Purple Bricks

Purple Bricks is the UK’s leading online estate agents.

Project Details

Client

Purple Bricks Estate Agents

Services

Web design

Website

Purplebricks.com

Year

2016

I was asked to work on the Brand realignment and site redesign for the world’s first 24/7 estate agents Purple Bricks. The previous version of the site had been based purely on data but as part of their new strategy they wanted to explore with an approach of design & data.

Purple bricks concept sketches

Purple Bricks brand identity realignment

Background

Before we launched, the website design (www.purplebricks.com, everything before you log in) was well received in customer research for being clean and classy in contrast to the websites of other online estate agencies. Since then, we have worked hard to increase the conversion from website visit to booking a valuation and this has resulted in changes to the content that have undermined the overall look of the website. The changes to increase conversion rate were all introduced as a result of direct feedback from users, and therefore we didn’t want to throw this away, but we do believe that the overall look and feel of the website design has a role to play in increasing trust and confidence in Purplebricks, which in itself will improve conversion. We now need to achieve the right balance between:

- Incorporating conversion winning elements into the website.
- Overall design which supports the conversion evidence but also our position in the market as a fresh, forward-thinking organisation.

Purplebricks ‘Homepage’, ‘Testimonials’ and ‘Meet the team’

Purple Bricks cascading modules

Core Tasks

Detailed below were the core tasks for the project:

Introduction to Conversion Rate Experts (CRE) and their role. Understand the key objections raised in the CRE research. Understand our current 3 big split tests from a design perspective in terms of the amount of research data we are trying to incorporate:

- - 1. Book a free valuation page.
    2. Homepage.
    3. What makes us different.
    Suggestions (supported by designs) of how to specifically achieve 3a, 3b and 3c above as well as general principles of how to incorporate (potentially) large amounts of “test” information into the website. General overview of the entire website. Suggestions (supported by designs) of how to improve the website. Our website is responsive and therefore all considerations need to be in respect of desktop, tablet and mobile.

Purple Bricks mobile screens

The changes to increase conversion rate were all introduced as a result of direct feedback from users, and therefore we don’t want to throw this away, but we do believe that the overall look and feel of the website design has a role to play in increasing trust and confidence in Purple Bricks, which in itself will improve conversion.
Anna Essex, Purple Bricks Head of Design