PROJECTChallenge: AirBnB only allows users to search for lodging, but not things to do around the area. Users have to use separate apps or sites to do this.
Solution: Create additional app features that help amplify the travel-planning experience without muddling the utility that’s already there. Design the experience to work on iOS and Apple Watch. |
TEAMI was a part of a 3-person UX design team. We worked collaboratively on applying each stage of the UX process--user research and analysis, wireframes, testing, prototypes--to develop the solution.
During our presentation, I was responsible for walking every-one through our final prototype. |
COMPANYAirBnB is a community marketplace where guests can book spaces from hosts, connecting people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay in more than 34,000 cities worldwide.
|
TOOLS
Sketch 3
|
Invision
|
Gliffy
|
Illustrator
|
Photoshop
|
Google Drive
|
Google Docs
|
RESEARCH
Sent out a survey via Google Forms to gather information on demographics and travel—how often they travel, websites and apps they use to plan travel, and the type of travel planner they are.
Distilled the most common answers from 50+ responses; Followed-up with target participants via an in-person interview or open-ended survey. We wanted to know about their last trip—what they did, how they found out about those things, and how they kept track of them. We asked them about technology they traveled with and how they interacted with their devices. |
|
Consolidated and analyzed results from interviews and surveys to create a user persona and develop a scenario.
We made sure to consider details like how often she travels, travel apps she uses, and her frustrations with the current way of planning travel. This helped us design a solution that would solve specific problems for a specific type of user. |
|
What types of travel and activities organizing apps are already out there? Our team did a C&CA to get a good grasp on what already exists and the types of features each had in comparison to one another.
By doing this, we were able to distill good ideas for features and ways of organizing events and activities that may work for the Airbnb iOS app and Apple Watch design solution. |
Card Sort 1
To figure out where it would make sense for people to start planning activities on the Airbnb app. Card Sort 2 To understand how people categorized activities and events to do when traveling. We had some activities written out, and we asked people to group the activities and title each of the groups. Based on these two card sorts, we figured where to put the “THINGS TO DO” section on the app and the activities categorization: culture, outdoors, eat/drink, nightlife, shopping |
|
DESIGN
DESIGN & TESTING
User testing was vital to getting feedback for our wireframes. First, we tested sketched wireframes.
From testing our sketched wireframes, we learned that users wanted to have a choice of planning a trip either by selecting a place to stay OR by selecting activities around an area. We also learned that users wanted the ability to personalize their trip by naming it. This becomes helpful when planning multiple trips simultaneously, especially if the trips are within the same city. Based on that feedback, we design digital wireframes for the next series of testing. |
|
We used Sketch 3 and Adobe Illustrator to design high-fidelity digital wireframes that matched the current Airbnb app. The wireframes were put into InVision to make it into a clickable prototype.
We did multiple rounds of user testing and iterated on the design based on user feedback. |
RESULTS
We took a great app and made it even better. By adding features for users to learn about activities and events happening around the area they are traveling, as well as a personalized way to keep track of that information, users can now easily plan and organize both travel activities and lodging in one app. They can even set up reminders for activities based on location or time!
Adding these features, while adhering to Airbnb’s simple and clean design, we were able to add value (not clutter) to an app that was already super useful. Not only did this solution provide a better user experience, but it also exemplified what Airbnb is all about--feeling at home wherever you are.
Adding these features, while adhering to Airbnb’s simple and clean design, we were able to add value (not clutter) to an app that was already super useful. Not only did this solution provide a better user experience, but it also exemplified what Airbnb is all about--feeling at home wherever you are.