Commercial Real Estate Website UX Design and Property Management System Integration Bring High Returns
Rexford Industrial Realty Website UX Design & PMS Integration
Overview
Rexford Industrial Realty is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring, owning, and managing warehouses, distribution centers, and other industrial buildings in Southern California and leasing them out to tenants. As a well-established player in the industrial real estate market, their portfolio consists of over 300 properties totaling more than 34 million square feet of commercial real estate.
Poor UX and redundant work was having a significant impact on Rexford's online presence and bottom line.
Discovery
Rexford Industrial was looking for a partner who would help them create a better user experience (UX) design for their commercial real estate website.
During our discovery phase with them, we uncovered several areas of their website that needed to be rethought, expanded upon, and redesigned.
In particular, they needed help redesigning the property map and landing pages to better communicate some complexities within their listings. They also needed new visual designs crafted for the Careers and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) sections to provide potential employees and investors with answers on their website to commonly asked questions.
On the development side of things, they were also looking for a web development agency located in Southern California (where they are located) to help with the integration of their property management system (PMS) software for commercial real estate listings, Yardi. By setting Yardi up as their single source of truth, the team would eliminate the need for redundant data entry and reduce the risk of data entry errors across their hundreds of property listings. Ultimately, they wanted to work smarter, not harder.
UX Strategy
One of the first things our team of web designers jumped in to do was rethink the landing page design for commercial real estate listings.
During the strategy phase we conducted an audit of the current structure of their site and did a thorough competitive analysis to study how other commercial real estate websites structured their listing pages.
Once we had that information in place, we started putting together a content outline and wireframes for the Property detail, Careers, and ESG pages. Figuring out the best UX design before jumping into designs allowed us to focus on the flow of information on the page and ensure we were mirroring effective call-to-action (CTA) design for commercial real estate websites.
The strategy phase for the Yardi property management system integration involved several planning sessions where we mapped out what we could pull from Yardi, and how it fit into the landing page design for their commercial real estate listings.
Build
Once our plans were in place, it was time to build things out.
Following Rexford’s brand guide and using best website design practices for commercial real estate websites, we put together webpage designs to create an interactive prototype. Even though the majority of their traffic was coming from desktop devices, we knew how important it was to keep responsive website design for commercial real estate top of mind while we were crafting the visual design.
Once designs were approved, we were ready for development. Writing the HTML and CSS front-end code for the website designs was first up, along with programming engaging loading animations and interactive hover effects.
The Yardi property management system integration within their interactive map and location search for commercial real estate listings was extremely complex, and our development team rose up to the challenge with gusto. First, we programmed the elements we had meticulously mapped out. Next, we verified that the correct data was appearing on the landing page design for each commercial real estate listing. Finally, we tackled any data mismatches and double-checked our work to ensure accuracy.
Test & Launch
Once the development was complete, we jumped into full-fledged testing.
This involved testing everything we had built across a plethora of devices and website browsers to ensure the responsive website design was serving an optimized experience everywhere. This also included cross-checking data between the Yardi property management system integration and the website to validate everything was pulling through as it should.
Our testing was thorough, leaving no stone unturned. When we were satisfied with the results, we invited Rexford’s team to verify everything. With their approval in hand, we began prepping our launch checklists, making sure everything was in order before we made the changes live.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, the redesign had a net positive impact on Rexford’s online presence and business operations. With an upgraded digital curb appeal, Rexford’s commercial real estate website design communicates crucial information much more clearly than before.
In addition, the property management integration with Yardi has simplified the data entry workflow, saving the Rexford team the time they used to spend doing redundant data entry and verification. Considering how crowded and competitive the Southern California commercial real estate market is, these improvements are worth their weight in gold. After all, in the world of commercial real estate, time truly is money.
View SiteExplore our related expertise
