HouseCanary

Building and branding products for the future of real estate

I worked at HouseCanary as an early stage startup, where I led branding and product design for multiple data-driven real estate apps.

Role Lead Designer

Year 2016-2018

Brand

HouseCanary set out to be the “canary in the coalmine” for the real estate industry with more accurate valuations and forecasts. My first project was a brand refresh, and the logo became a literal canary perched on a rooftop to reinforce that core brand concept. The minimal bird’s balanced pose matched the intelligent, forward-thinking brand identity on top of a house or any other industry.

The website included simple explanations of complex data science concepts.

I designed icons to help explain the steps involved with developing accurate forecasts.

A new website was the first opportunity to present the brand to potential clients and investors, and I worked on explaining complex data science with simple visualizations and a set of monoline illustrations.

Brand-focused illustrations used a monoline style to show off benefits of Housecanary's platform.

Appraiser

One of our early projects was a mobile tool for home appraisals, which aimed to provide intelligent suggestions and relevant data to supplement the experience and intuition of the appraiser. The industry was ripe for innovation, and appraisals provided a consistent and reliable data source for future-facing forecasts.

The appraiser's dashboard helped them manage orders and track jobs through the review and approval process.

After interviews with professional appraisers, we planned a smoother process that included intelligent suggestions where it made a difference for busy users, who could complete multiple reports per day.

The tablet-optimized mobile app integrated multiple data sources and used a guided but flexible process to allow appraisers to fill out their report at their own pace.

A streamlined user experience became an important differentiator for the company, and I worked on simplifying the complex comp selection process with map-based search and filters, and intelligent similarity scores. We built a consistent experience across web and mobile apps, so appraisers could finish their work in the field or back at the office.

Comp selection became a signature experience, helping users with a color-coded map view, deep dive tables, and charts to evaluate selected comps.

HouseCanary Pro

I designed another web-based analytics platform for real estate professionals, making HouseCanary’s data set available for analysis and forecasting of home values down to a zipcode level.

The visual design of the pro app took on a darker theme, and used abstract network graphics to represent a more premium and technical product.

The simple map-based search allowed for discovery or targeted research. Clear, consistent data visualization was a focus for automated reports on properties or zipcodes.

Customizable heatmaps and simple data viz allowed for visual analysis and easy comparisions.

The map-based search inteface included filters and polygon selection tools like contemporary consumer real estate apps.

Simple color-coded grades helps users quickly scan through the complex reports.

Zip code reports combined a comprehensive set of data points that influence current and future home values.

My time at HouseCanary gave me great experience leading design at an early-stage company. I collaborated with stakeholders, users, product managers, and dev teams. Approaching a large digital transformation challenge from a design perspective prepared me well for future consulting projects.

A concept for an appraisal dashboard monitoring activity across the country.

Projects