In year 2000, Trilogy Software sponsored the Human Computer Interaction Instatute at Carnegie Mellon University to carry out an HCI project on real estate transactions on the internet. We interviewed 10 potential first time home buyers in the Pittsburgh area, constructed data models from the information obtained, and designed a system called "House Hound" to assist first time home buyers in the whole home buying process. The application was developed using iterative design methods and usability tests were performed.

The project started in January, when we first performed various literature study on home buying procedures, financial aspects, and internet trust. These serve as the common ground on which future investigations and research were based on.

We recruited 10 first time home buyers from the Pittsburgh area by posting recruitment advertisements and going to open houses. Interviews were setup to find out more details on home buying procedures and experience. All interviews were taped and transcribed.

From the interview data, we constructed various data models using Contextual Design methods. The flow model indicates the transactions of artifacts between all parties involved in the process. The sequence model outlines the procedure and records timing. The culture model shows the influences on making decisions. All these models are important in communicating ideas to other team members so that people who were not at the interview can also understand the information.

The breakdowns in the models also help us to brainstorm ideas to improve the home buying experience. One of the idea is to use a information rich map to show all the houses that fit the home buyer's criteria. The picture on the right shows the prototype of such an application. The criteria can be adjusted at any time and the map would be changed dynamically. The icons shown on the map represents houses that fit the criteria. Up to 15 different kinds of information can be packed into the icon, making the representation very powerful.

Card sorting tests were performed to find out what are the criteria that home buyers care. The application was then designed and implemented as prototypes.

At first, we used paper prototype to test our idea. This is to ensure that we are on the right track. It proved sucessful. According to users, the information presented seemed overwhelming, but they all succeeded in finding out the requested information from the map.

Several more iterations were then performed, each started with a prototype correcting the problems encountered during the last iteration, several user tests to validate the design, and then making design improvements according to the results.

The entire project takes 8 months to complete, with 15 members in the project team. Five of us formed a sub-group to work on the HouseHound application.