Sakani

Saudi Arabia’s very first government-sponsored real estate digital marketplace sped up the waiting time for home purchase loans from 6 months to – no joke – 5 minutes.

Services
UI Design
UX Design
Design System
Leadership

Deliverables
Concept
Prototype
Design System

Our design approach with Sakani started long before we even designed the first pixel on the screen. First, we interviewed business owners to understand their needs and goals. At the same time, we got to know the Sakani users, who they are, and what their expectations are when using the platform. Data analysis was also essential to craft a better user experience.

The problem

Sakani's unfair advantage was that they were the only provider in the country that provided state-sponsored loans for citizens looking to buy their first home. Even though they are not the only loan providers, they could give out better loan conditions than any private competitor in the country, making it a very attractive option.

Buying a house is a big step in any family’s life. It’s not like buying a book online, so we learned that users need reassurance from another person. Their purchase journey would start online, but at some point, they wanted to go to a showroom, talk to a human being, and see what their future house would look like. So, we had to account for the fact that transactions would happen over the span of several days. That context was crucial in understanding users’ mindsets and how that applies to their platform experience.

A neat search experience: outline your area of interest to get the available results

Our approach is cross-functional: we have designers based in Riyadh involved in the day-to-day activities, thus providing the broader network of designers with accurate insight into the business and design needs to deliver a world-class experience, all the while our team developers are touching base daily with the designers to create pixel-perfect experiences.

The biggest challenge we faced during the entire process with Sakani was to deliver a world-class design while helping to nurture a design culture within the company to enable every stakeholder to understand that design is just as an essential part of the process as any business needs.

Design System

Sakani grew so much that we could no longer avoid the topic of a Design System. This was a challenge since most stakeholders were unfamiliar with the idea of a Design System and what it is for. It took us a little back and forth to sell them on the value of it.