Skills
User Research
Dovetail analysis
Design System
Component Sets
Project partner
Srishti Nag
Money + decisions + people sometimes feels impossible. Before Airbnb launched their group booking feature, we asked: "can we make this easy?"
According to preliminary research, as much as 55% of the bookings on Airbnb's platform is group travel. Venmo and other similar services have helped alleviate some of that complexity over the last decade, but they are a band-aid at best. Responding to our research, we considered collaborative wishlists, in-app messaging with collaborators, and built in split pay with registered airbnb users as the three-prongs to crack this equation.
Research analysis powered by Dovetail
It's not just the payment
Our first big learning from our target market segment was that the payment was just one piece of the frustration puzzle. If one is traveling as a group there can be A LOT of questions before money even enters the equation: "how do we see the options?", "how do we compare amenities?". Some, we found, were texting to arrange things—sharing links that could get lost in the shuffle of messages on a group thread. Some were having zoom meetings to talk out the options and try to make sense of the lists of options and amenities, and a combination of guilt and resentment were bubbling up for users whether they were organizers or the cats being herded. Even though our respondents knew we were conducting the research as a thought experiment, we felt a desperation and excitement for a better option that was truly inspiring. After completing our affinity maps, we could see there was a definite need up and down the user flow, and some good options were bubbling to the surface.
Focus
We looked at the leading holiday booking services and found that no services actually had a solution to any of the problems that we had identified in our research. A vision was coalescing in our minds and it looked like it was a unique concept in the market place. We started considering the user flow as it stood in the Airbnb app experience, and included the top-level improvements and additions. That was looking like it was beyond our scope, so we decided to eliminate the 'chat/conferencing' function. The other elements essentially amounted to "wishlist changes" and "payment changes", which felt manageable
Collaborative wishlist flow, allowing split payments with collaborators
Crazy 8s, wireframes, and building component sets to mimic the existing airbnb interface.
Interface
Next we set about recreating the Airbnb interface from the ground up—including researching their design system, fonts, et cetera. When it came time for user testing we wanted it to be as seamless as possible. When we realized we would have four options for payments, we knew we had to expand on what Airbnb currently does to visualize payments. They offer a "Pay now" option, "Pay part now, part later with Airbnb", and then a "Pay in 4 with Klarna" option. At three options, one could argue they already should use something more than a hairline rule to separate these options, but with split payment functionality, we saw fit to illustrate the four options. We opted for a wallet to "Pay now", a clock to "Pay over time", three arrows to split, and the Klarna K. We discussed the possible negatives of the Klarna brand recognition inclining a user to go off platform rather than use the three Airbnb options, and considered a "4 parts" for Klarna, but ultimately thought that could be a choice that might confuse rather than disappear.
Putting it together
Adding guests mid-booking felt like an answer to feature adoption win for us. Even if the 'power booker' who is arranging everybody's travel has already figured out this booking, the ability to split at the end and either add existing platform users or invite new-users felt like a powerful tool. Looking back it's clear that there needs to be selling language here to guide the booker in their split/addition of users.
How'd we do?
We went back to a handful of our initial respondents and conducted a simple user text with our prototype and heard positivity from both of our de facto personas: the resentful organizer who wishes there was less work for them to do, and the dissatisfied, guilty, or clueless guest who either doesn't pay on time or didn't get what they wanted out of the booking.The organizers loved that it would be Airbnb who kept guests accountable and that the booking could be reserved, but not completed until all the guests paid. Guests loved that their voices could be heard asynchronously in the ratings section of the wishlist, and that the options could be compared and sorted directly, with no listing / option ever going missing.