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Project Overview
In the home hunting journey, being the first to know when a property comes to market can be crucial. Now property-seekers can receive alerts on their wrist as well as on their phone – so they will never miss out on a listing in their search area.
Domain is helping house hunters closely watch the property market, literally. The Domain Apple Watch app joined in June 2015 our already Australia’s first, Domain Android wear app - launched in July 2014.
Domain users. First to know. Ahead of the game.
Organisation
Team
Damon Pezaro
Paul McManus
Henrique Marassi
Gary Lo
Zarah Dominguez
Konstantin Burov
Justin Howlett
Dan Rodrigues
Joy Liu
David Meier
Dan Johnston
Project Brief
In the home hunting journey, being the first to know when a property comes to market can be crucial.
When Android Wear devices were announced at the Google I/O conference in June 2014, we identified a great opportunity to deliver the Domain listings to our consumers' wrists as soon as they hit the market. In May 2015 with the Apple Watch release Domain released its app, expanding the wearable offering to both major wearable platforms.
We had implemented saved searches notifications in our Android app early 2014 - as soon as a new home in their target search area is listed the users receive a notification. Notifications had added great value to our app, having over high click-through rates and an expressive number of notifications delivered every month.
Project Need
Keeping our users ahead of the game by being informed immediately and quickly is core to our user experience focus. Having already known that our users love the saved search notifications on our existing Android app, porting this useful information to this next generation form factor in a tasteful, convenient, timely and native way was the vision and goal.
Domain Apple Watch
The Apple Watch app, uniquely augmented on Domain’s award-winning iPhone app, equips home seekers with a personal companion on their property journey, providing easy access to the information they need throughout the searching process.
Users can search for properties nearby, and receive instant notifications about properties that match their criteria and when details are updated. Never again miss an inspection! With a glance, users can easily view today’s inspections schedule for their favourite properties, and it’s only one tap away from viewing a property’s information, and then pick up where they left off with their Domain iPhone app to explore the properties or the area in more detail.
Domain Android Wear
The Domain Android wear app notify users when new properties hit the market under their saved search criteria or when a shortlisted property has a significant change (price, inspection time changed or property sold). In addition, users are alerted when they are nearby shortlisted properties and can get directions to go have a sneak-peek. Furthermore, the user can preview the new properties in more details directly in the smartwatch and shortlist their favourite homes
User Experience
Initially, we implemented an Android wear integration that delivered notifications to the users' Android watch. Properties that are listed and fit certain individual search criteria (saved searches) are then delivered as a notification to the Android wear watch. The user can catch a glimpse of the new properties and then view the property in full on the phone.
In late 2014 we further integrated our Android wear app - now users can not only see the summary of new properties in their saved search criteria, but also explore in more detail each new property. In that way we have improved the wearable experience for our property hunters.
Additionally we have implemented a location centric experience whereby relevant properties are surfaced to the user in real-time. Rather than having to pro-actively search for homes, Domain seeks to work hard to help users discover relevant nearby homes by notifying users with succinct information which allow further exploration.
The limited available real-estate and nature of interactions with wearable devices are quite different from other platforms. Being an early adopter and developer of real estate wearable apps has enabled Domain to perfect just the right amount of information needed by wearers, which has resulted in incredibly (and surprisingly) high engagement rates, especially with notifications. Quick glimpsable actions/notifications and very simplified features are key to great and useful experience for wearables app.
Project Marketing
Wearables are still relatively new technology in Australia. Whe Domain first created the Android Wear app, awareness about the benefits of smartwatches was still relatively niche.
When Apple Watch was first announced, the media was in quite a frenzy about all of the new apps available. Domain capitalised on this opportunity to be the first Australian real estate app to announce for Apple Watch. Being first was important competitively but it also ensured Domain’s previous ventures into wearables were profiled at the same time. Mashable wrote a feature on Domain’s app alone, which had 1,700 shares almost immediately, demonstrating user engagement in the apps.
Since then, Domain has strategically placed wearables within the broader marketing product suite, to demonstrate to users that wearable apps are not niche or confined to tech audiences, but are highly useful for everyday people.
The apps have regularly featured on tech blogs since and they are highly rated and featured in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store — a key factor driving downloads. Wearable apps have also been promoted over Domain’s huge social media presence on an ongoing basis.
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 Connected Device and Wearable Tech
From not so long ago being a concept only/prototype scenario, the connected device/wearable tech revolution has taken the world by storm and today we have clothing, watches, glasses, jewellery and trackers all helping us to achieve goals such as staying fit, active, losing weight or being more organised.
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