Brivity - Custom Websites

A big part of my role at Brivity was building client IDX websites with our in-house builder. Designs varied from basic templates showcasing client listings, site-specific header images and contact information, to custom-built coded websites.

Template Design

Duration: Ongoing | My Role: UX and Visual Designer

Website building was a fast-paced part of the designers’ job at Brivity it was necessary to manipulate CSS, HTML and Javascript code to create professional websites that worked across all devices.

Having a wide range of website templates and custom designs allowed Brivity to market a suite of web design services. The design team lead design consultations and created custom coded websites for customers to create new template designs.

To announce the release of a new website I designed a custom Facebook post for agents to advertise to their followers.

Website Builder Improvements

Duration: Ongoing | My Role: Coordination

We used Trello, to organize each client’s website status, track time spent, and manage projects with other designers.

The IDX process was extremely time-consuming for multiple reasons. These challenges held designers back from other design roles at the company. Our goal was to accelerate the process allowing designers to focus more time on feature and product design.

Challenges

1. Our in-house site-builder had issues with usability and glitches, making work slow and hard to train.

2. Initial website build-outs took 50% longer than what was optimal.

3. Additional design requests were not charged or tracked.

4. Code and design techniques were not stored for designers to share.

5. Client calls were lengthy, erratically scheduled and consuming designer’s daily work-time.

6. Designers and Launch teams lacked direction regarding design requests.

Improving the design process was the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my job. My design team took initiative to make these improvements and it was a time we worked together to make the building process better for ourselves and the company. Site-building was the main way Brivity was making money but it was taking more and more of the designer’s time as we offered customers an increasingly custom design experience. It was an opportunity to really push for improvements.

Improvements

1. Prioritized notes on specific glitches and incidents with a monthly meeting with the remote site-building team to address issues.

2. Offered a ‘Lite’ template that did not include manual changes that were less expensive and took 50% less design time.

3. Recorded and tracked design time in Trello more carefully. Notified Launch and Success team when time-limits were approaching.

4. Stored HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets in an open-source application.

5. Limited calls to specific high-paying accounts that required custom design.

6. Itemized design requests with time and cost.

After these changes were made the organization and speed of custom design was improved. Major issues with the site-builder were corrected by our remote team and the shared code database helped build-out times become 50% faster. Designers handled around 1-2 calls per week once Launch and Success teams were able to refer to the itemized design request sheet.