Tour Itineraries

Role: product designer

Timeline: launched July 2025

Platforms: web, iOS, Android

Team: PM, engineers, researcher, content designer

Context

For buyers on Zillow, a tour is usually the first time they meet an agent in person. The first few tours are where trust forms, and that trust decides whether a buyer keeps working with that agent.

Our goal was to strengthen the buyer–agent relationship rate: our north-star metric for how strong the relationship was between a buyer and the agent they connected with on Zillow.

Problem

For buyers: tours were scattered. Some were booked on Zillow, others through an agent over text or on other platforms. With no single place to see them all, buyers forgot tours or missed them.

For agents: every no-show cost them time and chipped away at trust. Many buyers also booked just one home per day. When that home went off market, the tour was canceled, and the buyer and agent never met.

HMW Statement

How might we make planning several home tours feel as easy as requesting one, so buyers show up and keep touring with the same agent?

My role

  • Designed the end-to-end buyer flow, from tour request to tour management, on web, iOS, and Android.

  • Led design jams to align the team on key decisions and terminology. "Tour itinerary" was a new term for buyers and Zillow, so I started by defining it.

Constraints

Tour times weren't guaranteed.

Agents confirm each tour after the request, so the design had to be honest that a request isn't a booking. That's why each home shows "Requested" or "Confirmed," and bundled requests say the agent will find a time that works.

Scope and cost.

Automatically pulling in tours booked outside Zillow was part of the original vision, but it was too expensive to build for launch. We scoped the first release to tours requested on Zillow.

A new concept.

Buyers had never heard the term "itinerary" on Zillow, so the value had to be clear without explanation.

Final design

Part I: ease of scheduling

Part II: ease of managing

Impact

  • +7%

    More buyers scheduled multiple tours on their first day, a sign the itinerary made planning several homes easier.

  • +2.6%

    More completed tours, with more buyers actually showing up and meeting their agent.

  • +2.2%

    More tour requests overall, without adding friction to the flow.

  • No trade-offs

    No negative impact on any primary or secondary metric, including the buyer–agent relationship rate. That cleared it for 100% rollout.

Reflection

  • The shopping cart would have given buyers more control, but also more work. Keeping the familiar flow and letting the agent handle the timing taught me that the simplest experience often comes from deciding who is best placed to do the hard part.

  • After launch, more buyers planned several tours on their first day, but many still chose "Schedule for another day" even when an existing tour day was available. Bundling helps when it fits a buyer's plans, not by default. The next improvement is smarter day suggestions, so buyers see the best-fit day, not just the nearest one.

  • Bringing in tours booked outside Zillow was part of the original vision, but it was too expensive for launch. Starting with tours requested on Zillow let us ship, measure real results and earn the case for the bigger version. Next, I'd bring outside tours into the hub so it becomes the buyer's full touring calendar, and explore shared itineraries for co-shoppers, since buyers rarely tour alone.

Next

Touring Agreement