Airbnb Group Travel Experience
This experience proposal for Airbnb focused on addressing the frustration of planning and traveling in groups on the Airbnb Application through the use of user centered design principles.
Team Members
Anna Nuggehalli, Hastin Bagewadi, & Vincy Mehta
Research Methodology
My group and I explored points of contention when it comes to the group travel planning and booking experience where I focused on the user interviews as a key research methodology.
User Interviews
I conducted 6 user interviews to define user needs and assess value, using a consistent moderator guide and rotating moderators to minimize biases. We chose this method to understand the pain points travelers felt when planning group trips and identify the points of friction that cause many to avoid group trips or the planning of group trips.
Demographics: Adults with an interest in group travel and previously used Airbnb
User Interview Questions
Based on other research methodologies used, user interview questions were constructed to focus on six key themes: planning group trips, accommodation preferences, recent group travel experience, expense division and challenges, airbnb’s role in group travel, and technology and group travel. By exploring these themes, we aim to identify opportunities reduce friction when engaging in group travel. The questions are designed to gather detailed feedback that can inform the design and development of the experience on Airbnb.
1. How often do you participate in group travel experiences?
2. What are your primary considerations when organizing or participating in group trips?
3. Can you describe the types of accommodations you tend to choose when traveling with a group?
4. What factors influence your decision when selecting accommodations for group trips?
5. Could you share a recent group travel experience you were part of? What were the most challenging aspects of planning and coordination during that trip?
6. How did you and your group members communicate and collaborate when planning and booking this trip?
7. When traveling with a group, how do you typically split expenses, such as accommodations, activities, and meals? Have you encountered any difficulties in managing shared expenses?
8. In your opinion, how could Airbnb improve the experience of planning and booking trips for groups?
9. Do you find it essential to have a shared itinerary and a centralized place for trip details when traveling with a group? What advantages do you see in having such a feature on a platform like Airbnb?
10. Have you had positive experiences using technology or specific apps/platforms for planning and coordinating group travel? Could you share any lessons or insights from these experiences that Airbnb could learn from?
Raw Interview Notes
During the interview process I find it important to take thorough notes on participants words and body language. You can see my raw interview notes from two of the interview participants.
Research Synthesis
We comprehensively reviewed our findings from user interviews, market research, and a competitive analysis, identifying five key themes that reveal significant opportunities for innovation and growth in group trip planning on Airbnb.
Market gap
Airbnb's competitors lack a dedicated collaboration feature for group trip planning, presenting a market gap.
User-centered recommendations
Involve tailored suggestions and features promoting communication, collaboration, and group discounts.
Expense Management
Complexities in group trip planning, including discussions and documentation, underscore challenges.
Leveraging strengths
Airbnb’s large user base and user-friendly platform has the potential to lead in group trip planning.
Coordinating group trips is complex
Effective collaboration is critical to reach a consensus on accommodations, activities, and budget.
TL;DR
No online platform assists in group trip planning despite a sizable market. Integrating this feature into Airbnb can create a competitive advantage, seamlessly enhancing the user journey.
Define User Needs through Personas & Use Cases
After synthesizing the research, we found that there were still numerous problems that we were solving for. In order to ensure that we fully understood the scale of the problems involved, we began by defining the different user needs. These methods were then utilized in crafting a “How Might We” statement as a Problem Statement.
Personas & Use Cases
I developed three personas and corresponding use cases to vividly capture user empathy and market needs through realistic use cases. This approach kept user pain points and expectations at the forefront, providing a vital reference for ideation and design.
Personas
Use Cases
Storyboarding
Vincy Mehta and I each created a storyboard to showcase seamless integration of the application into different scenarios. My storyboard highlighted groups voting on decisions during a trip, emphasizing the need for a voting function and streamlined bookings for activities and accommodations. These storyboards guided our designs, ensuring smooth integration into both the Airbnb app and the overall trip planning experience.
How Might We
How might we optimize group trips by improving coordination, expense management, collaboration, and expense tracking?
