Airbnb: Itinerary
Streamlining the local travel experience
TYPE
Independent Project
TIMELINE
2 weeks
DISCIPLINE
Product Strategy
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
TOOLS
Figma
Contents
01
Overview
As a tourist exploring a new area, it's common to search for the 'Top 10 things to do' and easily find the most touristy locations and activities.
However, many travelers seek local experiences but struggle to find information about what these experiences entail and how to get involved. This requires extensive research, demanding a lot of time and effort.
In response to this challenge, Airbnb, a platform widely used by travelers, introduced Airbnb Experiences in 2016. Airbnb Experiences are unique activities designed and hosted by locals, going beyond typical tourist activities. They immerse travelers in local culture and offer opportunities to engage with actual locals. Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
02
Problem
Travelers want to immerse in local experiences, but struggle to do so.
Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we enhance Airbnb Experiences to ensure a more streamlined and authentic local travel experience?
03
Solution
Discover, plan, and experience local travel– all in one app.
Expanding Airbnb beyond just Stays
Placing Experiences and Plan Trips on the top tabs of the landing screen shifts Airbnb's primary focus away from Stays alone.
Relocated Experiences to the landing screen for easy discoverability
Introduced a new tab, Plan Trips
Find your perfect itinerary
Browse through the itineraries, generated based on the available times of activities, and choose the one that works for you.
Lock in activities to refine your itinerary options
Selected
Modeling photo tour at palace
Selected
Carve a stone seal with a craft woman
Selected
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
Selected
Korean bbq place of the month
Plan your perfect trip in one app
Seamlessly plan your entire trip by discovering tailored experiences, building your itinerary, and booking your journey.
1
Open the Plan Trips tab
2
Input trip details
3
Select your preferences
4
Build your trip
Personalized based on the preferences provided
5
Itinerary Builder
The selected experiences are input into the Itinerary Builder, which then auto-generates working itineraries based on preferences and the available time slots of the selected experiences.
Next
Save and close
Book
2
Monday
9:00 AM
Carve a stone seal
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
1:00 PM
Alleyways, Courtyards and Hidden Sights
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
3
Tuesday
9:00 AM
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
12:00 PM
Biking tour of Hidden Sights
12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
4:00 PM
Kimchi making day experience
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Find your Stay
Studio in Apgujeong
Hosted by Kate
Apartment in Yongs...
Hosted by Adam
Room in Garosu
Hosted by Sate
Edit
Itinerary Builder
Explore the itineraries created just for you.
1 of 12 options
Find your Stay and add it to your itinerary
04
Design Process
The Initial Experience
In aiming to leverage Airbnb Experiences to solve travelers' struggles in discovering and organizing local activities, I began by understanding its current limitations.
THE CURRENT EXPERIENCE
The hidden Airbnb Experiences.
Airbnb Experiences are hidden within the search bar and spread across three pages, making it hard to access and discover.
Establishing Scope
The solution goes beyond a simple redesign.
Our initial approach to dark mode was to invert the color scale from our design system. However, incomplete component coverage across the platform led to inconsistent visuals and functionality.
To understand where these issues came from and how to move forward, I conducted a design audit to identify gaps and evaluate which components needed to be rebuilt or refined for a more consistent dark mode design system.
A typical process to travel with local experiences is:
Currently, Airbnb Experiences primarily focuses on steps 1 and 2, shaping the scope of my project to comprehensively enhance the entire process of traveling like a local and bridge the gap between discovery, planning, and booking for a seamless user journey.
User Research
I began research with user interviews to fully grasp how people travel.
To ask the right questions, I set research goals:
01
Learn about people’s travel habits and preferences
02
Understand people’s trip planning processes
I conducted 5 user interviews and used affinity maps to summarize my findings.
01
People are not familiar with Airbnb Experiences.
02
Travelers use a mix of several resources when researching and planning.
03
Travelers highly prioritize local experiences.
04
Travelers value reviews and input from others who have been there.
