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PHOTO: Corey Agopian/Unsplash
WorkWhere Case Study
This case study is based on a prompt to develop a web-based service to find and book long-term rentals and co-working spaces as part of the Google UX Design certificate.
The Product
The product aims to help traveling freelancers find accommodations and co-working spaces for long term rental anywhere in the world.
Project Duration
1 week
The problem
There are many hotel and other accommodation booking sites, but these sites are mostly for people on holiday. There are no sites that combine searching for accommodation and co-working spaces together for long term rentals.
The goal
The goal of the website is to be able to book accommodations and/or co-working spaces that offer long term rental availability.
My role
UX Designer, Researcher and Visual Designer
Responsibilities
User research, competitive audit, wireframing, UI & material designing, prototyping and usability testing
PHOTO: Alvero Reyes/Unsplash
Understanding the user
User research: summary
I researched the growing number of remote workers and freelance working opportunities and discovered that there is a growing gap in the market to accommodate these people traveling while doing remote work.
While other booking sites list vacation or long-term accommodations, they don’t give information for co-working spaces within proximity of accommodation rentals nor the ability to book both accommodation and coworking spaces.
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Flexible and affordable terms
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Work-Life Balance
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Staying local
Users want to have the flexibility to stay from weeks to months without complicated paperwork or paying extra for deposits.
Users also want to network via co-working spaces or better yet, co-living spaces as they travel from city to city
Users want to stay in more local and/or budget-friendly accommodations than stay in hotels
Safe accommodation
Our users want to feel safe and secure in the accommodation that they are going to rent.
Personas
Camila
Camila is a financial consultant and Youtube influencer who needs to find safe and flexible accommodation in local places she’s traveling to so that I focus on my business, and have more time to build an audience to help spread my advocacy even more.
Ricardo
Ricardo is a freelance software engineer traveling the world with his girlfriend, who needs a tool to find a budget friendly accommodation and a way to network with local people because he wants to live a free and flexible lifestyle traveling the world.
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User journey map
Users more than likely have to spend time to indicate specific needs when ordering food. Markus, for example, find it time-consuming to mention allergens and changing ingredients for their dinner.
Wireframes
Paper Wireframes
Initial wireframe ideas for different pages of the site.
Digital Wireframes &
Prototype
For the mobile version, I decided to remove the interactive map view and go for just tiles of featured or maybe top rated listings, followed by a smaller carousel of curated listings by theme.
Study type
Unmoderated usability study
Location
remote
Participants
5 participants
Length
20-30 minutes
Usability Study: findings
A usability study was done for the low-fidelity prototype of the website. To summarize, here are the findings:
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Navigation
There were some navigation issues that needed to be fixed so users can move back and forth before the actual payment page.
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Proper wording
The first prototype had confusing wording for the users and layout that needed to be changed.
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Omitted information
The checkout and confirmation pages had information that users found irrelevant. These were omitted to avoid confusion.
Usability Studies
Mockups & Prototype
The map view and how it works was confusing for prototype testers. After the mockups and prototypes, the function became more apparent.
The information about the host was omitted in the booking review page as it was not relevant for the user at this stage in the booking process. Instead, the host information was moved to the confirmation page.
Accessibility considerations
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Checking if proper typographical hierarchy is observed for screen readers.
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Check colors if they pass WCAG guidelines and change colors if necessary.
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Documentation for engineering for things to consider when labeling and annotating the screens.
Takeaways
Impact
I think the impact of this project is giving freelance and skilled workers access to flexible living and co-working spaces that cater to their needs. There is a growing number of people who are in this demographic and in turn, there are bigger opportunities to cater to their needs too.
What I learned
Completing this undertaking made me more understanding of people’s needs and the desire for freedom, mobility and flexibility. There is a continuous growing need for people to experience things and to choose a lifestyle and living style that fits their need.