Comments on: Roost Redesigns Search Results

By: Roost Changes Up Their Game | Future of Real Estate Marketing

Roost Changes Up Their Game | Future of Real Estate Marketing — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:14:51 +0000

[...] We haven’t heard much from Roost, the IDX driven search portal, as of late. Last we heard of them they had redesigned their search pages to deal with a growing overabundance of search filters (see Roost Redesigns Search Results). [...]

By: Ken Greenwood

Ken Greenwood — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:49:12 +0000

If you’re waiting for a Google-esque home search tool, you need not wait any further. I just built it and it not only allows you to search on anything with the MLS record, it’s beautifully designed (patting myself on the back).

Check out a live version at: http://www.cindyoatess.com

And a demo with me explaining how it’s built at:
http://www.oneworldmedia.com/mls/demo.htm

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:54:58 +0000

I dig the design of the site – but they just don't have listings for any of the areas in which I need to search. Until the content is in place, style won't make much difference.

By: Incredible Agent

Incredible Agent — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:47:48 +0000

I like the changes they've made. The original design was a bit difficult to deal with at times.

By: Drew Izzo

Drew Izzo — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:19:15 +0000

Thanks for the applause Joel! This design was in response to customer feedback to provide more usable space to see what they’ve come to Roost to see – all the homes for sale in any given market. At www.roost.com we feel – and the initial response from our user base has indicated that we’ve make great progress towards that goal. “Simple,” “clean,” “great use of whitespace,” “wicked fast” are some of the tidbits we’re getting from users. I agree that this is no easy task to provide all the features & functionality that users want in a clean and clear way. We’ll continue to, with the help of our consumers and experts like you, try to improve Roost.com.

By: Evan Sharp

Evan Sharp — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:29:12 +0000

I think that you found a really good point here – “Filtering” as a method of searching is still relatively new to the web, and is confusing to a lot of users. It is my hope that as more and more sites adopt the idea, people will become more familiar with the power it allows you over the data you're searching. It's good to remember that, in general, more complex filters are *optional*; that the best way to search is to think of exactly what you're looking for and then try and mirror that idea as closely as possible with the filters the site gives you.

Anyway, Roost does a good job of offering a bunch of filters, but I find the “bladed” interface unintuitive: the “blade” titles are vertical text (interface design 101), hiding filters makes seeing your options more difficult, and the filters move in two directions – horizontally to see more filters, and vertically to hide them entirely. This makes constructing a mental model of how the page operates more difficult than is has to be.

All that said, it's good that residential real estate is so simple compared to other kinds of real estate. Imagine trying to create a search engine that allows you to navigate lease & sale listings, along with a boatload of property types: industrial, office, vacant-land, etc. As confusing as searching for a home can be, it could be a lot worse.

By: Joel Burslem

Joel Burslem — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 19:42:35 +0000

I hear ya Galen, it's a tough nut to crack. I love what Estately and Roost are doing to push the envelope – just feeling we're not quite there yet. I still feel overwhelmed sometimes with all the choices I have to make when I visit many of these sites. I wonder if others are similarly put off.

Maybe we all just need to jack in directly to the Net Matrix-style and have the site instantly know what we want to see.

By: Galen @ Estately

Galen @ Estately — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:56:12 +0000

Joel, Google-style results are tricky – Google has one sorting methodology and one set of criteria. There is a reason that people don't use Google for searching for products (think headphones – Google will take you to a site that will help you narrow your selection). Estately (and Roost and the others) is trying to quickly and easilyhelp people search for homes with the criteria they want, but not clutter the interface with the stuff they don't want.

Fortunately for us, consumers aren't all beds and price shoppers.