Designlab: Presenting UX Design
Designlab: Presenting UX Design
This was my 11th project as a UX student at DesignLab. I had to find one app that I use frequently and present it to my mentor.
As soon as I graduated from university in South Korea, I started traveling. I am not an organized person who tracks how many countries I’ve visited by collecting magnets (which I should’ve done…) However, as I was doing this project, I tried seeing my old pictures on my Facebook.
20 countries and 45 different airbnbs!
So, now you probably know what my “favorite app” would be. Here we go!
The first step of UX Design is to focus on the problems that people are experiencing. Well, let’s see for whom this app is made, and what problems it tries to solve.
Who is Airbnb for?
Airbnb is an American vacation rental online marketplace company based in San Francisco, California.
- People who travel, and need a place to stay with a reasonable price.
- People who want to connect with locals and experience like locals.
- Users who want to feel more personal touch and warmth at where they stay.
- People who want to find information about stay, experience, and adventure quickly.
What problems does the product try to solve?
- Providing lower cost places to stay (than hotels).
- Providing more opportunities to experience life like locals.
- Connecting hosts and guests so that they can share their stories and experiences.
- Saving time of looking up information about where to stay and what to do in one app.
- Helping people provide variety of options to stay at (unique, pet friendly, and nature-like).
- Helping locals to earn money, utilizing un-used places at home.
Before we get into how Airbnb solves problems, I would like to tell you my short story. As you will see in my pictures below, while I was traveling Switzerland, one Swiss lady from Airbnb prepared snacks and guide books for me. As soon as I got to the room, I couldn’t help but feel gratitude for her! She is amazing! That’s why I think that Airbnb is a chocolate box. You never know what you will get, but they are good.
How does the Airbnb do this?
1. Renting your Apartment
Unlike hotels which need money to sustain their business, Airbnb is where people rent their own place (entire, private, or dormitory) which requires less money for guests to pay. It’s also an easy way for people to start their small business to make extra money, utilizing their un-used space.
2. Connecting Hosts and Guests Directly
In order to book a place, guests need to message hosts directly. Through this process, they get to deliver expectations they have for each other. Also, guests can ask hosts where locals go, eat, and what to experience. Trust me, you can also make good friends who are willing to show you around! This is one of the things I personally love about airbnb — People!
3. Providing Experience and Adventures in One App
Airbnb doesn’t only help you find places to stay, but also the experience and adventures being led by local people. You don’t have to open up different search engines to find guaranteed activities. Yes, lots of time and effort saving! Guess what? With Covid-19, they are now provide online experience as well. How creative!
Of course, there were several things that I would like Airbnb to improve. Most of them are what I have experienced and thought “if only I had a friend working at Airbnb…” These are simple, but if I have a chance, I would love to explore more of the problems and find solutions to make Airbnb users’ experience better!
How would I make it differently?
(Below questions are what I actually had while using Airbnb!)
- “It takes time to check each message when I just want to check what the context was.”
For me, I like to make sure that everything ends well by checking messages with hosts time to time. However, it takes some time to load the whole conversation box when I only need to see a few sentences. I would add a feature to show 5 previous messaged by simply sliding each object cell (conversation) to check what my current conversation was with hosts.
2. “I want to check quickly if this host/guest is trustworthy.”
What if there’s a kindness temperature feature next to the profile which increases by leaving/receiving reviews?
3. “Where was this place that I stayed at?”
In Trip section, I would like to add World Map that shows where guests stayed at. It can be zoomed in/out.
4. “I get cold and hot easily”
What if we add a section that guests can write down their preferred room temperature?
5. Guests “We want opportunities to receive discount coupons.” AIRBNB “We need more feedback”
More opportunities for guests to give feedback and earn coupons.
6. “I clicked a red notification marker on my profile, and it said that I need to add my address; however, I can’t find exactly where the action needs to be taken.”
What if we let the red notification market (same color) lead until the final destination that guests can put their required information?
Thank you, Airbnb for traveling with me. You are my travel buddy.
Here are google presentation I originally created!
