Discover

Starberry was commissioned to produce a new property website design for Dexters – A leading independent estate agency with over 60 offices across London. The new online presence had to be easy to navigate, visually impressive but not overpowering in its function.

The primary objective of the brief we received from Dexter's was the creation of a clean looking, responsive website with an emphasis on the search function. The client also wanted users to be able to narrow and refine their property search quickly, then see results in a sophisticatedly simple web design with eye-catching images. Among added requirements were also: the ability to share a property with others and contact the corresponding branch without navigating away from the page, a live chat function and the ability to ‘favourite’ properties.

Create

Less is more, but it’s a deceptive challenge to produce a business website that’s clean and simple yet compelling. Some of the features we created to achieve this:

• Minimal number of elements on any one page – that meant really concise content that didn’t overwhelm the page and a layout that made an immediate impact.
  
  
• Navigation follows the same easy, simple ethos, with all the sub menus in the form of tiles on the main landing page of the menu, which is a very unique design feature.
  
  
• A bespoke sidebar refine search module on property search pages, with the ability to toggle between display options (grid, list, map), a ‘draw a map function’, a sliding price range filter and the ability to refine results even further by using the advanced options (number of bathrooms, new homes and ‘include sold’)
  
  
• A property details template that makes the images the ‘hero’ aspect. A prominent ‘enquire’ call to action appears above the fold and just next door is a heart icon, which allows users to favourite properties via cookies, without requiring an account.
  
  
• Simple & clear top navigation, the emphasis is purposefully on the property search function, with further web development phases planned for the future.
  
  
• Dedicated branch pages, populated with the use of dynamic localised content

Results

The Dexter’s website design offers a friendly user experience across devices, powered by a simplified navigation, a visual display of properties and content throughout the website, refined search options and fast loading times on key pages. This is essential for engaging and converting online the audiences that the Dexter’s brand attracts in the offline world and on that front, the new website generated almost 90% more new users than similar websites in the UK in the first year after launch. The website also attracts consistent traffic from mobile devices (43% in the first year) and offers an excellent - and highly converting - online presence for Dexter’s network of high-street branches.