Marcelo Calbucci

    Glenn Kelman at Redfin is asking users to pick a design for their new homepage.

    My vote goes to #1 with some modifications and before I explain my choice, let me explain why I have not chosen #2, #3 or #4.

Why not #2:

• Pictures of people is hard to associate with yourself. If your black and see a white person, you might think is not for you. If you see somebody in glasses in front of a case full of books you might think this is too complicated (since the person must be smart).

• The pictures and the text don't correlate much. Showing a couple with the caption "Draft an offer online." is pretty disconnected.
• I'm not going to talk about that agent picture, but argh! Car salesman anyone?
• And to finish. The couple that draft the offer online is not the couple that save the money!!!

Why not #3:

• this would be my second choice (behind #1).
• Same problem as before. The couple looks too smart, making the process look more complicated than it has to be.
• "Redfin is changing the real estate industry in the consumer's favor" is very subjective and doesn't tell exactly what or how.
• I think it's a bit too much text to images ratio. Read any usability study and you'll see that people's eyes are automatically drawn to pictures (and their caption) and to numerals.

Why not #4:

• Same reasons as #3
• The bullets represent different things.
• The copy need some work. E.g. "We offer our clients a new way to buy or sell homes". How many people are selling multiple homes? Also, only your clients get that benefit? What do I do to become a client? The phrase could be replaced with "We offer you a new way to buy or sell your home".

Why I choose #1:

• The images and the text *do* correlate
• the cartoon images make it lighter and unexpected. Pictures of people/family is what you expect on *every* real estate website. Show you're different.
• Overall, it meets a lot of the criteria from "Made To Stick"
  

What would I change to improve #1:

• The phrase "Noe Valley or Boston or San Jose or 98105 or Baltimore" below the search box has two problems. First, it looks like you can enter only 5 options and that is conflicting with the watermark inside the search box. Second, it's missing the "e.g." or "example:" in front of it. People are not that dumb. Just pick a city name or zip code and it's enough. "Example: Seattle or 98105".
• The images should have number to them, to make sure they are not options but a sequence of events. I participated in a usability study about 4 years ago while working on MSN that showed how people can easily get confused if items like that are not numbered.
• Finally, the "Learn More" button is the call to action, it should be way more prominent. The problem here is that is red, and making it to big might blind someone.

    Now, if anyone from Redfin is reading this, ignore everything I said above and just do an A/B (/C/D) test and get the answer that you need.