Airbnb Experiential Redesign on Exploration and Trust
1
Redesign Airbnb? Airbnb has always been an intriguing and attractive company to me, and their product is one of my favorites. They heavily value creating trust between two potential strangers. To me, human-human problems like this are the most complex and interesting to tackle, which is one the main reasons I chose to look at Airbnb. In addition, I saw Airbnb as a daunting challenge, since they clearly already have a beautiful visual system. I knew that if I were to choose their mobile or website to redesign, I wouldn’t have much to work with in terms of visual re-design. I would have to focus almost purely on experience design.
THOUGHT PROCESS
However, I have a decent amount of capability in visual design, and my current portfolio has a few projects that focus purely on graphic/visual style. I hope that my experience re-design of Airbnb, coupled with my portfolio projects, can showcase that I am capable in both UI and UX.
1
Research Knowing that visual design would be a smaller part of my design challenge, I started thoroughly examining interaction flows throughout the mobile app. I though of several hypothetical user scenarios, and I used these “stories” as a foundation to examine the app.
The visual design is already beautiful, so what can I do?
THOUGHT PROCESS
In addition to looking through the app, I also asked several friends who were familiar with booking on Airbnb what their prior experiences were. Since I’ve never hosted an Airbnb before, and neither has anyone I’m immediately close with, I also went on Airbnb forums, to get a feel for what hosts might experience, and what problems they are currently dealing with.
1
Research Out of these three areas of research, I consolidated several key points:
•
Personal Experience •
In booking stays for upcoming Spring break, I found that •
It is very hard to find general location information (restaurants, things to do) on the app, but not impossible
•
However, their website hosts a wealth of information
In person poor experiences include •
Keys that are hard to find
•
Contacting owners
•
Joining a trip
•
Keeping track of liked items
Forums •
One of the main problems that hosts face are supposedly inaccurate bad reviews •
THOUGHT PROCESS
Interviews •
It’s easy to get lost in the app
•
Airbnb has experiences and restaurants now, but it’s hard to navigate between them
•
Not sure if Experiences are worth it, or if they will be convenient
How can the reviews system be updated?
1
Product Overview Airbnb recently extended their product to include not just accommodation, but also experiences, restaurant reservations (via Resy), and city guidebooks.
THOUGHT PROCESS
It’s clear that Airbnb is no longer just about keeping people accommodated during their stay while traveling, but also helping them get around wherever they are. With Experiences, Airbnb is empowering local hosts to show travelers around, and meet new people.
However, while these features fit together nicely and are wonderful services, they feel a bit disjointed. In addition, City Guidebooks are available on desktop, but not in the mobile app.
1
Stakeholders / Values Stakeholders + Values: •
•
Airbnb •
Wants to hop on the travel market
•
Has foot in accomodation, restaurant, and experiences
Cities •
•
Users •
•
Can rely on income from hosting
Friends of users (travel mates) •
THOUGHT PROCESS
Get to book reliable and inexpensive stays
Hosts •
•
Profit from the tourism
Can rely on one app for travel information
1
Focus Looking back in my experience of booking Airbnbs, there were on boarding problems that me and my friends remembered, such as hassle in getting keys, having trouble contacting our host, etc. However, these things often rely on undeterminable factors, that I would have trouble testing. For the scope of this design challenge, I decided to focus on the user’s exploratory/location research process, so I could look at their end-to-end interactions. After looking looking at my research, I decided I wanted to tackle reviews, since they are such a huge aspect of the communication between hosts and guests, as well as a public, outward facing board for potential guests.
THOUGHT PROCESS
Because Airbnb is increasingly marketing itself as more of all encompassing travel app, I also wanted to focus on the idea of exploration. I asked several of my interviews to walk through some of the scenarios that I had used as well. These scenarios included •
“Book an Airbnb in a fun and convenient location.”
•
“Choose a city in Japan to go to.”
•
“Plan a trip to Los Angeles.”
1
Trust
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
Trust •
One of the main things people complained about on the forums is that reviews are not very nuanced
•
This hurts the host, when bad reviews are a result of miscommunication
•
Guests also have a lot to gain from more trustworthy reviews
1
Exploration Because Airbnb is increasingly marketing itself as more of all encompassing travel app, I also wanted to focus on the idea of exploration. I asked several of my interviews to walk through some of the scenarios that I had used as well. These scenarios included •
“Book an Airbnb in a fun and convenient location.”
•
“Choose a city in Japan to go to.”
•
“Plan a trip to Los Angeles.”
While speaking with my interviewees, I also asked them what might encourage them to book a location.
THOUGHT PROCESS
Answers I received were: •
Photos
•
Convenience
•
Price/Worth
1
THOUGHT PROCESS
Mobile •
In addition to looking at their mobile app, I also extensively looked at their desktop app. While the two main products are mostly similar, Airbnb’s website boasts a lot more information than the app. Specifically, their city guides seems very indepth, and contain many host reviews.
•
However, if this feature is available in app/mobile form, it is invisible.
•
I wanted to make this part of the exploration process available in the app. Because the website is best viewed in desktop form, I wanted to see if I could not only translate it to a mobile scale, but also integrate it into the app visual language.
1
Ideation
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Sketching
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Concept
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Prototyping
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Obstacles •
One of the biggest obstacles I faced during this challenge was staying on track.
•
Regarding exploration, I initially wanted to help re-design Airbnb’s “Itinerary” page. Below, you can see that I started to prototype out part of my new design, but I soon realized that it was going to be too similar to an existing feature that I’d overlooked.
THOUGHT PROCESS
•
1
MAKING PROCESS
Solutions •
Finally, based on my two broad topics of Trust and Exploration, I created/improved upon two features.
•
The first one, which I called “Memories,” adds upon Airbnb’s existing reviews system, but allows guests to upload images with their reviews.
•
The second one, which I called “Explore,” (creative name!) allows Airbnb to more fully tie together their three main service pillars: accomodation, experiences, and restaurant reservations, while also allowing curious travelersto-be to better explore places they potentially might be interested in.
1
Memories
MAKING PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Explore
MAKING PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Feedback
MAKING PROCESS
•
Why mobile?
1
Moving Forward
MAKING PROCESS
•
Why mobile?