Client: Hotondo Homes
Studio: Newpath
Role: Lead Product Designer, Creative Direction, UX Strategy, UX Lead, UI Lead

All Paths Lead to a Builder

Hotondo Homes is a national Australian home-building network with over 70 locally owned and operated franchises. They offer customisable home designs, house-and-land packages, and display homes tailored to a wide range of buyers across metropolitan, regional and rural areas. As a decentralised organisation, Hotondo balances national brand strength with the hyper-local trust that comes from builder relationships in each region.

This was a ground-up reimagining of Hotondo Homes’ digital experience. The goal was simple: to realign the website with the way the business actually works, by guiding users, regardless of how or why they arrived, to their nearest builder. The builder wasn’t just a contact; they were the core conversion point.

The design solution made this journey feel effortless. We structured the site to support users at every stage of the home-building process, from initial curiosity to practical planning. At its core, the new website helps turn ideas into action by making it easy for users to find, connect with and start a conversation with a local builder.

Tone-wise, the experience was designed to feel seamless and helpful, like a well-informed guide rather than a sales funnel.

The Brief

Hotondo Homes came to us for a major digital shift. Their existing website didn’t reflect their service model or the way their audience made decisions. It lacked coherence, was difficult to navigate, and didn’t offer a consistent way to move from decision to builder engagement.

We were tasked with:

• Rethinking the site architecture from the ground up
• Designing a flexible UX system that could support a national brand and localised delivery
• Creating pathways that led every user, no matter where they entered, towards meaningful builder contact
• Supporting various audience needs, including first-home buyers, knock-down rebuilders, and interstate movers

Constraints included:

• A broad, decentralised stakeholder group
• Wide variation in regional offerings
• A need for scalability and internal content management flexibility post-launch

Creative Solution

The central idea was to align the site’s architecture with Hotondo’s service structure. I led the design of a flexible system that mirrored the actual user journey: browsing, planning, saving, sharing and ultimately connecting with a local builder.

This wasn’t a linear funnel. Instead, we built multiple, interlinked entry points into a soft but intentional UX flow. Whether a user landed on a house plan, blog post or display home, they were gently nudged toward builder contact without friction.

This solution was developed through a series of structured workshops:

• User Journey Workshops to map goals and motivations
• Persona Development to reflect diverse buyer profiles
• Design Workshops to prototype and iterate collaboratively

We used Figma as the central platform for design, feedback, and iteration.

Website Structure & User Journeys

Homepage
Personalised via geolocation, showing regional content (home designs, display homes, local builders) to create an instant sense of relevance.

Find a Builder
Map-based interface using geolocation to surface nearby builders. Users could also search by postcode or state to support those building away from their current location or on behalf of someone else.

House Designs
Filtered by range, features, bedrooms, and specs. Each Product Detail Page included:

• Floorplans
• Facade options
• Photos of real builds
• Related house and land packages
• Display homes using that design

Display Homes
Interactive map with filtering and dedicated landing pages for each home, including imagery, specs and digital walkthroughs.

Knock Down Rebuild
Framed for those replacing existing homes with a new build. Filterable listings with tailored messaging and relevant builder options.

House & Land Packages
Showcased plots with planned builds or completed homes. Tied to house designs and regional availability.

First Home Builder Hub
Geolocated resources, FAQs and tools. Included links to state-specific grants and support schemes.

Home Navigator Tool
Interactive decision tree that helped users discover the right home design based on preferences, family size, location and future plans.

News & Inspiration Blog
Content hub with articles, trends and advice. Each piece included a ‘share to builder’ feature, allowing users to send inspiration directly to their builder.

User Portal
Account system with bookmarking tools. Users could save designs, articles and display homes, creating a personalised dashboard for later visits.

Builder Tools & Calculators
Included modules for:

• Loan comparison
• Repayment estimates
• Stamp duty
• Savings goals
• Rent vs buy analysis

Start a Franchise
A dedicated flow for builders interested in joining the Hotondo network.

Promo Landing Pages
Modular, campaign-ready templates that marketing teams could deploy quickly without needing additional dev support.

Strategy & Tactics

The overarching UX strategy was built around progressive engagement:

• Geolocation made the site feel instantly local and relevant.
• Flexible entry points met users wherever they were in the journey.
• Content and tools gave users confidence, not pressure.
• Account creation and sharing tools encouraged commitment without forcing conversion.

We designed every interaction to feel intuitive. The idea was to reduce friction, not urgency, to guide users forward without overwhelming them.

Results

While performance data remained with the client, the qualitative outcomes were clear:

• A seamless experience that mirrored the buying journey
• Clearer connections between national content and local service delivery
• Increased internal agility through modular content blocks
• Positive feedback from internal stakeholders and franchisees alike

The platform became more than a website, it became a unifying touchpoint between brand, builders and customers.

Outcomes

The new site fundamentally shifted how Hotondo Homes presented itself online. By aligning digital experience with service reality, we helped them build more trust, more relevance and more readiness into every user journey.

Customers now find it easier to take the next step, whether that’s saving a plan or booking a meeting with a builder. Internally, teams are empowered to create content, run campaigns and support users with less friction and more confidence.

What we delivered wasn’t just a design system. It was an operating model for connection.

 

Reflections & Takeaways

• Design for how the business actually works. This project succeeded because we aligned structure to reality, not just aesthetics.
• Workshops were transformative. They created alignment, surfaced blind spots and brought clarity to both client and team.
• Soft funnels work. We didn’t need to push users; we needed to support them.
• Modularity = sustainability. Giving the business control helped future-proof the system.

At the end of the day, this was a UX project about homebuilding. But really, it was about removing barriers, guiding decisions, and helping people start something big, with confidence.