Genius Realty introduced a new marketing tool to showcase their client’s home listings. Photos are shown via a page turner called Page Flip. Simply click the corner of the page and it turns open like the page of a glossy magazine to display the oversized high quality photograph. We’ve seen this application before but never applied to home listings—very cool. There are photo captions, a map, basic home details and agent contact information. For more details, click the Pdf Flyer. Some object to the Pdf because of the page reload but the versatility allows for several pages, attachments and comments. There is a very slight learning curve with the Flyer but worth it. Nice work and smart.
I can’t remember where I saw this application. It took me a bit to figure out I had to grab the corner of the page with my cursor to get the thing to turn. Then not only did the page fold back, but the sound effects went with it. Just like a beautiful virtual magazine. Very nice.
I found the pages turned a little better if licked the bottom of my mouse and then applied a little a more pressure when I dragged across the photo
It’s just screen baloney. A simple forward and back button is enough. People looking at multiple properties are going get bored with this quick. It’s almost like the toddler with the cool Christmas gift you busted your butt driving all over town to find that opens the box, takes out the whiz bang new toy, oohs and aahs a couple of times and then spends more time with the empty box. Why? It had shape, it had color and it provided the enjoyment she needed in a simple straightforward way. (That happened to me with my oldest in 1987, the Toy was the Teddy Ruxpin talking bear. I think I had to arm wrestle an old lady or something like that at closing time on Christmas eve for the last one. Well it was something like that.”)
If you just click the corner, the page changes on its own—you dont need to drag the mouse.
Like anything new, the novelty can wear off but we thought the effort was commendable. We admired their attempt to separate their presentation from the crowd. If you’re open to trying new ideas, you will get a lot of flops but you just might get a real winner.
Looking at multiple properties online is tiring no matter how you look at it. All listing sites have to deal with the problem. Is their a better way?
I didn’t see any navigational element telling me just to click the corner, that would be a good place to start. My review is based on what an average end user would experience in visiting the page. Years ago (circa 1996) when I was running my first web design shop, we had a great relationship with Ned Flanders. Ned wrote a hugely popular book back then called “Web Pages That Suck”. ( www.webpagesthatsuck.com ) He coined the phrase “Mystery Meat Navigation” Basically it’s a method used where designers make the navigation look cool, but it isn’t apparent where to click or where you are going to land when you get there. http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/mysterymeatnavigation.html
The problem with screen baloney isn’t exclusive to real estate listings. Good interface design is always minimal. It can still be attractive when done right. Using Flash when it isn’t necessary has been a problem in web design for a long time but it’s getting better. Just look at the minimalist approach of today’s Web 2.0 sites.
Jakob Nielsen is one of the foremost experts on web usability and human interface design. ( http://www.useit.com) He has a strong opinion of the use of Flash on the web. It’s an awesome tool for interactivity and web based software applications, but if it doesn’t serve any real purpose, it’s just a waste of effort.
Design studios have been following Nielsen’s advice lately and Macromedia, (now Adobe) even consulted with him when releasing the latest version of Dreamweaver and Flash. Today’s Web 2.0 sites have all taken a cue from what we’ve learned about web users over the last 10 years.
Nielsen has done some pretty interesting studies using real world scenarios. I wasn’t really trying to give the Genius guys a hard time. The listing presentation looks better than most out there. But in the end, the “Page Flip” doesn’t improve the user experience, it just makes it a bit more cumbersome.
I’ve lost count of the number of Realtor web sites I’ve been involved with, from template based systems to large custom sites. In some cases I had the luxury of using focus groups at the local community college to gauge response to the navigation and content. In every instance, the user preferred simple, intuitive navigation over elaborate ones. Good navigation should resonate with what an end user is accustom to in software and/or web interfaces. Using a book as a a way to view a web page is sort of like hitching a team of horses to a Lexus.
Finally, here is another pioneer of good web design and another interface expert, Clement Mok http://www.clementmok.com/
Fantastic comment Michael. We too are readers of Jakob and subscribe to his alertbox newsletter. We see the minimalist approach, mastered by google, and guess that is the best way. But Yahoo is not minimalistic. How do you explain their success? Is it because once you master your pathway, you have tunnel vision and filter out the other navigational signposts?
And you may be right in the pageturner as not enhancing the viewer experience–we just dont know. Maybe Genius did some testing. How then does a real estate listing site become a pleasant experience for consumers? Is the Craiglist approach better—it’s is highly successful yet the display of listings is not what we’d consider eye appealing. Is Realtor better? Has anyone nailed it?
I don’t think there needs to be an industry standard for the listing display. I just think it’s important to keep the end user in mind when creating it. Keeping it simple is the only really standard that needs to apply. As far as data goes, RETS is a good thing. I think once the industry as a whole adopts that as a data standard, we will get much closer to the day when transaction management on the web can finally make sense.
From a property marketing perspective, people want to see the pictures and get a brief, but well defined description of the property. If they are interested enough, they will click through to the meat of the data.
Obviously I think our podcast videos accomplish that, but I am a tad biased in that regard.
As a whole I like what the folks at Genius are doing. It’s definitely above average in comparison to most real estate sites.