help the buyer and seller to know exactly how much the home is worth instead of a roundabout number.

-Matthew

 

Screenshots of the Zillow App


                                                                                            Figure 1      



Figure 2


Figure 3



Figure 4



                                                                       

Sources

https://www.zillow.com/

This blog has been created to assist people new to the IT world, as I am new myself. There will be posts on new hardware and software in an easy-to-read and understandable format. This blog is for beginners, come and learn with me.

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