So, did we succeed with our stakeholder?
Partner Approval
The Realist team did a great job digging in to the details on the business of real estate, the app and doing a great job of challenging me on why we were doing what we were doing (and telling me when I was wrong 😁) - project manager
Cotality’s Market Position Amid the Surge of Real Estate Platforms (1995–2035)
Cotality enters during the first wave of real estate data platforms
Current position
Expected influx of competitors reshaping the landscape
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https:realist.com
scroll to see the process
Realist - Shaping a $1.6M Proposal: How Research & Concepts United Stakeholders Behind a Stronger Redesign
CLIENT
Cotality
ROLE
Graduate Researcher
TIMELINE
6 months
COLLABORATORS
Jenny D., Jamie F.,
Eurie O., Kylie N.
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam,
Figmamake, Asana
Why was it done?
As a Graduate Researcher on the Realist team at Cotality, our team was tasked with revamping the platform’s navigation. Realist, a nationwide property data tool used by 900,000+ real estate agents, hadn’t been updated in years. Our team recognized the risk of solving too narrowly.
Our goal was to reframe the product direction by validating stakeholder assumptions and uncovering new issues. While Realist offers comprehensive data, our research revealed greater opportunity in delivering critical insights quickly and enabling seamless client sharing to spark meaningful conversations.
Impact
Our 6-method approach revealed critical insights that led to 3 major outcomes:
Identified new revenue streams by surfacing premium reports and feature potential through Data Highlights
Our qualitative testing showed unanimous excitement from 6/6 participants
Our research and concepts strengthened a $1.6M funding proposal by aligning stakeholder vision
Click here to jump to the prototype!
Overview
Short & Snappy: What’s This All About?
Context
Assumptions we Heard from Cotality
When we started this project, our team was told to:
Initial Hurdle
Pivoting Beyond the Survey
To build trust with our partner and expand our focus beyond navigation and premium reports, I designed a survey to understand how agents use Realist. When the survey launch was delayed, our team pivoted to a heuristic evaluation and competitive analysis to uncover usability insights and contextualize Realist within the industry.
Competitive Analysis
When 900k Agents Outgrow Their Platform
The Problem
Three Research Methods, One Clear Insight: Recurring Usability Challenges
Earlier research highlighted opportunities to improve agents’ daily workflows. Next, it was time to talk to our users. However, we hit an unexpected roadblock: our primary recruitment contact had a sudden departure from Cotality. We pivoted—combining literature reviews, data analytics, and interviews (contextual and usability tests) with incentives and shorter sessions formats to re-engage agents.Triangulating these insights revealed recurring usability issues and a deeper systemic design challenge:
Business Value
Balancing Platform Strategy with Agent Value
While our user research revealed key needs, I examined how these intersect—or conflict—with business priorities through a workshop. This research provided a data-backed foundation for prioritizing design changes and aligning solutions with both user needs and business goals. I found:
Opportunities
Narrowing in on the Direction
I contributed to a priority matrix exercise that identified overlaps between business and user goals, helping us focus on high-impact opportunities. I identified 10 quick wins, 2 major projects, and 1 blue sky. While all informed our proposal, this case study focuses on the Visual Report Builder (major project) and the Red Flag Notifications (blue-sky) since they best illustrate the balance of practicality and forward-thinking.
Objective and Goal
Empowering Agents with Speed and Trust
I found that delivering critical insights instantly and enabling seamless client sharing will position Realist as the first stop in the research process.
I explored solutions for retrieving the most valuable information during export flows and provided feedback to teammates on AI-generated summaries. These sketches guided team discussions and helped align key UX decisions to improve clarity and build user trust
Early Ideas
Exploring Ideas to Align with the Project Vision
Concept Testing
From User Insights to Redesign Validation
I led the lofi redesign of the Custom Report Builder to improve usability and scalability. As our exploration expanded, I also helped shape the direction of the AI-powered concepts to align with real agent workflows. To ground our concepts in real needs, I conducted six concept testing interviews with Realist agents, alternating between interviewer and note-taker. These were the concepts we tested:
Proposed Solution
Refining the Concepts through Testing
Limited participation and recruitment hurdles led us to pivot from planned quantitative testing to qualitative methods—prioritizing depth over breadth to uncover meaningful agent insights. I iterated on our initial designs and conducted a second round of qualitative testing to validate key improvements. The updates included:
💬
Effortless Sharing
Enable seamless sharing with clients to spark meaningful conversations
✅
What Worked
The concept of the AI summary was a huge win with every participant (6/6) feeling it gave them the tools to be the expert
The concept of the visual builder received overwhelming interest as long as the interface is potentially changing to use Realist as their primary data source.
❌
What Did Not
Participants wanted the AI Summary data sources to be specific
Participants appreciated AI-surfaced premium reports but wanted more transparency behind the recommendations
Usability issues in the report builder made it clear it needed to be intuitive and streamlined
Report Preview
Key Insights at a Glance
Personalized Filtering and Export for Agents
Missing Data Call-Out
Importing Relevant Data
AI Summary with Source Transparency
🧠
Agent Expertise
Provide comprehensive data that positions agents as trusted experts—a current key strength of Realist and a major reason it’s a market leader
⚡
Instant Insights
Deliver critical insights quickly and effortlessly
Wait, gathering property information doesn’t need to be overwhelming?