05
People don’t like to spend a lot of time planning trips.
06
Trip planning in a group is difficult due to differing priorities and budgets.
Drawing from key insights, I summarized user frustrations during travel and converted them into user goals.
Competitive Analysis
A deep dive into trip planning processes.
The core reason for the existence of Airbnb Experiences is to assist travelers who aspire to, but face challenges in, traveling like a local. While enhancing discoverability is crucial, it doesn’t fully tackle the root issue.
I then analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of five competitors, ensuring at least one competitor for each part of the three-step process.
a trip booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a wide range of services
- Recognizable global brand
WEAKNESSES
- Doesn’t include local experiences
- Unable to easily compare services
a crowdsourced travel platform
STRENGTHS
- Gains credibility through authentic reviews and recommendations from real travelers.
WEAKNESSES
- Focuses on touristy activities
a travel activity booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a diverse array of travel activities
WEAKNESSES
- Not necessarily local activities, as a large portion of the activities are tours of touristy locations
a travel itinerary planner
STRENGTHS
- Collaboration feature for groups
- Map feature makes it easy to visualize trip
WEAKNESSES
- Limited local experiences
- Can’t book experiences directly on the platform
all-inclusive search engine
STRENGTHS
- Common starting point for trip-planning
- Provides extensive information
WEAKNESSES
- Time-consuming to find specific information
- Information is scattered
- Primarily a starting point
Identifying Market Gap
Using my findings from my competitive analysis, I used a Positioning Matrix to to identify the market gap that my project could target. The axes were determined based on priorities I discovered from user interviews.
Mapping Out the Solution
I started by diverging broadly, mapping out all possible features for the redesign.
Using research insights and the project’s time constraints as guides, I then converged on the highest-priority features that had the greatest potential to improve the user experience within scope.
Now that I’ve determined what features to incorporate into my redesign, I constructed user flows to outline the flow of my designs.
Design Iterations
Diverging as much as possible, I listed all potential features to incorporate into my redesign. Then, I identified the highest-priority features to design based on my research findings and the short project timeframe.
First iteration
CTA to find a stay inserted between days
Clear call-to-action button
Hinders users from seamlessly scanning through itineraries
Requires navigating to another screen to start browsing stays
CHOSEN DESIGN
Second iteration
Stay options at the end of the itinerary
Doesn’t interrupt the itinerary UX
Users can browse stays directly on the pages
Needs to scroll to the bottom of the itinerary to see
Next Project
Tegus: Panel Calls
Improving investment research through Panel Calls
Sunny
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About
Airbnb: Itinerary
Streamlining the local travel experience
TYPE
Independent Project
TIMELINE
2 weeks
DISCIPLINE
Product Strategy
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
TOOLS
Figma
Contents
05
Reflection
01
Overview
As a tourist exploring a new area, it's common to search for the 'Top 10 things to do' and easily find the most touristy locations and activities.
However, many travelers seek local experiences but struggle to find information about what these experiences entail and how to get involved. This requires extensive research, demanding a lot of time and effort.
In response to this challenge, Airbnb, a platform widely used by travelers, introduced Airbnb Experiences in 2016. Airbnb Experiences are unique activities designed and hosted by locals, going beyond typical tourist activities. They immerse travelers in local culture and offer opportunities to engage with actual locals. Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
02
Problem
Travelers want to immerse in local experiences, but struggle to do so.
Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we enhance Airbnb Experiences to ensure a more streamlined and authentic local travel experience?
03
Solution
Discover, plan, and experience local travel– all in one app.
Expanding Airbnb beyond just Stays
Placing Experiences and Plan Trips on the top tabs of the landing screen shifts Airbnb's primary focus away from Stays alone.
Relocated Experiences to the landing screen for easy discoverability
Introduced a new tab, Plan Trips
Find your perfect itinerary
Browse through the itineraries, generated based on the available times of activities, and choose the one that works for you.