Designing the Product
After defining the problem statement and understanding the established constraints, we began designing the user experience. Initially, we concentrated on identifying the essential components and the critical information users would need for their trip. We aligned our visual design closely with Airbnb's established aesthetic but stripped away color and typography in the early stages. This allowed us to focus on the overall user experience and the various mechanisms integral to our solution.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
We ideated solutions to the “How Might We” by generating low fidelity wireframes focused on visualizing the essential tasks for users to complete.
Group communication via chat
Decision making through voting mechanism
Track expenses for various aspects of the trip.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
After establishing essential tasks, Hastin Bagwadi and myself created mid fidelity wireframes that aligned with airbnb design guidelines and experience.
Heuristic Evaluation
After constructing our mid fidelity wireframes, I conducted a full heuristic evaluation using Nielsen's 10 usability heuristics. This allowed us to identify key areas of improvement to be addressed in the next iteration.
User flow is disconnected and unintuitive
Navigation does not lend itself to outlined features
Unclear visual hierarchy makes screens difficult to skim
Inputs are not optimized for simplest user experience
Prototype
High fidelity wireframes were generated based on the key findings of the Heuristic Evaluation with a specific focus on flow and integration with an emphasis on interaction with the aim of bringing the experience to life. From this a prototype was created to then be utilized during usability testing.
Usability Testing Key Takeaways
Once the prototype was built I was able to conduct think-aloud usability test with four adults unfamiliar with the project to assess the overall usability and learning involved for the experience. These findings were utilized in adjusting the final prototype of the experience.
Visibility and Accessibility
Enhance visibility for key elements like the login button, search results, navigation menu, account settings, profile editing, and messaging feature.
Search, Filtering, and Refinements
Address improvements for search results, filters, and refinements, including simplified filters and the option to save favorites.
Design and Responsiveness
Prioritize maintaining a user-friendly, visually appealing design based on positive feedback regarding the clean, modern design and responsiveness across devices.
Onboarding and Guidance
Improve onboarding clarity with additional tooltips, validate required fields in the sign-up form, and enhance overall user experience.
Booking Process and Communication
Provide a clear booking confirmation page, streamline checkout steps, improve the intuitive process for canceling reservations, and enhance messaging feature visibility and reliability.
High Fidelity Wireframes
After conducting usability testing I made final adjustments to the design to address the concerns discovered during the last stage of testing. Below is the final design broken down into our key features.
Create a Group Trip
Users navigate Airbnb as usual, selecting their destination and travel dates. In the "Who is Coming" section, they can input details about each member, forming a group for the trip. Additionally, users can establish budgets and other trip constraints during setup.
Trip Information
Users experience a dynamic trip information page that adapts throughout the planning and execution process. Before booking accommodations, they can view saved options. and recommended activities from group members.
Messaging, Voting, & Booking
The enhanced group travel experience initiates a group trip chat automatically, ensuring seamless communication among all members. The messaging feature includes a voting mechanism for deciding on accommodations and activities. Once a decision is reached, booking is just a tap away.
Expense Reporting
One of the primary challenges of group trips is managing expenses. Airbnb simplifies this by enabling users to effortlessly log expenses, split them among trip members, and facilitate in-app payments between users.
Presentation Deck
For the project's final deliverable, I presented a comprehensive overview of our design process and showcased the final user experience. Below is the presentation deck I created to illustrate our journey and results.
Reflection
Iterative Design
The Airbnb collaboration feature underwent usability tests, revealing insights on visibility, accessibility, and clarity issues. Users identified problems in login, navigation, search, and reservation processes. While praising the modern design, users requested improved functionality like saving favorites and search filters. The iterative design process incorporates user feedback for continuous improvement, emphasizing the importance of refining the feature for a more user-centric experience on the Airbnb platform.
Mastery of UCD
This project immersed me in the realm of user experience design, providing an opportunity to delve into unexplored principles of user-centered design. Beyond comprehending user needs, it taught me the art of empathizing with users and effectively conveying that understanding to project stakeholders using personas, scenarios, storyboards, and more.