National rental marketplace focused on connecting renters with single-family homes.
UI/UX
Branding
Web Design

Rentals.com was a national platform connecting renters with available properties, with a focus on single-family home rentals. I was brought in to redesign the website and brand identity, with a focus on making the platform more useful for both renters finding a home and landlords managing listings. The work included user testing to validate new workflows, close coordination with development on implementation, and designing a landlord portal that handled property listings and integrated rent collection directly. Rentals.com was subsequently acquired by Redfin and then Rocket, with the landlord and renter portal technology carried forward and integrated into Rocket's current platform.
industry
Real Estate / PropTech
project type
Consumer - Rebuild
role
Lead Designer - Barrel Proof Apps
focus area
Logo
The Brief
Request
The website had been around for a while and was showing its age. It wasn't mobile friendly, lacked the mapping functionality of competitor sites, and was built on outdated architecture. The ask was a full ground-up redesign of the site and brand. I worked directly with the head of their product team and an internal development team, as the sole designer on the engagement for the duration of the project.
Deliverable
The brand refresh covered the full system: a refined logo, updated color palette, new typography, custom iconography, and a new image direction. All of it applied across a completely rebuilt site designed for both desktop and mobile simultaneously. The search experience was rebuilt from the ground up, adding the ability to draw a custom boundary to narrow results. User testing was conducted onsite with a testing agency using high fidelity desktop mockups, with me present to observe sessions directly. The landlord side of the platform was a significant addition to the original scope. What started as a refresh of their existing ad listing store evolved into a full landlord portal. We added a rent estimation tool that gave prospective listers a data-driven starting point based on location, square footage, amenities, and comparable nearby listings, alongside integrated rent collection and property management tools. After several years on the project I was also brought in to assist with design work on their sister platforms, ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com.

The old homepage.

Previous "branding"

Approach
The redesign was a long, structured process. For the bulk of the early work I was onsite two days a week, working directly with the product team and an overseas development team. That level of investment from everyone involved set the tone for how seriously the rebuild was taken. User testing was conducted onsite with a testing agency, watching sessions live rather than reviewing recordings after the fact. The findings shaped specific decisions around filtering and sorting, how amenities were displayed, the ability to save and share listings, and how prominently to surface school rankings and crime statistics in search results. We integrated with Rent Spree, which required two full days onsite with their team to map out where their backend needed inputs within our onboarding flow and what could be adjusted to fit the design. Details were finalized over web meetings and Slack after that. The rent estimation tool drew on years of existing listing data, with the main design and product question being how frequently to refresh the comparable pricing data to keep the ranges accurate. Managing a five year engagement alongside other client work required setting clear expectations from the start. Rentals.com had designated days and hours and always got first billing. New engagements were taken on with that constraint made explicit upfront. The work on ApartmentGuide and Rent.com came later, smaller in scope but a reflection of the trust built across multiple teams within the organization over time.

Further Reading
Additional screens from the Landlord and Rent Payment application, the moving help page, and a logo design that was almost selected.




Outcome
The relaunched site performed well across the board. Time on site doubled and the number of active rentals on the platform increased. Mobile performance was a particular win given that the previous site had none. The landlord portal gained strong traction with property owners and was updated and refined regularly throughout the engagement. The engagement wound down naturally as the platforms matured and the team shifted maintenance work in house. By that point the core design and product work was complete and in a stable place. RentPath, Rentals.com's parent company, was acquired by Redfin in April 2021 for $608 million. Rocket Companies then acquired Redfin in July 2025 for $1.75 billion. The landlord and renter portal technology built during this engagement was carried forward through both acquisitions and remains active today inside Rocket's platform.