Website Improvements

Over the past few weeks I've been working on improving the user experience once logged into the Student Housing website. The original design was very dull and grey and really made navigating around the user backend extremely difficult.

The new landlords control panel is something I’m really excited about. As soon as the landlord logs into the website they are confronted with an overview. The overview allows them to see how many new messages they have, how many new students have signed up to the website within the last 30 days as well as how many properties they have active.

I've incorporated an activity feed for both the students and the landlords. This for example allows the student landlord to see which student members have viewed, favourited and sent messages about the landlords listings.

I’m always trying to improve the user experience on the website. So if you have any suggestions about a feature or functionality you want to see, then please feel free to email me. It’s you the student landlords and agents that use this product so I want you to feel like you are a part of this project.

By Ross Ewing - ross@studenthousing.co.uk
15th July 2011

Welcome to the new Student Housing website

Hello and welcome to the new studenthousing.co.uk website. This is the first opportunity for me to introduce the new website. Over the past six months my previous website findstudentdigs.com has joined up with studenthousing.co.uk to offer this exciting new website.

On a personal note I have just completed my degree were I achieved a first class honours in Web Design and Development. Part of my dissertation was to redevelop the studenthousing.co.uk website. I researched into three different factors which were search engine optimisation, customer relationship management and social media.

The new website takes advantage of search engines in comparison to the previous website. We now try and target every location by using landing pages for each city. The sitemap for the new website has over 6,000 indexed pages on Google, compared to the previous findstudentdigs.com website which only had 45.

Social media is obviously a major factor now in the success of any website. Student housing is no different, now every time a landlord posts a property we will tweet that to our twitter follows and also post it to our Facebook fans.

The new website overall allows us to take the business forward, we hope that both landlords and students take advantage of the new website by signing up.

By Ross Ewing - ross@studenthousing.co.uk
15th July 2011

Choosing an area to live

If you're unsure of the main student locations to live then use our Student Area Guide to help in choosing a location. Other good options are to ask in your student union, or university accommodation office, or even seek advice from your fellow students. Many will be happy to assist and offer their advice and experience. You need to consider what is important to you and incorporate this into looking for a property.

Is the area within walking distance of university especially if you're on a budget or have early starts? Do other students live in that area?

Is the area within your price range (some areas cater for the more affluent student and other areas offer slightly better value for your money)?

Are there sufficient transport links and local amenities nearby?

It's great to live in a student community if you can, because there are often impressive student discounts in local restaurants, bars and food stores in the neighbourhood, and these areas are usually more social places to live where you can make friends more easily.

By Ross Ewing - ross@studenthousing.co.uk
15th July 2011

Choosing your housemates

Before you start house hunting you'll need to decide who you're going to live with. Overall, this part of the property selection process happens too quickly across the country. You need to make sure that you don't rush into something you can't get out of but many of you panic that the best properties are going to be let at the beginning of term.

Make sure you're happy with your housemates and don't succumb to pressure to make a decision straight away. You can't normally make an informed judgement in the first few months of knowing someone, so take your time. Too many student groups fall out or change their mind later on in the academic year when it's often too late to pull out of your accommodation. If you do select a property to rent, make sure you check your agent's terms of business. For example, if you have to pay a fee, do you lose this if you change your mind or are you legally obliged to pay rent? Most students do not realise that they are joint and severally liable during the tenancy, which means that the landlord could legally make you pay for your housemates rent if they leave!

By Ross Ewing - ross@studenthousing.co.uk
15th July 2011

Calling all Landlords

From 1st August 2011 we are looking to get as many landlords to advertise with the website as possible. Why? As of October we will begin our nationwide promotion to university students. So don't miss the opportunity of having your properties viewed by thousands of students.

To register your properties Click Here

By Ross Ewing - ross@studenthousing.co.uk
15th July 2011