Accommodation in
Canada
Read the full case study on Medium
Our client, Accommodation in Canada (AIC) is an agency that has been matching homestay students with accommodation for two years. We were given the project of re-designing the AIC website to improve the user experience as well as attract more customers to the business.
My role: UX and UI design. I was in charge of defining the user flows and features, creating high fidelity designs, and researching student's experiences of homestays. I also created a new visual brand for the website.
TYPE: Client project
ROLE: UX Designer, UX Researcher, Visual Designer
DATE: July 2018
Problem:
Staying with a homestay is a fun and unique experience, but finding the right homestay can be a difficult experience.
Research
Surveys and Interviews
We conducted primary research by sending out surveys and interviewing our users. The two primary user groups are: 1) International students; 2) Homestay hosts.
We organized all of our information using an affinity diagram to understand user's needs, frustrations, and wants.
Through interviews and surveys we discovered the three most important user insights:
Analyzing both the user and business goals and helped us come up with a strategy for the website.
Based on the affinity diagram, we created two main personas. The main persona is the international student and the secondary persona is the homestay host.
We summarized Martina’s process on the current website through a user journey map to outline some of her pain points.
After defining our MVP we decided to create the site map, where we define where each of this features are going to be placed and how we can organize them, so the user can navigate easily. We decided to add apply for accommodations, become a host, about us, contact us and language and account.
The User Flow of AIC
We gave users the choice of finding accommodation for themselves or let the agency match them with a host. We created separate flows our two main user groups, the hosts and the students.
Design
Since location was one of most important factors for students, we included an option to hide or show map on the accommodations page.
Location comes first
Search for accommodation using list view and map view
After clicking on the desired homestay, users can calculate the time it takes to get to school.
Based on research, we found that students care a lot about the homestay meals. Because of this we added an icon where users can toggle between looking at homestay rooms and meals.
Users also reported that seeing the daily price was not helpful because they usually calculate by month. We changed the price from daily price to monthly price so users can have a smoother experience when picking a homestay.
We also included in-depth host profiles with detailed information, room details, student reviews so users can make a better choice regarding their homestay family
We found the visual identity based on the kick off meeting and the gut test with the client.
I created a mood board based on the gut test I conducted with our client.
High Fidelity Mock-ups
Prototype
Check out our mobile prototype for Accommodation in Canada here:
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