Skeuomorphism & Proptech
Why there's a need for familiar interfaces in real estate tech.
In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.
Nobody had ever used a touch screen on a phone.
In order to get people familiar with the interface, he introduced a user interface that was designed similar to real world things.
The notes app looked a notebook, The voice memo app looked like a literal microphone, and so on.
This style of interface came to be known as “skeuomorphism”.
Skeuomorphism refers to the design approach of incorporating visual or functional elements in a digital interface that imitate real-world objects or materials.
By leveraging familiar metaphors, skeuomorphism seeks to bridge the gap between the digital and physical realms, providing users with a recognizable and intuitive experience.
Steve Jobs' use of skeuomorphism in the iPhone's interface was instrumental in helping users adapt to the novel touch screen technology.
Why do I bring this up?
Because most of real estate still operates offline.
There’s a need for software that is familiar for the real estate industry.
Over the years, there have been a lot of Silicon Valley founders who have made the jump into real estate tech.
Unfortunately, a lot of them are building spaceships when the industry needs digital notebooks.
Spaceships are flashy features and complex functionalities that don’t solve a real problem in the industry.
Digital notebooks are simple tools that streamline existing processes in the real estate industry.
How can founders go about this?
Do your research
There is a plethora of organizations that provide information about industry challenges.
Talk to your customers.
Early on building Streetlight, my first proptech startup, we approached real estate developers and professionals.
Originally we built a Twitter-like forum where people could discuss real estate development proposals. Video was a feature we were working on.
When we spoke with professionals, they told us that they could build a forum. But they couldn’t build video.
From that point on, we focused on building a video app for real estate entitlements.
Thanks for reading!