Integrating a new feature into the Airbnb design system to cater to the needs of families traveling with young children.
“When your dream vacation home lacks the baby gear you require, seamlessly enhance your rental experience via the Airbnb app!”
A capstone project for DesignLab focused on adding a new feature to an existing application.
My Role
Research, UX + UI Designer, Prototyping & Testing
Collaborators
Mentor, Group Crit Peers, Users Participants
Tools
Figma, Adobe Suite
Background
The inspiration for this added feature came from hearing frustrated parents discussing their recent vacations and the hassle of traveling with all of the gear needed for their infant's sleep and safety.
Objective
To understand parents' pain points when traveling to vacation homes with their young children. Gather data to create a solution for parents booking through airbnb.
Research & Empathize
Research Goal
To understand the specific requirements and challenges parents face when traveling with young children, focus on identifying their needs and preferences for baby equipment. Additionally, examine the current landscape of the baby equipment rental industry to assess the effectiveness of existing tools and services, to identify potential gaps or areas for improvement in meeting the diverse and evolving needs of traveling parents with infants and toddlers."
Methods & Objectives
Compare competitors in the baby gear rental industry. See where there is opportunity for AirBnB to improve their services.
Competitive Analysis
There are a few different models for baby equipment rentals; they are all small companies with limited cities that operate separately based on their network of affiliated staff
The sites and apps for these products are all unpolished and lack continuity between the brand, digital product, and experience on and off the screen.
User Interviews
6 Parents: With at least 1 child under 2 years old
Interview Insights
Motivations
To visit and have reunions with friends and family
Traveling and exploring new places near and far.
Having space for all of the family when traveling for an event.
Pain Points
Lugging around travel cribs, car seats, strollers, and suitcases through airports
Being limited to vacation rentals with adequate baby equipment.
Needs
A more convenient way to reserve baby travel gear for vacation
To travel with fewer large items while still meeting the sleep and safety needs of infants and families
Define
User Personas
User interviews revealed two personas with unique problems and specific needs.
Ideate
Why
Evaluate how best to incorporate baby equipment rentals into AirBnB’s business model and digital product.
How
Create Information Architecture, User Flows, Sketch Wireframes and build Prototype
Task Flow
Search for a rental home near Lake Tahoe, CA for a family trip to accommodate 2 infants. Add a stroller and travel crib onto the AirBnB reservation during the booking process.
Design
Style Guide
Following the AirBnB design system as a guide, I created components and variants for the cards, icons and buttons.
Sketching Wireframes
Referencing user flow as well well as existing Airbnb style and existing screens as a guide, I loosely sketched the wireframes for the added native ios app.
Lo-Fi Wireframes: Native iOS Application
Digitizing Wireframes
In Figma, I transferred my sketches into a prototype with a focus on mobile first design I added new icons, created a card layout, button placement, and overall airbnb UI design to seamlessly integrate the added feature.
Figma Prototype: Native iOS Mobile Application
Prototype
Why
Create a click-through prototype to model the users journey and experience and find areas that need improvement.
How
High-fidelity Figma click-through prototype with unique interactions and horizontal and vertical scrolling.
Test
Usability Testing
Conducted virtual user testing to reveal any friction in the search, selection, and checkout process to optimize the product and process. Evaluate if this concept solves the problem we set out to address.
How
Usability Testing (5 User Test Participants), Affinity Map, Priority Revision Matrix
User Tasks
User participants were given limited background on the added feature, to evaluate their understanding of the service provided and how it is included in their Airbnb reservation business model and rental process.
Users were asked to follow the prompts to select a rental then browse the products, select a stroller and travel crib, and complete the reservation process to find the areas of confusion and uncertainty.
Testing Goal
To test assumptions of how users would view the added baby equiopment rental feature and its relationship to the existing application.
Evaluate how users navigate the application, if they understand the scrolling, and reservation process.
Priority Revision Matrix: User Testing Feedback
User Testing Feedback
User testers mentioned not scrolling to the bottom of the rental home to get to the “rent baby equipment”
Users were looking for ways to quick add their infant rentals with out additional screens. Add price to quick add.
Some Users mentioned wanted to have a way to communicate with those in charge of baby rentals since they are not the same as the home rental owner.
Questions about the rental process and communication arose. How to make frequently asked questions more clear and obvious.
Iterate
How
Revisions were made to bring attention to the new feature. A pop- up was added in place of a CTA. This pop-up would only be displayed if user includes children under 2 in their original “add guests” filter. A section was added to summary and reservation page was added to allow for communication between user and baby rental equipment organization.
What’s different?
Added pop-up to introduce new baby equipment feature.
Whats different?
Prices added to item icons to allow for quick add “add to stay” button.
What’s different?
Added a shortcut for support, rental information and place to edit rental items.
Next Steps
Test the latest prototype with additional users and to improve the added feature.
Analyze the demographic data from AirBnB to identify potential beta testing locations for the proposed service. This analysis aims to determine the most popular family vacation destinations and metropolitan areas experiencing notable growth in the young family population.