Lock in activities to refine your itinerary options
Selected
Modeling photo tour at palace
Selected
Carve a stone seal with a craft woman
Selected
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
Selected
Korean bbq place of the month
Plan your perfect trip in one app
Seamlessly plan your entire trip by discovering tailored experiences, building your itinerary, and booking your journey.
1
Open the Plan Trips tab
2
Input trip details
3
Select your preferences
4
Build your trip
Personalized based on the preferences provided
5
Itinerary Builder
The selected experiences are input into the Itinerary Builder, which then auto-generates working itineraries based on preferences and the available time slots of the selected experiences.
Next
Save and close
Book
2
Monday
9:00 AM
Carve a stone seal
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
1:00 PM
Alleyways, Courtyards and Hidden Sights
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
3
Tuesday
9:00 AM
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
12:00 PM
Biking tour of Hidden Sights
12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
4:00 PM
Kimchi making day experience
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Find your Stay
Studio in Apgujeong
Hosted by Kate
Apartment in Yongs...
Hosted by Adam
Room in Garosu
Hosted by Sate
Edit
Itinerary Builder
Explore the itineraries created just for you.
1 of 12 options
Find your Stay and add it to your itinerary
04
Design Process
The Initial Experience
In aiming to leverage Airbnb Experiences to solve travelers' struggles in discovering and organizing local activities, I began by understanding its current limitations.
THE CURRENT EXPERIENCE
The hidden Airbnb Experiences.
Airbnb Experiences are hidden within the search bar and spread across three pages, making it hard to access and discover.
Establishing Scope
The solution goes beyond a simple redesign.
The core reason for the existence of Airbnb Experiences is to assist travelers who aspire to, but face challenges in, traveling like a local. While enhancing discoverability is crucial, it doesn’t fully tackle the root issue.
A typical process to travel with local experiences is:
Currently, Airbnb Experiences primarily focuses on steps 1 and 2, shaping the scope of my project to comprehensively enhance the entire process of traveling like a local and bridge the gap between discovery, planning, and booking for a seamless user journey.
User Research
I began research with user interviews to fully grasp how people travel.
To ask the right questions, I set research goals:
01
Learn about people’s travel habits and preferences
02
Understand people’s trip planning processes
I conducted 5 user interviews and used affinity maps to summarize my findings.
01
People are not familiar with Airbnb Experiences.
02
Travelers use a mix of several resources when researching and planning.
03
Travelers highly prioritize local experiences.
04
Travelers value reviews and input from others who have been there.
05
People don’t like to spend a lot of time planning trips.
06
Trip planning in a group is difficult due to differing priorities and budgets.
Drawing from key insights, I summarized user frustrations during travel and converted them into user goals.
Competitive Analysis
A deep dive into trip planning processes.
The core reason for the existence of Airbnb Experiences is to assist travelers who aspire to, but face challenges in, traveling like a local. While enhancing discoverability is crucial, it doesn’t fully tackle the root issue.
I then analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of five competitors, ensuring at least one competitor for each part of the three-step process.
a trip booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a wide range of services
- Recognizable global brand
WEAKNESSES
- Doesn’t include local experiences
- Unable to easily compare services
a crowdsourced travel platform
STRENGTHS
- Gains credibility through authentic reviews and recommendations from real travelers.
WEAKNESSES
- Focuses on touristy activities
a travel activity booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a diverse array of travel activities
WEAKNESSES
- Not necessarily local activities, as a large portion of the activities are tours of touristy locations
a travel itinerary planner
STRENGTHS
- Collaboration feature for groups
- Map feature makes it easy to visualize trip
WEAKNESSES
- Limited local experiences
- Can’t book experiences directly on the platform
all-inclusive search engine
STRENGTHS
- Common starting point for trip-planning
- Provides extensive information
WEAKNESSES
- Time-consuming to find specific information
- Information is scattered
- Primarily a starting point
Identifying Market Gap
Using my findings from my competitive analysis, I used a Positioning Matrix to to identify the market gap that my project could target. The axes were determined based on priorities I discovered from user interviews.
