Airbnb Bundles
For my Kleiner Perkins design project (*accepted as a KP Design Finalist), I was challenged to redesign a feature of Airbnb. I wanted to figure out: how can I break down the product and tell its story in a way that would maximize its business outcomes while increasing user satisfaction?
SKILLS
User research, Product design, Interaction Design, Prototyping
TIMELINE
Dec 2022 - Jan 2023
ROLE
Product Designer
Why Airbnb?
Booking an Airbnb is exciting — it holds the promise of adventure and allows travelers to call a new and unique place home. Airbnb offers guests a wholly different experience from existing accommodation services because of its goal of providing guests an 11-star experience.
Thus, I was motivated to delve deep into an already well-designed product. How might we allow users to attain more value from Airbnb by turning it into the go-to platform for booking accommodations and activities? Let's take a look.
Learning from users
I began through conversation. I discovered 8 users’ travel habits, learned how they navigate the Airbnb mobile app, and unveiled relevant pain points.
I found that users share similar stress points when planning activities during travel. Oftentimes, they spend tedious amounts of time looking for activities, which may involve cross referencing social media platforms, creating cluttered notes, or searching Google for hours. People ultimately want to maximize time spent creating memories when traveling.
Connecting user insights to business goals
While researching Airbnb, I found that Airbnb Experiences are a large part of Airbnb’s value proposition because they epitomize "living like a local". In fact, CEO Brian Chesky emphasizes that Airbnb differentiates itself from VRBO and Booking.com by providing unique and personal travel experiences.
Connecting the pain points of users to Airbnb's business goals, I wondered why users do not engage more with Airbnb Experiences.
Airbnb users are not attracted to 'Experiences' because of their lack of visibility compared to 'Stays'. There is a fragmentary user experience between the Stays and Experiences booking flows.
Mapping out pain points
Finding insights across separate platforms is painful and results in lost data.
Plotting ideas to find the most effective one
Ideas 4, 7, and 8 offer the highest value to the user and the business.*
*Although many of the other ideas add attractive standalone features to the app, they do not add much value to the entire booking flow.
Creating the new nav system
New cohesive navigation
Unclear how to view Experiences
Creating the bundle flow
Users can book multiple Stays and Experiences together.
New condensed checkout
Fragmented checkout experience
Creating the Wishlist comparison
New design
Previous design
01
Streamline your search
02
Book your favorite Stays and Experiences in one bundle.
03
Say goodbye to scroll fatigue with comparison mode.
Measuring success
Moving forward, I would want to conduct A/B tests between the previous design and the new design. Here are some metrics I would measure to determine whether the changes actually result in an improved experience:
01 Number of Airbnb Bundles booked per customer
02 Change in the number of Experiences booked
03 Number of clicks on the toggle to 'Listing Comparison' page from the Wishlist page
04 Number of listings booked from the Wishlist 'Listing Comparison' page
Champion your users
In an early iteration of the redesign, I added popular tourist destinations to the 'Experiences' page with the intention that this would increase eyes on the page.
As I continued designing, I realized that this did not align with the core values of Airbnb, which are to create connections between locals and travelers instead of catering to tourist destinations.
This was a key change that allowed me to realize the problem was not that Experiences weren’t enticing; it was that users do not book them as readily as Stays.