EXOS Valuation Redesign: Streamlined Order Management
9 MIN READ
EXOS Valuation, first introduced in 2017, offers real-estate appraisers a platform to streamline their schedules, set fees, and automate administrative tasks. Our team conducted a redesign in 2020, resulting in a more accessible, robust, and efficient vendor experience, transforming the platform from an internal tool to a multi-tenant SaaS solution.
Jul 2020 – Feb 2021
Raghavendra K.(Graphic Designer), Rocky W.(UX Designer), Jinyi Y. (UX Designer)
Adobe XD, Whimsical.io, Miro
Individual 
Group
Enterprise 
Consumer
Conceptual 
Visual
Executive Summary
Problem
The company’s current Appraiser Application required improvements in fixing accessibility flaws, reducing time on tasks, onboarding third-party servicers, and updating the look and feel.
Solution
Refreshed the app UI to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Reorganized the information architecture. Introduced new features and the multi-tenancy framework to the application.
My Role
Partnered with 2 other designers under a cross-function agile team, I owned the whole order management workflow, and the entailed user interfaces.
* * *
Redesign Overview
1. Background
1.1 EXOS Valuation App (2017)
EXOS Valuation was first launched in 2017, serving both internal and independent appraisers involved in the company’s Valuation line of business. However, as the platform grew in size and capabilities, our team uncovered design issues that impacted user experience. The previous framework lacked the scalability to accommodate third-party servicers and had a dated visual appearance.
1.2 Context
Who?
Appraiser Demographic
The average age of an employed real-estate appraiser in the United States is 50 years old. 32.0% of all appraisers are women, while 68% are men, according to zippia.com.
These statistics require us to be mindful of the demographic’s needs and wants. On top of them, the company has committed to welcoming more women and young professionals to enter the industry in the long run. As designers, we do our part by creating an inclusive and friendly experience that allows everyone to comfortably conduct their business.
Average age
50.2
Gender ratio
68% – Male
32% – Female
Where?
In the Field
The nature of a real estate appraiser’s job involves extensive travel, in vehicles or around properties, leading to a dynamic and demanding work environment. On an average day, an appraiser may have 2-4 inspections, and this number can soar to 10 or more if doing only exterior inspections. The challenges posed by this work environment require the application to be both reliable and easy to use.
When?
Shifting to Flex Schedule
Many appraisers follow a regular 9-5 work schedule, while the nature of the job does not require fixed hours as long as they coordinate with customers and complete assignments on time. With an algorithm-driven order assignment system in place, the company is able to accommodate flexible and customizable work schedules for appraisers.
1.3 UX Audit
With an established understanding of the context: who, where, and when are we redesigning for, we then conducted a UX audit on the current Valuation app, focusing on the information architecture and user interfaces.
Major Usability Issues Identified
Non-Accessible Pattern
Accessibility was not taken into consideration in the original design. The color combinations did not provide enough contrast, and some interactive components were too close to each other.
Unintuitive Navigation
Bottom nav items somewhat overlapped with each other, as 3 of them were just different statuses of orders. Other important features were buried in the hamburger menu.
Hard-to-Use Action Menu
All the order-related actions complied in a long dropdown list. The display was too compact and hard to select on touchscreens. Frequently-used options were buried together with secondary ones.
2. Identify Goals & Requirements
2.1 Stakeholder & User Journey Mapping
Stakeholder Map
Identify all involved parties and manages their expectations.
User Journey Map
Focus on end-users, and determine their actions, media, related pain points, and opportunities.
2.2 Personas
With enthusiasm for revamping the EXOS Valuation experience, we were also mindful of the potential misstep often seen in redesign projects – prioritizing stakeholder wants over user needs, resulting in a disjointed user experience. As designers, it was vital that we put the end-users, individual appraisers, first and took a user-centric approach. To accomplish this, we established two personas based on findings from desktop research and user interviews, ensuring that the end-user’s perspectives were considered throughout the process.
Paul, 56
Experienced
Paul has been working as a real estate appraiser for over 30 years. As a veteran in the field, he knows every nut and bolt and has established his own work style and routine. Paul is a beloved husband, father, and soon a grandfather -he values his personal life and spends his time with family and pursuing his hobbies.
Open to Change
In his early career, Paul used traditional methods like paper calendars and submitting appraisal reports via mail or fax. As technology has advanced, he’s gradually shifting to paperless, digitized solutions to accommodate the preferences of today’s young customers. He was also pleased to find out that these tools had saved him a huge amount of time on administrative tasks, allowing him to focus more on the appraisal itself.
Hailey, 25
Passionate
After graduating from business school, Hailey decided to enter the field of real estate and become an appraiser. She has sucessfully finished her 18-month training program and passed the AQB (Appraiser Qualifications Board) exam. She looks forward to officially working as a certified real estate appraiser.
Tech-savvy
Hailey is a detail-oriented person. She enjoys analytic thinking and problem-solving, which she believes, have made her a good suit for the job. As a millennial, she fully embraces digitization and automation enabled by modern technologies. She plans to make the most out of these tools to streamline her work. In her spare time, she makes vlogs about her life and work and shares them on social media.
2.3 Goal Alignment
After we gathered and summarized the stakeholder expectations, UX audit result, user context, and potential opportunities/pain points, we evaluated and distilled them into prioritized and actionable UX goals.
