Web Application Modernization for SabbaticalHomes, the Airbnb for Academics
Housing bright minds for 20 years
Founded in 2000 in Los Angeles, SabbaticalHomes is an online platform that connects academics, writers, artists, and thinkers looking for a space of inspiration to work in, with tenants around the world.
Keeping pace with a lightning-fast industry
A pioneer in the industry, SabbaticalHomes had a first-mover advantage over its competitors. But to keep pace with movers and shakers in the fast-evolving industry, it needed to continually update its website to stay on top of the ever increasing expectations of its customers for a modern user experience.
Shifting to a Mobile-First Experience
In just a few years, the majority of internet traffic has shifted from users browsing on a desktop, to users on their mobile devices expecting a mobile-first experience. Even Google has begun lowering rankings of websites that are not mobile responsive. For academics and creatives on the go, this need was even more pronounced and was a requirement to stay on top of the industry.
Security and Privacy: the foundation a Trusted Experience
Like many SaaS and online businesses today, SabbaticalHomes’ website doesn’t just serve as an online business card. The website is the product itself. It's the window through which its users and customers are interacting with one another. Continual focus on security and privacy standards was also foundational to earning clients’ trust.
Growing Businesses Need Scalable Technology
The third challenge SabbaticalHomes faced was scalability of their infrastructure to accommodate the increase in customer traffic. This is a common issue among businesses that acquire more and more customers while relying on their original infrastructure. To prevent sluggish performance and offer modern interactive features and styles, a web application’s back end needs to be refreshed as well.
Modernizing the user experience, increasing conversions and customer loyalty, while reaching more visitors
Always a pioneer and always proactive about its future business needs, SabbaticalHomes reached out to the experts in modernizing web technology: Thinklogic. Thinklogic, also based in Los Angeles, is a bespoke software development team with more than 20 years of experience creating cutting-edge web experiences, modernizing legacy systems, and advising on the latest technology. The teams at SabbaticalHomes and Thinklogic hit things off quickly, and after brainstorming, came up with a two-year development roadmap to help SabbaticalHomes stay on top of its game.
Turned complex solutions into pick-and-choose options
For SabbaticalHomes, a key benefit that Thinklogic offered was the ability to quickly diagnose problems with its current infrastructure, prioritizing the ones to solve for highest impact on the user experience and business value. Thinklogic’s expert distilled any complex technological decision into simple pick-and-choose options.
Before, SabbaticalHomes was contemplating all of the different resources and issues that might arise when trying to solve its challenges. After working with Thinklogic, though, SabbaticalHomes was presented with a few options that were easy to understand and choose between.
And unlike a lot of agencies that throw out ideas but leave you to execute on them, Thinklogic is an end-to-end development partner. Any routes, resources, and issues that these roadmap presented were handled by Thinklogic, simplifying the process and removing much of the associated stress.
A cutting-edge experience drives conversion and loyalty
Tapping into both the latest technology and the latest user experience design approaches, Thinklogic worked to revamp the website to be modern on and under the surface. The result is a vastly improved experience for new visitors as they can browse, search and find what they need quickly, increasing conversions.
And unlike many redesigns that can alienate existing customers who are used to the old experience, careful attention was also placed on designing a system that would be natural and intuitive even for existing users of the website, underscoring the company commitment to customer loyalty.
Increase in web traffic
A key benefit of revamping the website was a direct increase in traffic. This boost naturally led to an increase in revenue, providing instant ROI for its website overhaul.
Thinklogic updated the front-end of SabbaticalHomes's website and the back-end, too. This meant that SabbaticalHomes not only received a spike in traffic, they were also able to handle this surge.
Now SabbaticalHomes has a website that looks 20 years young
SabbaticalHomes's new website is now modern on and under the surface. The result is a vastly improved experience for users new and old. With this update, SabbaticalHomes has been able to bring in more visitors and retain them, too.
Legacy users have enjoyed the transition as well. They now have more options and features than before, making it a better service at no additional cost.
On the SabbaticalHomes website, you can see the impact that the Thinklogic and SabbaticalHomes partnership had on the About Us section of their website, where Thinklogic is cited under the Moment of Gratitude & Remembrance section.
Need support delivering large-scale web transformation? Thinklogic’s Digital Acceleration and Response Team (DART) specializes in building amazing digital apps for the CTO, whether a rapid prototype to win over an audience, providing a team of responsive web and mobile experts, or rescuing an in-house program that is running behind. Located in Culver City, Los Angeles, Thinklogic is your trusted partner for getting amazing digital applications ready fast.
Our Clients
We always root for the success of the companies we work with. The businesses that come to us are not just clients - they are our partners.
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What Our Clients Say
"Finding a web development partner you can trust is so hard, especially when you are accountable for their results. But Thinklogic's transparent and collaborative approach kept me engaged and built trust from the start. Their expert team took on a large program and delivered it on schedule, keeping me informed every step of the way."
"Thinklogic was our end-to-end digital transformation partner, helping us re-imagine and re-build our flagship catalog from the ground up. The Thinklogic team methodically stepped us through their process, from surfacing and aligning us to critical business outcomes, to designing and building an innovative user experience fast enough to keep us ahead of the market."
"We augmented our web development project team with Thinklogic to get it back on track. Not only did Thinklogic ramp up quickly using their methodology, they were able to suggest improvements to our overall architecture that made dramatic improvements to the project and timeline. Any time we had questions for them, they were able to come in person to talk with us face to face."
"I have enjoyed working with Thinklogic's software design and development team. Everyone has been extremely professional and passionate in making my program a success, even under very tight timelines."
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