Emerald Isle Realty
RESEARCH, UX DESIGN, UI DESIGN
Emerald Isle Realty is a family-owned company that’s built a reputation over three generations as the trusted name for vacation rentals, special events, and real estate on the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. As a UX Designer for Orange 142, I advocated for cleaner UI and usability best practices to boost underperforming vacation rental bookings and drive more traffic to other verticals beyond the limits of ongoing digital marketing tactics.
View of some featured properties
DELIVERABLES
Personas, Wireframes, Decks
METHODS
User Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Needs & Constraints Assessment
ROLE
UX Designer
Objective
I started by observing the client’s current site and reviewing their qual and quant data to understand what specific problems improved UX and UI could solve. Data included Google analytics reports, heat maps, and user reviews.
The checkout data is much clearer. Many users on the site leave before booking, indicating pain points in the booking flow. We can fix that and then measure the results.
Metrics we sought to improve: shopping behavior before the redesign over a month
CHALLENGES
The client was reluctant to make significant homepage changes. Vacation rental booking - the website’s main revenue source - is a crowded market dominated by much larger rivals. To be more competitive, design and usability best practices had to be employed while spotlighting EIR’s unique selling propositions, such as their family-friendliness and familiarity with the local market.
Execution
To ensure my UX solutions matched the needs of users, I segmented our audience and created personas based on data trends.
Mockup with info extracted from internal personas
I ran a competitive analysis of family-oriented coastal vacation rental sites and compiled a presentation deck spotlighting best practices.
Categories compared:
Navigation
Content Hierarchy
Wishlist/Saving Properties
Ease of Listing Search
Visual Design
Wireframes established the foundation for a more usable site. With mobile traffic growing rapidly on their current site, we made the case for a responsive site for the best and most consistent functionality on any device.
Data for previous years of mobile usage
We leaned heavily on the inclusion of features that made it easier for users to save and compare favorite properties as well as quickly share them with friends and family.
Wireframes for landing page
Impact
While my role did not include visual design, I concluded my work by preparing some recommendations based on the competitive insights I collected, which I presented in a style guide. They established the basis for a design system, including colors, typefaces, and directions for selecting images to ensure ongoing continuity.
See the site.
Reflection
The most critical user need was a process to search, share, and book vacation rentals that felt seamless and trustworthy - from the first listing to checkout.
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