Main Goals
- Accessibility: fix major usability issues and meet the WCAG 2.1 AA requirements.
- Efficiency: reduce time spent on tasks by surfacing critical actions, and eliminating unnecessary steps.
- Growth: design for the multi-tenant SaaS capability to onboard and accommodate third-party servicers.
- Branding: create a simple, futuristic visual design, while intentionally leaving the screens “white-labeled”.
Additional Goals
- Define mobile design standards for future projects.
- Establish a remote collaboration workflow for product design & development.
3. Redesign
3.1 Design Process
There were 3 major function modules within the Valuation app: Schedule Management, Order Management, and Performance Review. I was responsible for redesigning the Order Management module.
This module was the most utilized and heavily relied upon in the app, allowing appraisers to view, accept, and provide updates on orders, report any issues, check in and out, and more. The functionality of these essential features had a direct impact on the appraisers’ productivity, making it crucial to ensure that they were efficient and reliable.
Comply with Native Guidelines
Our development team chose to rewrite the application as Xamarin Native for near-native performance. To ensure compliance with both iOS and Android guidelines, we followed Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and Google’s Material Design, incorporating native components into the design.
Facilitating Remote Collaboration
As the product team shifted to fully remote during the pandemic, we explored different online collaboration and whiteboarding tools, such as Miro, Whimsical, and MURAL, to facilitate brainstorming, visualizing workflows, and communicating the preliminary design with stakeholders.
Iterative Prototyping
As part of an agile development team, our approach was focused on delivering incremental progress and constantly refining our work through rapid iteration. In each sprint, we tackled one to several user stories and progressed from low to high-fidelity, while ensuring that our designs meet stakeholder expectations.
UI Review & Handoff with Zeplin
The team utilized Zeplin for design quality assurance and handoff to ensure seamless collaboration. As the Zeplin administrator on the team, I was responsible for managing all access permissions and maintaining the six folders created under the project.
3.2 Deliverables
Interactive Prototype
Check out the interactive prototype created in Adobe XD:
https://xd.adobe.com/view/7f73fb4d-5002-4472-a8aa-c5fe440c7fa8-2a20/
New Orders
Before
Unclear visual hierarchy; Irregular spacing; Header took too much space; Users had to navigate to secondary pages to take further actions.
After 
Adjusted the information hierarchy and highlighted important/time-sensitive information; Added the call-to-action button up to the front to reduce extra clicks.
All Orders
Before
Users were not able to filter the order list. Order statuses not obvious.
After
Enabled order filtering by different criteria with multi-tenant capability.
Order Details
Before
Long scrolling view which we got complaints about (as appraisers were usually multitasking); All the order-related actions crammed into a drop-down list that was hard to reach and tap with fingers.
After
Redesigned the layout so that users can get a nice overview of the order at a glance, without having to scroll much. Order-related actions are categorized and spread out based on context.
Differentiate Milestones and Statuses
In the existing app, some of the critical order milestones were hidden or not properly emphasized, resulting in excessive phone calls and process delays. The unclear distinction between milestones and statuses caused confusion for both the end users and even the product team. To address these issues, we thoroughly examined all milestones and statuses and created clear UX specifications to ensure that they are promptly displayed and visually distinguished
Handling Exceptions
As emphasized earlier, security and robustness were of high importance as the app is used for dynamic business scenarios that involve large amounts of transactions and private property data. For Order Management alone, we determined over 60 possible edge cases. We designed the fail-safe trail for each of them, and make sure when necessary, let the application “fail gracefully”.
Order Reschedule
Previously, if an appraiser wished to reschedule an order, they needed to email/call their manager for approval. With the updated design, appraisers can now easily initiate reschedule requests directly from the app and receive automatic approval when certain conditions are met, reducing delays in turn time and freeing up human resources.
Onboarding Flow
To get the most out of the optimized experiences, the application requires certain permissions (biometric authentication, location, notifications, calendar, etc.). To make sure users feel comfortable about giving these permissions, we created the onboarding flow with illustrations to demonstrate the values and benefits. Alternative paths were also designed to provide usability even if the permissions are not granted
4. Beta Feedback
“
I like the updated app it keeps the job done with reminders.
“
I love how easy it is to sync everything with my calendar.
“
The many new additions from the previous version have made executing each inspection much more convenient, and nearly flawless from assigned to closed.
“
So many important necessary features!
“
I love the look of the new app it’s wonderful!
“
The app is user-friendly and easy to navigate, yet informative.
5. Takeaways
1) Defend users: do not be afraid to disagree
In a cross-functional team, each member naturally advocates for their own priorities such as ease of implementation, profitability, or preservation of existing processes. Conflicts are an inherent part of this dynamic. As UX designers, it is our very responsibility to raise concerns when decisions have the potential to harm the user experience. If we don’t speak up, no one else is obligated to do so on behalf of the users.
2) Aim for global optimum
It’s a common desire to have things that are both high-quality, affordable, and efficient, but often compromises are necessary. Individuals may only have a limited perspective and become focused on optimizing a single aspect, leading to stagnation. As designers and coordinators, effective communication and consideration of all perspectives are crucial in achieving our vision and addressing any concerns. By promoting transparency and evaluating options, the team can ultimately work towards the best possible outcome within the given constraints.
Thanks for reading 🙂
Jinyi's 