I uncovered 210 usability violations across Realist — a critical issue for a platform with a massive user base and a key role in Cotality’s $21M product suite. Despite its scale, the workflows and interface had barely evolved, leaving agents with unclear information, unsupported workflows, and disrupted trust. Meanwhile, competitors raced ahead with faster, smarter platforms, widening the gap between what agents needed and what Realist could deliver.
📤
Promot Premium Reports
Reimagine how premium features are surfaced, positioned, and presented to make their value clear and compelling
Inefficient and Confusing Workflows
Tasks required too many steps, user flows were unclear, performance was slow, and language caused confusion
AI Summary:
A ChatGPT-style model turns structured property data into a brief, natural-language summary focused on what real estate professionals value most
AI Stats Summary:
The highlights section utilizes AI to scan the available data and surfaces what users are looking for to the top.
AI Premium Report Highlights:
Recommend premium reports for medium to high-risk properties to deliver deeper insights and drive Cotality revenue
AI Summary Transparency
Through testing, I learned that agents valued transparency around AI-generated content. To address this, I introduced an AI indicator that clearly communicates when data is AI-collected and shows where in Realist that information was sourced.
AI Premium Report Transparency:
Instead of presenting data source as a single element, we separated them—clarifying where data originated within Realist. The design system also supported distinction through color, icons, and secondary links that added context without clutter.
Report Builder
Initial testing generated strong enthusiasm from participants, but agents emphasized the need to easily add and reorganize sections. I leveraged the carbon design system, applying established patterns.
Report Builder:
Users combine and customize available data across reports into a single, elegant, client-facing report.
Synthesizing the insights from concept testing, I discovered:
How these recommendations help Cotality meet revenue goals.
How we drove impact for Realist.
Lack of Customization & Presentation
Users couldn’t customize or prioritize information, and formatting didn’t meet all use cases
Lack of Data Trust & Transparency
Data sources were unclear, premium features lacked explanation, and users questioned the accuracy and completeness of the information
🛠️
Modernize the Experience
Agents struggle with simple tasks, like navigating to different tabs, on Realist, so Cotality is looking for an overhaul
🤝
During a pivotal meeting, these findings put Realist on executives’ radar and sparked conversations about funding and a full platform revamp
💡
Additional Testing Insight
The customize layout already exists in Realist. User testing showed that while we improved visibility, they found it misaligned with their core goal of quickly accessing comprehensive property data. Our recommendation is to remove to reduce friction and refocus design efforts on higher-impact features. (See pgs 18-22 of Hi-Fi Testing Report for details.)
Source: IMARC Group. (2024). Real estate software market: Global industry trends, share, size, growth, opportunity and forecast 2024–2033. IMARC Group. https://www.imarcgroup.com/real-estate-software-market
Shared Goals
Get all the data on a property to become a market expert
User Goals
Business Goals
Share this data with clients to facilitate conversations
Purchase premium reports efficiently
High Impact
Low Impact
Low Effort
High Effort
10 Quick Wins
MySearch
Dashboard
Premium Reports
Sell Score
Quick Search
Nav bar
Customize Layout
Builder
Red Flag Notif
Quick Wins
10 quick wins, including:
search bar placement
deleting a property search
Major Projects
Redesign Property Details (nav bar)
Customize Layout
Visual Report Builder
Blue Sky
Red flag notifications
🤔
How do I select this property?
Try clicking... anywhere? 😵💫
⚠️
Why so many clicks?
*click, click*
Click Here
Click Here
Click Here
🔍
What am I exporting?
🥴
Customization?
Nope, take what you get!
🔒
🤔
What data isn’t available?
Give me a sec to see 😵💫
📉
Where is data this coming from?
*data source invalid*
😵💫
Last Updated: Nov, 2025
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Impact
Validated Impact & Strategic Design Outcomes
This research and redesign process enabled us to hand-off a validated hi-fi prototype to Cotality’s designers, highlighting user satisfaction and excitement for the changes, along with recommendations to guide further exploration as Realist develops the next version. We strengthened:
Learnings
Lessons that
I Pushed Beyond Comfort, Built for Impact
I learned how to collaborate across high-impact teams (AI, data, design, and engineering) to deliver user-centered solutions that supported product strategy and drove measurable business outcomes.
I Took Ownership of Design Decisions
I learned to leverage the design system for efficiency while extending it with new components to meet evolving user and business needs, exploring new interaction patterns to support user-centered solutions.
AI Highlights
Drives MLS Adoption: Boosts sales by delivering a high-value feature users actively seek
Promotes Premium Reports: Creates a seamless path to highlight and communicate report value
Enables Tiered Growth: Supports scalable, premium purchasing through structured feature levels
New Revenue Streams
Data Highlights surfaces premium reports & premium feature potential
100% Adoption
Qual test of 6 participants revealed unanimous clarity in workflow alignment
$1.6M Funding
Research and concepts aligned stakeholder vision and strengthened funding case
Report Builder
Meets Modern Expectations: Aligns Realist with current user standards and market norms
Strengthens Competitiveness: Keeps Realist on par with (or ahead of) market alternatives.
Supports Revenue Growth: Enhances product value and drives adoption through core functionality.
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