Mapping Out the Solution
Using my findings from my competitive analysis, I used a Positioning Matrix to to identify the market gap that my project could target. The axes were determined based on priorities I discovered from user interviews.
Now that I’ve determined what features to incorporate into my redesign, I constructed user flows to outline the flow of my designs.
Design Iterations
I started by diverging broadly, mapping out all possible features for the redesign.
Using research insights and the project’s time constraints as guides, I then converged on the highest-priority features that had the greatest potential to improve the user experience within scope.
First iteration
CTA to find a stay inserted between days
Clear call-to-action button
Hinders users from seamlessly scanning through itineraries
Requires navigating to another screen to start browsing stays
CHOSEN DESIGN
Second iteration
Stay options at the end of the itinerary
Doesn’t interrupt the itinerary UX
Users can browse stays directly on the pages
Needs to scroll to the bottom of the itinerary to see
Next Project
Tegus: Panel Calls
Improving investment research through Panel Calls
Sunny
Work
Play
About
Airbnb
Itinerary
↑
TYPE
Independent Project
TIMELINE
2 weeks
DISCIPLINE
Product Strategy
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
TOOLS
Figma
Contents
05
Reflection
01
Overview
As a tourist exploring a new area, it's common to search for the 'Top 10 things to do' and easily find the most touristy locations and activities.
However, many travelers seek local experiences but struggle to find information about what these experiences entail and how to get involved. This requires extensive research, demanding a lot of time and effort.
In response to this challenge, Airbnb, a platform widely used by travelers, introduced Airbnb Experiences in 2016. Airbnb Experiences are unique activities designed and hosted by locals, going beyond typical tourist activities. They immerse travelers in local culture and offer opportunities to engage with actual locals. Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
02
Problem
Travelers want to immerse in local experiences, but struggle to do so.
Despite Airbnb's efforts to help travelers integrate into local experiences, Airbnb Experiences have struggled to gain traction and haven't fully streamlined the process of planning trips with local experiences.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we enhance Airbnb Experiences to ensure a more streamlined and authentic local travel experience?
03
Solution
Discover, plan, and experience local travel– all in one app.
Expanding Airbnb beyond just Stays
Placing Experiences and Plan Trips on the top tabs of the landing screen shifts Airbnb's primary focus away from Stays alone.
Relocated Experiences to the landing screen for easy discoverability
Introduced a new tab, Plan Trips
Find your perfect itinerary
Browse through the itineraries, generated based on the available times of activities, and choose the one that works for you.
Lock in activities to refine your itinerary options
Selected
Modeling photo tour at palace
Selected
Carve a stone seal with a craft woman
Selected
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
Selected
Korean bbq place of the month
Plan your perfect trip in one app
Seamlessly plan your entire trip by discovering tailored experiences, building your itinerary, and booking your journey.
1
Open the Plan Trips tab
2
Input trip details
3
Select your preferences
4
Build your trip
Personalized based on the preferences provided
5
Itinerary Builder
The selected experiences are input into the Itinerary Builder, which then auto-generates working itineraries based on preferences and the available time slots of the selected experiences.
Next
Save and close
Book
2
Monday
9:00 AM
Carve a stone seal
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
1:00 PM
Alleyways, Courtyards and Hidden Sights
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
3
Tuesday
9:00 AM
Create a mother-of-pearl inlaid plate
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
12:00 PM
Biking tour of Hidden Sights
12:00 PM - 2:30 PM
4:00 PM
Kimchi making day experience
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Find your Stay
Studio in Apgujeong
Hosted by Kate
Apartment in Yongs...
Hosted by Adam
Room in Garosu
Hosted by Sate
Edit
Itinerary Builder
Explore the itineraries created just for you.
1 of 12 options
Find your Stay and add it to your itinerary
04
Design Process
The Initial Experience
In aiming to leverage Airbnb Experiences to solve travelers' struggles in discovering and organizing local activities, I began by understanding its current limitations.
