Selling Homes Through Design: A UI/UX Journey into Real Estate
Ayush Gupta, Swetha Puvvada, Atheesh Durairaj, Julie Chen
The Problem: Helping Buyers See the Potential
Real estate agents aren’t just selling walls and square footage — they’re selling a lifestyle. But helping buyers emotionally connect with a property, especially when it’s unfurnished or outdated, and the community they would move into, remains a constant challenge agents face. Our research found that agents lack accessible tools to craft compelling narratives and showcase staged visuals without the cost and hassle of physical staging. We’re exploring a design that helps agents tell richer stories and stage homes virtually, without the usual expense or friction.
How We Did Our Research
For our design research, we focused on understanding the workflows of real estate agents in the United States, particularly those working at Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. We employed two research methods: semi-structured interviews and anonymous surveys. We conducted three in-depth interviews with current agents at Coldwell Banker, each with 5 to over 20 years of experience, using personal connections to gain a more nuanced understanding of their daily routines, creative challenges, and digital tools used for showing properties. Additionally, we distributed a survey to a larger group of 10–15 agents across other agencies as well to gather broader information and other agencies’ practices on staging, storytelling in listings, and adoption of new technology. This gave us measurable data on what parts of the selling process are important to agents. We selected these participants because they are primary stakeholders who directly interact with the technology we aim to improve, while secondary stakeholders include homebuyers who view listings, and tertiary stakeholders are managers overseeing the operations and care about efficiency and costs of the selling process.
What Real Estate Agents Told Us
Our design research revealed several findings about the challenges faced by real estate agents, specifically with how they present homes to buyers. One of the most interesting results was the overwhelming emphasis agents placed on the value of physical staging to help buyers visualize themselves in a property. Despite its effectiveness, physical staging is often expensive and logistically complex, making it difficult to use across all properties, especially for homes that are empty, outdated, or have space-constrained layouts. In some cases, physical staging simply isn’t practical, like when outdated flooring or an old kitchen would require full remodeling to make an impact. Agents described creative challenges in helping buyers see the potential of such spaces and how they can potentially be remodeled, stressing a clear need for more accessible, cost-effective visualization tools.
Additionally, our research highlighted the importance of emotional storytelling: agents consistently noted that authentic narratives about both the home and the surrounding neighborhood are critical for making listings resonate with buyers. However, they also reported that current tools do not adequately support this aspect of their work, often leaving them to manually gather neighborhood information and craft stories with limited resources. This puts newer agents at a disadvantage, especially when they lack deep familiarity with the area. A solution to this would save agents significant time while also enhancing their ability to communicate the unique lifestyle and emotional appeal of each property. The agents told us very clearly that listings with clear titles, informative descriptions, and eye-catching images (not just empty rooms) attract more clicks, and ultimately help sell homes faster. Hence, we decided to key in on these two problems for our design.
Storyboard 1 — Storybuilder
Storyboard 2 — Virtual Stager
Our Design Vision
Our design centers on empowering real estate agents to create emotionally engaging listings through two key features: storytelling and virtual staging. Instead of just getting a plain listing with square footage and bedroom counts, we wanted to give agents tools to craft narratives that bring a property to life. Our storybuilder feature walks agents through prompts to describe the home’s unique atmosphere, its potential for their clients’ future, and even its alluring aspects about its past and community surrounding it (schools, lifestyle, etc.), helping buyers imagine their own future there. As seen in Storyboard 1, the agent selects a pre-written prompt to describe the home’s character after a visit to the home, helping them write more compelling narratives with less effort for the buyers who have not been to the property yet.
We paired that with an easy-to-use virtual staging interface, where agents can quickly furnish and remodel rooms without needing professional designers or expensive physical staging. Drag-and-drop furniture, tailored room templates, and color palettes make it simple to present homes in their best light, as shown by the agent’s use in Storyboard 2. These two features bring together the emotional appeal of storytelling and the visual clarity of staging, and in the end, help agents turn a space into a story that buyers can actually picture themselves living in.
Why This Design Matters
In a crowded housing market, what makes a home stand out isn’t just a list of numbers and features; it’s the story. Buyers want to imagine a life in space. But agents often lack the time, budget, or tools to create emotionally engaging listings.
Our design gives agents a way to express creativity through storytelling and virtual staging. It helps them craft compelling narratives and visually stage homes without needing expensive services or expert skills. By combining emotional storytelling with realistic visuals, we make it easier for agents to connect with buyers, spark imagination, and sell not just a house, but a future.
