AirBnb’s Group Trips

| Mobile App Feature

Plan and book your group getaway all together, anywhere and anytime

 

OVERVIEW

Who knows, when the pandemic is over we would all be very excited to be somewhere else to create new experiences with our own groups, but as of the moment all we can do is organize and look forward to our next group trip together, with the help of a seamless and simple tool.

I am not in any way affiliated with Airbnb in this project. I am just another app and website user who is curious about how I could make it easier and more organized for groups of people; may it be friends, families or workmates to plan their future stays through the Airbnb app.

 

ROLE & DURATION

Experience Designer | 6 days

  • User Research

  • Information Architecture

  • Interaction & Visual design

  • Wireframing

  • Prototyping

Task

Design a feature for Airbnb, allowing a group of friends to plan and book their mutual vacation

About Airbnb

Knowing the company’s background, their goals and values helped me design this group feature within their existing product.

 

Mission

Airbnb's mission is to help create a world where you can belong anywhere and where people can live in a place, instead of just traveling to it.

Vision

Belong Anywhere

Values

  • Champion the Mission

  • Be a Host

  • Simplify

  • Every Frame Matters

  • Be a Cereal Entrepreneur

  • Embrace the adventure

 

Why design this?

 
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For the Users

better communication, transparent and easy to follow planning progress for people booking their vacation together - from different places at different times

 
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For Airbnb

to encourage groups to book more through the app together; creating a potential to expand their current market

Users’ Perspective

To me, this has been the most important part of this project. My understanding of the users is the foundation of how I designed every detail of the product.

 

Who

(is our user)

Group of friends or families planning a "staycation"/ vacation together:

  • Group Organizer

  • Participants

When

(do they plan)

They plan anytime of the year for different occasions such as: birthdays/anniversaries/weekend getaways/school breaks/holidays.

Where

(do they communicate)

They start communicating years/months/weeks ahead through their mobile phones on their idle/free times.


Users’ Feelings

  • Excited

  • Anxious

Users’ Needs

  • participation

  • organization

  • transparency

 

Considerations when planning

  • date

  • destination

  • budget

  • privacy

  • activities (in/out of property premise)

  • accessibility

What we can do

A. In-app group messaging system

- group participants will chat and suggest places then enable votations and comments + anyone can initiate payment and booking for the entire group

B. Shared saved stay

- group's organizer chooses stay + pay + book + share the link of stay + participants will pay the organizer separately; they can add the trip to their individual saved stays

C. Create a "Group Trips" tab

- create own group + invite people + input number of people joining + add recommendation + choose a stay and date + wait for everyone to confirm + split payment & pay + book

 
 
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I chose C. Create a "Group Trips" tab because it....

  • allows the group to brainstorm first before confirmation and payment

  • creates an opportunity for each participant to be involved in every step of the booking process

  • creates more impact on the target users of the project and may attract a new market such as backpackers/soul searchers/adventure seekers

Storyboard

Taking one of Airbnb’s well known values: “Every frame matters” into this project allowed me to slice each of the important moments in the user’s journey within the app and to understand better where their feelings and needs could be addressed.

 
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Applied Idea

The feature allows each participant of a group to be involved in every step of the planning process while maintaining organization through simple progressive pages that should guide them towards the goal which is to book a stay. I also showed transparency in every step such as: the choices that the group makes, stay details and the payment methods and transactions.

 

User Journey

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Wireframes

These skeletal frames allowed me to implement and modify ideas quickly and easily just before jumping in to the high fidelity version.

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HIgh- Fidelity Prototype

 

Conclusion & Development

 

Airbnb has been successful in developing products that simplify processes for its partners/the hosts and their guests . But the task of this project allowed me to explore on the untapped segment of their market which has a potential to bring more value to the company and its users.Allowing the group members to participate in organized and transparent ways, gives them the confidence to book their stay smoothly and easily and excitedly plan for the next one!

This project could be developed and improved through a user testing. It should give us a better understanding of the users and create a much simpler and effective design.

Done is better than perfect

— Sheryl Sandberg

 
 
I believe that the time pressure I have set on this project stretched my ability:
  • to squeeze out all the ideas with minimal or no distractions and then just go back to the important details as I gain more understanding along the way 
  • to learn and adapt to a new tool quickly; from Adobe XD to using Figma