THE CURRENT EXPERIENCE
The hidden Airbnb Experiences.
Airbnb Experiences are hidden within the search bar and spread across three pages, making it hard to access and discover.
Establishing Scope
The solution goes beyond a simple redesign.
The core reason for the existence of Airbnb Experiences is to assist travelers who aspire to, but face challenges in, traveling like a local. While enhancing discoverability is crucial, it doesn’t fully tackle the root issue.
A typical process to travel with local experiences is:
Currently, Airbnb Experiences primarily focuses on steps 1 and 2, shaping the scope of my project to comprehensively enhance the entire process of traveling like a local and bridge the gap between discovery, planning, and booking for a seamless user journey.
User Research
I began research with user interviews to fully grasp how people travel.
To ask the right questions, I set research goals:
01
Learn about people’s travel habits and preferences
02
Understand people’s trip planning processes
I conducted 5 user interviews and used affinity maps to summarize my findings.
01
People are not familiar with Airbnb Experiences.
02
Travelers use a mix of several resources when researching and planning.
03
Travelers highly prioritize local experiences.
04
Travelers value reviews and input from others who have been there.
05
People don’t like to spend a lot of time planning trips.
06
Trip planning in a group is difficult due to differing priorities and budgets.
Drawing from key insights, I summarized user frustrations during travel and converted them into user goals.
Competitive Analysis
A deep dive into trip planning processes.
From the user interviews, I identified various platforms used for trip planning and finding local experiences. To comprehend the current landscape and strategically position my Airbnb Experiences project, I conducted a competitive analysis.
Since competitors addressed only specific aspects of the local travel process, I categorized competitors into each step.
I then analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of five competitors, ensuring at least one competitor for each part of the three-step process:
a trip booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a wide range of services
- Recognizable global brand
WEAKNESSES
- Doesn’t include local experiences
- Unable to easily compare services
a crowdsourced travel platform
STRENGTHS
- Gains credibility through authentic reviews and recommendations from real travelers.
WEAKNESSES
- Focuses on touristy activities
a travel activity booking platform
STRENGTHS
- Offers a diverse array of travel activities
WEAKNESSES
- Not necessarily local activities, as a large portion of the activities are tours of touristy locations
a travel itinerary planner
STRENGTHS
- Collaboration feature for groups
- Map feature makes it easy to visualize trip
WEAKNESSES
- Limited local experiences
- Can’t book experiences directly on the platform
all-inclusive search engine
STRENGTHS
- Common starting point for trip-planning
- Provides extensive information
WEAKNESSES
- Time-consuming to find specific information
- Information is scattered
- Primarily a starting point
Identifying Market Gap
Using my findings from my competitive analysis, I used a Positioning Matrix to to identify the market gap that my project could target. The axes were determined based on priorities I discovered from user interviews.
Mapping Out the Solution
I started by diverging broadly, mapping out all possible features for the redesign.
Using research insights and the project’s time constraints as guides, I then converged on the highest-priority features that had the greatest potential to improve the user experience within scope.
Now that I’ve determined what features to incorporate into my redesign, I constructed user flows to outline the flow of my designs.
Design Iterations
To create a seamless trip planning experience, I integrated both Airbnb’s Stays and Experiences into the Itinerary Builder. I iterated on the design of an empty state for users who hadn't booked a stay for their trip.
The objective was to enable users to effortlessly plan their entire trip, covering activities and accommodations, in one go, while also encouraging users to book their accommodation through Airbnb.
First iteration
CTA to find a stay inserted between days
Clear call-to-action button
Hinders users from seamlessly scanning through itineraries
Requires navigating to another screen to start browsing stays
CHOSEN DESIGN
Second iteration
Stay options at the end of the itinerary
Doesn’t interrupt the itinerary UX
Users can browse stays directly on the pages
Needs to scroll to the bottom of the itinerary to see
Next Project
Tegus: Panel Calls
Improving investment research through Panel Calls