Designing A Website For A Relocation Agency.

7 min readJan 5, 2021

Imagine you want to relocate to a different country for the first time and you don’t really know how to go about it, no plans, no proper information on what to expect. It’s worse for someone who doesn’t have any friend or relative in the country he/she plans to relocate to. Whoa, who makes enquiries for you? I mean there are a lot of questions you’re going to have and somehow you need help with answers, you’re gonna be needing help with certain things. If you’re relocating, first and foremost you’re going to need a home to move in to and in some scenarios, a lot of people have been duped, cheated and lied to in the course of this. If you’re looking to relocate, The decision-making process wouldn’t be complete without taking into consideration the practical aspects of moving. Here are some questions you would need to ask yourself:

Can I afford to move right now?
If i have children, is it OK to move during the school year?
How much will this upset their academic performance?
Is this a good time of year to find a job?
What’s the cost of living ?
Am I (and is my family) emotionally stable right now in order to handle the stress and changes that a move brings?
What is the availability of housing in the new city/town?
How can i find an affordable and nice home

I had this friend that told me about his relocation plans a few months ago, he kept asking me if i knew anyone in canada that could help him out with a couple of things he mentioned including a place he could stay temporarily and all that stuff, told him i couldn’t think of anyone and somehow he sorted himself out . (Just three weeks ago when i had just started this project, i reached out to him about his experience getting there and a place to stay. His Replies gave me a headstart about the kind of problem i’m trying to solve.

This case study describes the process i went through while designing this website and as well as defines its functionality based on the insights i got along the way.

Defining The Problem

I wanted to have some data to work with, so I did short interviews with about 5 persons who have relocated and tried to relocate to a different country to understand their process and pain points.

Pain points

Some said it was difficut for them to find people or agencies they could trust.
Some said they couldn’t really afford the cost of getting help from these agencies
Fitting in; trying to fit into the dynamics of your new culture, environment, and even workplace. Worrying about fitting in is another common problem of moving abroad. They have to actively learn the customs and traditions and prepare for their work.
setting things up, finding a job abroad and running about the whole process affected them a lot in their personal activities and relationships.
Finding a good and affordable school to enrol their kids for families with kids
Language barriers, for Non English Speaking countries.

Although these numbers aren’t much, it was enough for me to find insights to design the solution.

Existing Solutions

Before getting started and bringing my own solutions, I looked up some relocation agencies on the internet and understood how they currently answer these problems. I found some nice features i think actually helps to solve the problem, a few that were well designed, but most of them weren’t doing the exact thing as expected, as such didn’t bring the best solutions for their users’ needs.

My Solution

In my own solution, I focused on the three major pain points that my research showed, which are:

Designing a product that could be trusted (users could easily trust their services)
A platform that provides relevant services to solve relocation problems at pretty affordable rates. (Not so high or low rates)
A platform that provides a wide variety of relocation services so you have a lot of options to choose from; this includes guidance/consultation, help in setting things up, finding a job or school/home, helping you fit into your new location etc.

Home Page

The User makes decisions based on what information they are provided with on the home page. The major purpose of this landing page is to sell value, sell service to convince your audience, so it’s just right to give enough insights about this service, what it offers, how things works, and its likes, and to bring more conversions on the platform. To break it down further, i’ll discuss the landing page a little.

The first page on the home page has a short copy explaining briefly what the services are about. Then there’s an about page that talks about the company, this is to provide information about the company offering this service so you have enough information about the company to know if you want to trust them or not.

The next section talks about the services offerred by this company in brief details followed by a CTA (call to action) to read full details incase a user isn’t really satisfied with the brief details provided.

The counts on the home page are meant to show how many locations they cover, users they’ve helped and virtual consultations they’ve had.

The how it works section talks about the process we follow to carry out a service to a user. This actually helps users understand the process and know what to expect.

According to research, reading testimonials from people who have previously used the service creates a positive impression and this impression can make a user trust and want to use your service.(Unless of course it’s a bad testimonial).

Then there’s a FAQ’s page (Frequently asked questions) that answers some questions users may have to ask and may have asked.

The destination guide links to articles on information conerning relocation to several countries.

The last on the home page is the footer section with quicklinks and some information.

Main User Journey

The main purpose of this platform is to help people relocate successfully and to this effect, all the necessities they would need in their new country are considered. To achieve this, the services for the possible things they’ll be needing is shown in the flow, simple and straight to the point; once a user clicks on the “Get estimate” button, they are directed to a page where they are prompted to provide the location they are “Moving from” & “Moving to”.

When the details are entered, the continue CTA leads to the next flow where they provide the relocation date and then the next section which prompts users to enter the exact kind of service they require. The last flow is where you provide your personal details so they can get back to you. The images are shown below.

After a user successfully provides those details, the company checks if the service requested in the given area is available and gets back to the user via email within a few minutes. A couple of follow up emails are sent but the most important of them all is the one that directs the user on the next steps to follow regarding his requested service.

A click on the CTA button in the email redirects the user back to the company website where they are prompted to make payment for their relocation services.

The Company goes ahead to walk you through everything you’ll be needing for your relocation depending on the service you requested and made payment for. If it’s physical help, agents in the user’s relocation country, sees to it.

I believe this concept is a good approach to start, maybe in the version 2, (probably after usability testing) new services can be added to further help people in their relocation process. It implements good UX practices as a solution to relocation problems users may have.