PROJECT SUMMARY
Outside of vacation rentals, many current and potential Airbnb hosts have spaces that could be rented out for single use events and special occasions; not necessarily for overnight accommodations.
OVERVIEW
Create a first-class means to increase the ability of event space owners and event planners to find one another through the Airbnb mobile application.
SCOPE
2 Week Sprint
TEAM
Andy Morris Frances Biedenharn Jennifer Regan Nigel Durham
ROLE
Researcher, Copywriter, Interaction Designer, Content Strategist
METHODS USED
SURVEYS, USER INTERVIEWS, CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY, COMPETITIVE AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, AFFINITY MAPPING, PERSONA, JOURNEY MAPPING, FEATURE PRIORITIZATION, SKETCHING, WIREFRAMES, DESIGN STUDIO, RAPID PROTOTYPING, USABILITY TESTING
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Event planners seeking a space to hold their events would like to connect with Airbnb hosts who offer unique event-spaces for rent.
How do we connect Airbnb accommodations hosts with guests seeking to rent space to hold their event?
RESEARCH INSIGHTS
Screener survey: 22 responses | 8 User interviews
Top 3 Questions
What criteria determined the event space in your search?
How did you go about booking the event space?
How did you advertise the event?
Painpoints
Listing event spaces
Refined Search
Booking event spaces
Social sharing
Top Responses
"Capacity of the space is very important."
"Shopped around to find the best deals."
"Shared listings on other social media platforms."
areas of importance
Cost and Affordability
Connection to Community
Networking Opportunities
Accessibility
Environment
PERSONAS
two primary personas
The three patterns that stood out the most were users interest in listing event spaces, booking event spaces and refined search methods and criteria for finding each. It became clear that listing and booking event spaces were indeed two different tasks for two separate sets of users — from here we were able to begin defining two primary personas from the data and use our third finding, refined search methods, as the connection tool for both personas.
SOLUTION
Aaron and beth are both power users within the Airbnb spectrum. We call them “aces”. Airbnb already has a platform for connecting like minds with like spaces. Lets use what Airbnb already does well to connect Aaron and Beth, but specifically for event spaces for rent. We dubbed this, Airbnb Ace Events.
PROTOTYPE ITERATIONS + USABILITY TESTING
ITERATION 1
Now, with a solution to connect Aaron, the space owner, with Beth, the space seeker, we built out the first of three mobile prototypes.
Iteration 1 began simple, though users were a bit overwhelmed by starting their usability testing on a previously determined screen within the app, they wanted to begin their journey by first going to a profile page. Verbiage and search placement were also indicating a need for change, however, users overall liked the simplicity of the app itself.
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ITERATION 2
Making necessary adjustments to our second iteration, users were uniformly interested in the search feature, however, they were still a bit confused by “Host Mode” and what it meant.
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ITERATION 3: HIGH FIDELITY
Seeing a trend in the ability to tailor an event in host mode or to seek out event spaces by refined search criteria was an important functionality to creating Airbnb Ace Events. Not only does the refined search in our hi-fidelity iteration help the user find event spaces, placing Ace Events at the forefront of the application as a branded feature within the Airbnb app, helps to differentiate it from other, more common Airbnb CTAs.
With the added function of being able to manage her events from the app, Beth is able to keep all pertinent information, like venue contacts, contracts and address in one location.
Beth is also able to create an Ace Event and invite friends to her exclusive events directly from the application or by sharing her page through third party social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Because navigability is important to any user-flow, we’ve added continuous scrolling, next step buttons, and the Airbnb Ace Events logo for better, more intuitive navigation.
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HI-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
NEXT STEPS
We’d like to see further user research, including, more usability testing on future iterations, market analysis to better understand the needs, assumptions and behaviors of users seeking to rent and/or list event space. Expanded user profiles in the existing Airbnb platform could benefit and highlight the spacial needs of their user-base and how the profile plays a role in creating a more robust platform for its users.
