User Experience Design Course Project

Desk Research

By doing desk research and going on Airbnb online community and other online forum like Reddit and Quora I was able to find out that lots of people were having similar issues.

Landscape Review

I also looked at other similar industry website like www.booking.com and www.expedia.com.

Insights from the landscape review revealed that most similar website showed refined search result based on location.

User had maximum control over sorting and filtering their search result listing according to their requirements.

Heuristic Review

Furthermore while doing heuristic review using Nielsen's 10 Usability Heuristics, I found the website had following issue in relation to search function.

Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform and industry conventions.

Qualitative Research Method - Interviews

Conducted interview and usability testing with 5 Airbnb users to get a better understanding of their search experience and identify problem spaces for improvement.

Qualitative Research Method - Interviews

Affinity Mapping Tool was used to synthesize the user research findings. Feedback from the users was grouped into themes and broad categories like distance, map, location and price factor.

Insights & Recommendations

Affinity Mapping Tool was used to synthesize the user research findings.

Top Insights

Insight #1

Feedback from the users was grouped into themes and broad categories like distance, map, location and price factor.

Recommendation

Improve the search result listing to show a more refined search results to the user and gives users more control to find the results that are the most suited to their needs.

Insight #2

Most user used the map in conjunction with the search listing to help them with their search for a place to stay. Some experienced a lot of difficulty using the map because of its refresh rate and how it zoomed in and zoomed out leaving the user feeling a bit lost and frustrated..

Recommendation

Give the user options to get used to the map first.

Insight #3

Most user seemed to get lost while using the map to figure out the distance and location and had to resort to using Google Map to figure out how far the accommodation was actually located from the place, they wanted to stay.

Recommendation

Provide the reference markers on the map to specify the distance in kms so that user can get a better idea of the actual distance

Insight #4

Most user seemed to get lost while using the map to figure out the distance and location and had to resort to using Google Map to figure out how far the accommodation was actually located from the place, they wanted to stay.

Recommendation

Provide the reference markers on the map to specify the distance in kms so that user can get a better idea of the actual distance

Insight #5

Most user used the map in conjunction with the search listing to help them with their search for a place to stay. Some experienced a lot of difficulty using the map because of its refresh rate and how it zoomed in and zoomed out leaving the user feeling a bit lost and frustrated..

Recommendation

Give the user the option to sort by price.

# For this project I focused only on the search result listing and not on the map search result listing since it was out of scope for the piece I am working on.

Ideation

Keeping in mind the insights and recommendations from the previous stage I started with a brain dumping exercise to come up with as many ideas as possible and focused on the quantity and not the quality of ideas.

To improve the search function I also revisited and explored the problem space by looking at other similar industry website where solution already exists like www.booking.com and www.expedia.com.

Story Board

Crazy 8s

I did a crazy 8's exercise to come up with design concepts for the search listing page to resolve the issues that was revealed in the user research stage focusing on HOW MIGHT WE solve the problem.

Prioritisation

Effort vs impact

Using the Effort vs Impact method based on my perceived understanding of which idea will be easy to implement but will have a higher impact I prioritised ideas and focused on the ones that were easy to implement but will have a higher impact.

Currently Airbnb already has filters for min and max price so my perceived understanding is that it will be easy for them to incorporate Sort by price so I have put that feature as easy to implement quadrant with high impact.

Keeping in mind that they don't have any filters relating to distance (km) it is my reasoning that it will take them technically more effort so I have put Sort by Distance into higher impact but higher effort quadrant.

Low-fidelity paper prototype

Sketched out low fidelity wireframes incorporating the concept ideas that was prioritized

Low-fidelity digital prototype

Moved onto low-fidelity digital prototype incorporating some changes

User Testing

Conducted moderated usability testing with user from the user research session. Low fidelity prototype testing revealed the following insights and issues

Mid-Fidelity prototype

Following recommendation were incorporated into the Mid-fidelity clickable prototype

• In the Sort by dropdown menu "Location" was highlighted for the default search state
• Renamed Sort by Distance from centre to Distance from centre of XYZ
• 300+ stays found with the mention of 100km distance was removed and accommodation within 15km from the centre was added giving the user more choice

More User Testing, Insights & recommendation

Mid fidelity prototype user testing revealed the following insights and issues

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  Users asked for Sort by Low to High option

• 

  For distance beside km users wanted hours and minutes to get a sense of how much time it will take them to travel mentioned that it would take to get to that place

• 

  User wanted the flexibility to increase the search radius of the location.

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  One user suggested since the current Airbnb doesn't have a filter option pane on the left hand side it will be good to give the user an option to show or hide the filter option pane.