Project type
Adding a feature
(Passion project)
Time
2024
My role
Product Designer
Overview
With the increasing number of people working remotely and traveling, more and more people need to find a suitable place that fits all their working needs. This is a conceptual project enhancing the existing Airbnb app and solving the most common problems for this group of users.
Problem
When searching for a place for remote work, critical factors, such as internet speed and stability and availability of a dedicated workspace, often remain uncertain during the booking process.
Users feel disappointed when they arrive at the place, and spend a lot of time searching for suitable listings or contacting the the host.
Goals
Increase user's confidence about the internet quality before they visit the place
Make searching remote working places easier, to save users time and ensure they will find a place fitting their needs
Reduce the gap between expectations and reality to prevent users from feeling tricked or disappoint
New internet info and reviews
In the listing detail, users are now able to see detailed information about internet quality and reviews from users, helping them to understand how suitable the place is for working and video calls.
New label filtering places suitable for work
Users can clearly see homes suitable for working and easily filter them using the top category bar.
Remote working +
This listing has great working amenities and internet verified by guests.
New filtering possibilities
Specific remote working characteristics are added to the filter menu, helping users find their desired place quickly.
Workplace details and links
Enhanced workplace information and links to important photos are solving problems where users are often disappointed by the workplace quality (table, chair) and need to scroll through a lot of photos.
For the last 2 years, I was fortunate enough to try the “digital nomad” lifestyle and traveled worldwide. When choosing the theme for my next project, I remembered the countless issues I had when choosing accommodation good for remote working and decided to dig deeper into this problem.
Based on the current studies, the number of digital worldwide is rapidly growing, and big companies in the travel industry are also changing their business strategies, focusing more on long-term stays.
In 2024, there is over
digital nomads worldwide.
47% of fall into the
category
50% moves every
to another location
After conducting the moderated interviews (the target group was people working remotely in various places/countries as working conditions in SE Asia are different than in Europe), I started to understand the specific problems occurring for most of them. I used affinity mapping to gather and cluster all the insights together…
Internet is the #1 priority
Users prioritize a stable and reliable internet connection over speed, as they need to conduct video calls without interruption or lag.
Wifi speed and stability are often unclear and unreliable. Users see the wifi speed or filter on Airbnb, but they do not know what it means or how stable it is.
Workspace is the #2
Some users need a large or adjustable desk, a comfortable chair
Some users carry portable monitors and would pay extra if monitor is included
Expectations vs reality are often mismatched. Users feel tricked or disappointed when the place they booked does not match the description or photos
Reviews and labels
People trust reviews and use them to verify or find missing information
Labels like "rare find” and "super host" have significant effect on users when selecting the property
Users need a quiet and cozy place to work to be focused and feel good
Based on the most prominent insights from the interviews, I began with ideation and brainstormed different approaches and solutions to solve user's problems. Due to the limited timeline, I also assessed the feasibility and viability of each solution and decided on the final project scope.
UI patterns explorations
Remote working label
I decided to choose the Remote working + label instead of the icon symbolizing laptop, as it was the clearest and most specific way how to separate the listings from others.
Links to workspace preview
I spent some time thinking about how to design the links to preview the pictures of the specific workspace and only after user testing I realized that people already know similar design pattern from the section "Where you'll sleep"
As the last step of the process, I conducted a series of moderated usability tests, asking users to complete tasks like finding a place suitable for remote working. My goal was to verify if the new features are understandable and they don't interfere with the existing Airbnb patterns.
Changes after user testing
If this was a real project, it would be important to carefully plan the rollout and test, to ensure that the new features don't negatively impact the current user base.
According to this article, Spain 🇪🇸 and Indonesia 🇮🇩 are currently trending destinations for remote workers and would be great countries for a small-scale rollout, to test the features with a larger user group.
It would be also interesting to compare user behavior in different countries, for example in SE Asia countries the problems with the internet are much more common, but more and more digital nomads are choosing them as their base.
