How I integrated maps into a real estate app and boosted favourites by 28 %
Living
Proptech
Mobile
Living is a real estate app that helps users find apartments for purchase through personalised recommendations. It gathers listings from multiple sources and merges them into a single interface.
Product Brief
Living let's users swipe through apartments, Tinder‑style, instead of browsing endless options. With every like and dislike, the app learns more about preferences and shows more relevant results — like a digital realty agent that makes the search faster and less overwhelming.
My Role
I joined the team in 2022 as one of two product designers. The core recommendation engine was already in place, but the product was still in its early stages.
I worked with project managers and developers from discovery to launch, presenting solutions to the client. My tasks included creating wireframes and user flows, testing hypotheses and working on the design system.
Problem
When we launched the app, user feedback revealed that swiping mechanic alone wasn’t enough — people wanted to see apartments on a map.
Through interviews and product research, we uncovered why this mattered:
In short, users were trying to:
Explore apartments on the map and what's around them
Compare apartments by location more efficiently
Rely on familiar patterns from other apps
That's why our goal was to address these needs and increase user satisfaction by making apartment discovery more intuitive and easier to browse by location.
Challenges
Swipe was the heart of the app — and the client saw it as the main thing that made Living stand out. We had to add the map carefully, without disrupting what already worked.
👉 Map had to support swipe, not steal focus from it.
Competitor Analysis
To figure out what kind of map experience users expect, I looked at other real-estate apps. Most had advanced features we didn’t need yet, but it gave us helpful references for what users were used to.
Here are the key patterns we saw:
All apps show the list and map together in a single Search screen.
A bottom navigation bar is used instead of a dashboard to organise the app.
Filters stay fixed and visible for quick access.
Pins are clustered when zoomed out to keep the map clean and read
First Concept: Separate Swipe and Map
To minimise changes and reduce costs, our initial approach was to keep the dashboard and add a banner that opened the map in a dialog. It wasn’t ideal, but fit the client’s preferences and tight timeline.
Since our key feature was a relevance score, I used it in pins to show which apartments best matched the user’s needs. Also added a slider to set the desired match range.
Testing
I built an interactive prototype and ran UX testing with 10 participants to gather feedback. The research revealed three key friction points:
❌ The map banner looked like an ad and was often ignored.
❌ Switching between swipe and map felt disconnected.
❌ The percentage score on pins wasn’t enough to support decision-making.
After sharing the results, I persuaded the client and team to rethink the flow. We clearly needed a more unified experience.
Second Concept: Unified Search Experience
After learning from Concept A, we gained the client’s support for a new approach and had the freedom to rethink the experience and build on earlier research insights.
We decided to drop the dashboard and integrate the core functionality into a single entry point — without overwhelming the user. Then we implemented several changes based on feedback from testing.
🔍 1. One unified entrypoint
We merged the list and map into a single Search. Swiping still works: users can like/dislike apartments directly from list cards, while the map helps narrow options by location.
💰 2. Price-first pins
We replaced match percentage as the primary label on map pins with the apartment’s price — the clearest, most relevant info for users at a glance.
❤️ 3. Liked listings on the map
People often revisit neighbourhoods where they liked something earlier. To support that behaviour, we added a feature that highlights previously liked listings directly on the map.
🧭 4. Alternative collections
We integrated collections that were slightly outside the user's preferences but potentially useful. They used to live in the dashboard, but now users could explore them without switching context.
⚙️ 5. Simplified filters
Before, users had to go into their profile settings to adjust search preferences. Now, filters are always available at the top of the search screen. We also replaced the relevance slider with a preset called “Only the Best,” set to 75 %, since users were only interested in the most relevant results.
Testing Again
A second round of testing showed clear improvement: users found the map more discoverable, and search success rates increased by over 40%.
Final Touches & Handoff
After we restructured the navigation, I updated the other main sections to keep things consistent and updated the design system as well as the colour palette.
Then I handed off the final layouts and specifications to development and supported the process all the way through until release.
Outcomes
Here’s how the new map view made a difference:
Lessons Learned
Integrating new features without breaking what already works is a real challenge — and often a political one.
Quick and early testing can help spot the wrong direction before it’s too late and push for stronger solutions.
Sometimes the harder path ends up being the right one.
