During the summer of 2015, the technology team at Concierge Auctions set out on a simple mission: to build the core of a technology platform and website that would be at the forefront of the luxury real estate industry.
As we scanned existing websites, we knew we could do better. Enough with clunky “virtual tours” and saturated narratives and designs.
We wanted experiences that feel natural and enable human beings to really imagine what it would be like to own the homes of their dreams. We wanted a platform that ran lightening fast despite having killer technology. We wanted a site built on science and data, that captures quality leads as we represent our agent and seller partners, and brings the most relevant properties to our buyers.
We decided to search outside the real estate industry for technical and design inspiration, to bring the most advanced exciting innovations to luxury real estate. We turned to three major existing technology companies for inspiration:
1. From Google, we took the Material Design philosophy. Web design needed a fundamentally human non-alienating character, with each element crafted off of the way real items in the material world behave. We carried out extensive user testing to really learn how to make better experiences.
2. From Facebook, we adopted two cutting edge development technologies: React.js and GraphQL. These are the technologies behind all of the beautiful animations and intuitive user experiences throughout our site. These power our team’s ability to leverage data in powerful new ways that create better experiences for our customers.
3. From AirBNB, we adopted one of the most advanced and beautiful sets of code standards that have enabled us to build a scalable development team writing in a common style and language.
A lot of work went in building this new site:
• Over 140,000 lines of code • 210 user tests over 30 minutes each • 1,400 customer surveys • 532 glorious games of ping pong • Countless iterations and revisions
The end result was the beautiful site that you see today. The gorgeous photography and videography of the most incredible homes in the world was moved front-and-center. Every component on our site is fully responsive. Every marketing asset is carefully crafted to fully explore each property and its unique story.
The site, the pre-eminent marketplace for buying and selling luxury real estate across the globe, is fully engineered to accelerate luxury real estate transactions in every way.
We hope you love it as much as we do.