Zrch | 2022 - 2023
Redesigning the Homepage to Drive Search Conversion
How I redesigned the home search experience for a real estate platform in Norway.
My team:
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2 UX/UI Designers
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1 Product Manager
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4+ Software Developers
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2 Software Testers.
My role:
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Homepage redesign
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Brand identity refresh
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Competitor review
The challenge:
Hjem is a real estate search platform entering a highly competitive market in Norway.
As a newcomer, the product needed to quickly communicate its value, stand out from established competitors, and help users take action with minimal friction.​ However, the homepage was underperforming.
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Low conversion on homepage.
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Users struggled to immediately locate the search bar.
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The primary action (searching for properties) was visually competing with other content.
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Some users hesitated or scrolled without a clear next step, leading to drop-offs before conducting search.
Why visitors weren’t engaging with the search feature?
Usability testing:
I gave participants three short property-search tasks and timed how long it took them to find and use the search feature.
I encouraged the participants to think aloud during the process.
Average completion time was used as an indicator of friction: longer durations correlated with confusion or poor hierarchy.
Research finding:
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Users didn’t struggle with feature awareness. They struggled with feature accessibility.
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The search bar was visually buried, surrounded by competing call-to-action buttons and promotions.
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The insights helped me redesign the layout to make search more prominent and reduce cognitive load.
Design approach:
I explored multiple layout directions for the homepage. The goal was to make the search action the hero — simple, intuitive, and the first thing users notice.
The final iteration:
The final iteration brought together the strengths of both previous approaches.
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I demonstrated the brand identity and visual style to support Hjem’s business goal of building brand awareness as a newcomer, while refining how and where brand elements appeared so they didn’t compete with user's primary actions.
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The hero section was simplified, making the search experience more visible and easier to use.
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This balance allowed the homepage to feel both distinctive as a brand and clear in its purpose, guiding users confidently toward their primary goal: starting a property search.
