Freddie Mac MultiFamily
Making Multifamily Data Accessible: A UX Case Study for Freddie Mac
Context
Freddie Mac Multifamily is a division of Freddie Mac that focuses on financing rental housing properties with multiple units, such as apartment buildings. They provide loans to property owners, developers, and investors that are structured to support development, purchase, or refinancing of multifamily housing.
The Problem
The main issue with the multifamily web experience is that key information on security deals is scattered across pages, causing investors—its primary users—to give up after a few clicks if they can't quickly find what they need.
How might we… make the most relevant content for users stand out to be more accessible?
Fannie Mae, Penny Mac, and Lument function similarly to Freddie Mac, some insights I found from analyzing web experiences:
- informational content is emphasized and as a result is easier to access for a broad range of users
- content is easier to recognize when there’s clear indicators that give context, ex: iconography/imagery
- lengthy pages that force the user to scroll to find exactly what they’re looking for make it difficult to continue the experience
Competitive Analysis of Industry Best Practices
Evaluation of current flows involving multiple web pages revealed inconsistencies in terms of usability and functionality of some components:
- all content is on one page making it very long and forcing users to scroll to find what they’re looking for (resulting in frustrated users clicking away from the site)
- HTML links were obscure and hard to find on certain pages that had more content (users are mainly adult age so proper accessibility support is necessary)
- mismatch of button components across flows that could be confusing (users may trust the site less when there’s multiple types of buttons to interact with)
Heuristic Evaluation of Current Flow
Inventory of current page content involving key flows. Information can be consolidated to include the most relevant content before anything else.
- resource links being repeated found by taking inventory of current website
- majority of relevant content found in links to PDF documents and is often repeated on the page
- some resources are particularly obscure to locate and should be higher in the page hierarchy
- site mapping provided visual guide to how to structure content order in a way that would present the most relevant info/content first
Taking Inventory of Current Pages
Design Recommendations
The overarching goal of these design changes is to make it easier for the user to find specific informational content in Freddy Mac multifamily web experience. Most of my recommendations focus on enhancing usability and accessibility by:
consolidating key information
standardizing design components
rethinking content organization
These changes address the pain points users face, enabling them to find the resources they need with ease. By adopting a more intuitive and visually structured approach, Freddie Mac can offer a modernized platform that aligns with user expectations while improving engagement and decision-making for its audience.