Updating Website and Search Tool Improves User Experience

The Home Search Tool on First Homes new website provides buyers with need-to-know information through its effective, easy-to-use User Interface (UI). The tool was created by CWS Programmer, Eric Reynolds to be search engine optimized and to mimic the MLS (Multiple Listing Service - a tool used by Realtors® nationwide).

With the Homes for Sale Listing Feature, site visitors are able to view a full summary of the Real Estate listing, including:

• Current Status (Active, Sold, Pending)
• Listing Price
• House Style
• Rooms, Year Built, and much of what a prospective home buyer wants to know about a home they are considering.

• Gallery of Pictures of the home users can scroll through
• Address linked with Google Maps to make finding the property easy

• Details such as tax information, lot size, listing number and a description of features offered are shared in the Real Estate Summary
• Link "Buttons" to income guidelines as well as an opportunity to indicate interest and connect with First Homes regarding the buyer's potential home of interest

In addition to helping visitors easily look into properties of interest, the Homes for Sale Listing Feature’s incorporation of SEO helps First Homes be found by potential buyers and sellers. Each listing within the tool has its own indexable page, meaning each property has its own URL with specific property related content that can be indexed by Google.

Reynolds originally created the tool in 2007 and updated it to improve the User Interface as the new website was being built:

• Modified the layout on the back-end
• Changed how the images are stored in the system to allow an unlimited amount of them pr property
• Also allowed for unlimited documents in the system per property

“Every couple of years a tool like this should be looked at from a User Interface standpoint,” said Reynolds. “If new functionality isn’t needed, then just to make sure that the code is up to current standards is a good idea.”

Standards on the front end of sites change trend-wise about every 6 - 12 months. For programming standards, security patches are the primary concern.

When looking to have a tool created for your website, Reynolds recommends considering:

• What data do you want to show your users: what type of fields, images, information, etc.?
• How do you want it to be shown on the page?
• How tech-savvy is your audience?
• What Call to Action is the tool trying to achieve? Or what do you want your users to do with it?

Congratulations to First Homes on its new website! We wish you continued success in changing the lives of local families who dream of homeownership.