Design of a new feature within the AirBnB app that allows users
to rent a bike during the accommodation booking process or
without accommodation.
Main goal
Project challenges
Solution
My role
Research process
Research goals
We set two main goals that would guide our research process:
understand motivations, attitudes and pain points of users when renting a bike
gather data to inform design decisions
In-depth Interviews
We started by interviewing users to understand their needs when renting a bike and to learn about their experience with the AirBnB app. We chose this research technique because analysing user motivations required qualitative research techniques.
Research insights
Here are some of the main insights that we obtained after the research process:
users don’t want to book a bike a lot of time in advance, because they want to know the city first or wait until they know how the weather will be like
they would like to have the bike in their AirBnB accommodation already, or nearby
they value information about price, availability, rental duration, pick up and drop off locations, insurance and traffic regulations
Adventurous traveler
Intro
The adventurous traveler is a thrill-seeking individual who prioritizes experiences over stuff and always looks for the next challenge or adventure.
Motivations
Likes spontaneity and the freedom to make decisions in the moment based on how they feel
Pain points
Get frustrated when they can't change plans once they are made, or when they have to decide about their travel plans a lot of time in advance
Organised traveler
Intro
The organised traveler is an individual who values certainty and likes planning ahead
Motivations
Want to make the most of their time and they get peace of mind by having most of the decisions about their travel plans made in advance
Pain points
Gets frustrated by unexpected problems and time-wasting due to lack of planning
Archetypes
Based on the information obtained with the interviews, we created two archetypes that guided subsequent design decisions.
Competitive analysis
During the research phase, we did a benchmarking analysis in order to learn about some of the main competitors in the field of bike rental and their business models, as well as indirect competitors in other fields.
Architecture
After laying out the information architecture of the original AirBnB app, it became clear to us that the new bike renting functionality had to be included within the original app, because it naturally fits in the original information architecture.
User flows
Based on our user research, we created two main user flows for the new feature: one for adding a rental bike during the accommodation booking process, and another one to rent a bike without booking an accommodation.
Wireframes
After designing the architecture and the main user flows, we moved on to design low-fidelity wireframes.
User testing and iterations
After testing the prototype with users, we obtained valuable insights that lead us to an iteration of the prototype. Here are examples of changes we made.
User testing insights
Here are the main insights obtained from the user tests:
users positively value the option of adding a rental bike to their accommodation booking
the pricing information of rental bikes isn’t clear enough
users positively value user reviews for bike rental stores
