A Case Study-Searching Effectively on Airbnb
Tags: Storytelling, Search, Airbnb, User Centered Design, Case Study

Pain point 1:

No way to search stays by point of interests

From user’s reviews, many people's complaints are that the accommodations are at a very far distance from the place they want to visit, or even very far from the middle of the city.

Most people focus on good price and location when they choose accommodations. They want to stay around points of interest and close to attractions in the city. But the user flow lacks some features guiding travelers to make the decision easier, users have no way to see how far they are from the museums, restaurants, and bars where they plan on going. Users have to repeatedly switch over other sites researching locations back and forth for hours. That experience leaves users frustrated.

Pain point 2:

No way to filter Ratings on the listing

Users only can filter by price, bedrooms, amenities, types, and rules, etc... But there is no way to filter higher ratings. As a result, users take a longer time to browse and find higher ratings that should be listed on the top.

Pain point 3 :

No neighborhood explore on the detail page

While Airbnb may not provide the exact address before booking because of privacy. But users are not able to see what is around the accommodation through the map. However travelers like to enjoy attractions near their lodgings, there where access to restaurants/public transportation/cafes/grocery stores.

How to solve these problems?

Low-fidelity wireframe

I spent quite a long time brainstorming to find the best solution that tackles all the problems mentioned above. Here is the proposal I decided to create:

1. Give travelers a better idea of what neighborhoods they might want to stay in:

To give travelers more ideas about where to stay, I created a new feature ‘Explore’ which can proactively suggest places of interest to streamline the planning and research process. Users will able to explore popular places and browse stays near top attractions, commercial areas, etc. Searching by keywords within a particular location will save users a lot of time instead of reading reviews and descriptions of listings.

2. Browse listings through a map:

For solving user complaints where they repeatedly looked between map and listing. I added a feature map to the top of the listing. Users will able to select locations while browsing listings.

3. Distance and Rating filter on listings:

I also added ‘distance’ and ‘rating’ on the filters bar. Users will able to filter shorter distances and higher ratings.

4. Walking Distance to points of interest:

I moved the feature location with the map to the front of the page. In addition, I added walking distance to public transit and attractions based on searching data. Users will able to check the distance immediately after entering the detail page.

5. Discover neighborhoods:

Just below the map, users will able to discover their neighborhood attractions such as access to public transportation, a thriving nightlife scene, and proximity to local events. Furthermore, they can see the route and how long it takes to get there.

The Design Principles

From spec.fm

From Airbnb. design

1.The 8-Point Grid System

Utilizing an even number like 8 to size and space elements makes scaling for a wide variety of devices easy and consistent.

2. Airbnb Design System

Maintaining Airbnb’s main colors, big spacing, and elements language to keep consistent.

Final Input