Intro

I love applications. And having been an iPhone user for over 2 + 1/2 years I’m intrigued by them. I love trying out new apps, whether they are for work or leisure. Applications have the power to reach lots of people quickly.

I think that applications should be fun and easy to use. I’ve also looked into iPhone app development, to get a better idea of, and appreciate the work involved in producing different types of applications.

So what I thought I’d do here is take a look at a couple of applications in the property market field and briefly explain what I like about them, seeing how they compare with each other. I’m aiming to find out what principles we can draw on to utilise in the development of our software Optimise.

Mobile property market applications

Let’s get straight to it. The two applications I’ve decided upon are Zoopla and Rightmove. Although I’ve only had short time with both so far, the basic principle behind them is this:

• select where you are
• select whether you are buying or renting a property
• begin browsing properties
• call up the agent and request more details

Both applications can be found on the iPhone apps store or on their respective websites.

Zoopla

Features

Firstly I commend the app for being accessible and very smooth. Once I selected the ‘current location’ and decided I was ‘buying’, several properties then popped up on the GPS map view. (which it did quickly) Selecting a ‘pin’ would give me a small pop-up of the property along with it’s price value. If I was happy with the price and location, more details could be accessed by going into the view for that property.

The application would then load relevant pictures and display them along with the property description. Details of how to access the property by the nearest motorway route were also shown.

It appears on Zoopla that larger properties tend to have more pictures and description than the smaller properties.

The dimensions of the rooms are listed on some properties, which is particularly useful if you are looking for just the right sized place, it’s not going to be too big or too small. The agent could then be called or emailed for further information.

I really like how the application provided just what you need when you need it. There’s no beating around the bush, no unnecessary steps or actions to interrupt me. I expected a result, and the app delivered as expected.

Conclusion

In conclusion, having only used this app briefly, I would recommend it as a mobile app to view local properties. I enjoyed using it because it did what it was supposed to and it did it well.

Rightmove

Features

I commend this app for looking more professional and tidy. The home page is very navigable and un-cluttered.

Initially it took a little longer for the GPS to find my current location, and a short while to load the local properties after that. However some first time pop-ups appeared which disrupted the flow a little bit.

Let me point out that Rightmove app works slightly differently to Zoopla. Instead of showing a map view and selecting a pin to choose a property, I was presented with a list of properties instead, which was interesting. Starting from the top with the nearest property to the location that I set it to.

Selecting the property opened up the details page, where I could review the necessary details of that property. A few nice features like the ‘full description’, ‘view on map’ and ‘photos’ could be accessed as separate pages. The menu along the bottom of the screen includes ‘saved searches’ and ‘saved properties’ allowing for regular users to access previous searches efficiently. Again this all came across in a professional format.

This application is user friendly and self explanatory whilst coming across in a more professional and structured manner, no pun intended.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would recommend this application because it is structured better and is less cluttered on each view, making it more user friendly and easy to follow.

So which one would you choose?

To be honest I enjoyed using both the apps. I like the Zoopla app for the map view and pin selection method, which acquired properties quickly. I also like the Rightmove app for looking more refined.

Both applications did what they were supposed to do. Personally I prefer the Rightmove application due to it being more aesthetically appealing, and more professional looking. It also included some nice features that improved the way to get what I needed more efficiently, despite occasional slowness or interruptions.

So there you have it. Two applications that do the same thing in slightly differing ways, but proving to be good at what they do.

As an app-enthusiast I recognise that apps need to be simple, efficient and enjoyable to use. Captivating the user is important, and ensuring that an app does what it’s suppose to do when needed, is vital.

How does this benefit Optimise development?

To put it simply, our knowledge of applications and software is super important to us. We love to see what features work well for different applications, and try to avoid the bad ones. In a way simplicity is key. Making a product do something that is fancy or has a feature of limited use is really unnecessary and is best left out.

We are determined to keep things simple. We want to enjoy using what we’ll produce and to let others enjoy it too. These are our main goals for producing Optimise.