Playhouse

Evaluating a home you have never stood inside is hard from photos and specs alone. Playhouse set out to replace that with a short-form video feed backed by real local market data.

As the sole product designer, brought in through Awesomic, I ran this end to end: interaction flows, the game, the design system, and the landing page underneath it all.

This case covers two of those decisions: the loop built to solve a real retention problem, and the navigation built to serve every role from one app.

Decision log

Designing a reason to open the app on a day you are not moving

An endless video feed makes browsing homes engaging, but browsing alone does not sustain daily use in a category where the actual buying cycle runs for months. Real estate search has a naturally low frequency: people check listings hard while actively moving, then go quiet until the next lease or purchase. We needed a mechanic that gave buyers a reason to come back every day, not just during the weeks they were actually shopping.

1. A

   Standard save-and-alert push notifications

   Rejected

   The Zillow/Redfin approach. It drives episodic visits when a price drops, but does nothing to build a daily habit or any sense of community among people who are just browsing.

2. B

   Social commenting and agent Q&A threads

   Rejected

   Needs a real density of active agents answering in real time to work at all. Early on, with few agents live, empty comment sections would have made the app feel dead on arrival.

3. C

   A daily price-guessing game built on the video feed

   Shipped

   Users guess a home's price straight from its video tour, with leaderboards and an accuracy score. It turns passive scrolling into an active, competitive habit, and gives buyers a reason to open the app on days they are not house-hunting at all.

System architecture

One native app for three audiences, and a feed that stays the centre of it

Buyers, homeowners and agents get the same app, the same tab bar, and different destinations underneath it. Serving all three without burying the video feed took a clear navigation hierarchy, not just more tabs.

Homebuyers

The vertical video feed itself, plus city hashtag discovery, property spec sheets, and a direct line to the listing agent from inside a tour.

Gamifiers

The price-guessing game: an accuracy score, weekly city leaderboards, and badges for buyers who never intend to actually make an offer.

Agents and sellers

Video upload, listing management, local market insights to publish, and the lead generation that funds the other two experiences.