Streamlining Property Search for Real Estate Agents
CRMLS Paragon
2025
UX Researcher, UI Designer
Jan - March 2025
Anson Wen, Diana Serrano, Shane Jovel Caldo, Krhyginne Tamoria
Web application
Overview
Making financial data easier to understand
Problem
Understanding financial activity felt unnecessarily difficult
Research
Looking beyond the numbers
Ideation
How might we improve the property search experience for real estate agents to easily and efficiently find homes for their clients?
Designs
Refining the search experience
Lessons
Designing for clarity, confidence, and everyday financial workflows
We interviewed a local real estate agent to understand her professional experience and workflow. Through a walkthrough demonstration of an important task of their choice, we uncovered critical challenges in CRMLS Paragon, directing our focus on redesigning the platform.
California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS) Paragon provides tools and features for agents to maintain communication with clients, find and manage listings, as well as access real-time updates to market data.
The redesign revealed that the current property search process is time-consuming and prevents agents from building their client base and providing adequate attention to existing customers.
The Impact
Our solution explores a revamped experience that focuses on visual hierarchy and readability to increase efficiency. Our goal was to ensure that agents do not have to spend more time than necessary when searching for properties.
The property search system was time-consuming and prevents agents from building their client base and providing adequate attention to existing customers.
Real estate agents need a way to quickly identify and compare relevant properties for their clients.
01 - Weak hierarchy, 02 - Inconsistent spacing, 03 - Workflow friction
To better understand where friction appeared we identified pain points from our stakeholder interview in order to learn learn about our client’s daily tasks and the tools they use, identify challenges with those tools, understand their ideal solutions. With this framework, we aimed to encourage discussions that highlight our stakeholders’ frustrations, ensuring we focused on real, existing problems.
What we learned
Through this interview and workflow analysis, we uncovered pain points that stemmed from visual hierarchy, readability, and unclear navigational items.
Even experienced agents struggle to navigate the program’s cluttered interface.
The absence of clear visual hierarchy and logical information architecture contributes to this clutter, making it difficult for agents to find specific filters or perform tasks efficiently.
Key Information is difficult to read.
Text and image elements lack sufficient size, spacing, and contrast, making it difficult for agents to scan and comprehend quickly. As a result, they spend more time deciphering what they see than actually searching for what they need.
Throughout the application, users are often left feeling stuck.
When users select the “Checked” button in the top toolbar, unselected properties disappear from view. Although a button to return to all properties is available, its low visual prominence and proximity to other tools make it easy to overlook. This lack of discoverability causes users to feel stuck and not in control.
"A lot of the apps that are supposed to help us with our workflow, don’t always make it easier for us.”
We started with developing two distinct prototypes, varying in layouts and feature functionalities.
Exploring different dashboard concepts focused on hierarchy, transaction visibility, and clearer everyday financial workflows.
Testing interaction flows early
We reached out to our original stakeholder and an additional real estate agent to gather insight on whether our ideas effectively address the challenges they face. Returning a 50/50 preference for the prototypes, we decided to build off of Prototype 2 due to high acclaim for the search bar feature and filter experience, and implemented ideas from Prototype 1.
Mid-Fidelity Prototype
Returning a 50/50 preference for the prototypes, we decided to build off of Prototype 2 due to high acclaim for the search bar feature and filter experience, and implemented ideas from Prototype 1.
After a round of feedback from stakeholders, TAs, and peers, our prototype exposed issues with spacing, contrast, and layout inconsistencies. This geared our focus on refinement and clarity toward the app's overall visual design.
The final redesign focused on improving clarity across the property search experience through stronger hierarchy, simplified navigation, and addressing reading accessibility concerns. The updated interface made properties easier to compare, actions easier to locate, and searching for information easier to scan at a glance.
Incorporated the search bar into the homepage to provide a quicker and more evident entry point.
Reorganized filter criteria into relevant categories for a more digestible look
A flexible experience for users to view property listings, aimed to give a sense of control in order to improve efficiency
Reconfigured the property details page to promote easier scanning.
This experience taught me how to collaborate effectively and maintain consistent communication with a real-world client. The project was structured around weekly checkpoints, which helped my team and I learn to work within constraints and meet deadlines efficiently. With more time, I would have interviewed additional real estate professionals throughout the process to gather broader insights and further inform our design decisions.