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    Science & Creativity

    Product Designer
    Front-End Developer
    Team Leader

    I'm Simon, a multi-award winning product designer based in New York. During my career I've had the privilege of creating experiences for clients including the New York Times and Google. I've also helped guide teams at Facebook and startups like Highfive and WeTransfer.

    • Visual Design
    • Design Systems
    • IA/UI/UX
    • Strategy
    • Prototyping
    • HTML/CSS
    Boutique

    Web App For Handpicked Homes & Small Hotels

    Simon Corry

    In 2021 I embarked on a bold voyage with my co-founder Marc Blazer to reimagine the way short-term rentals are sold. We focused on building meaningful relationships with our hosts, serving an aspirational collection of properties and providing best-in-class customer service to our guests.

    Finding The Opportunity

    Around 2020 The short-term rental market had become saturated by companies stuck in a 'race to the bottom' (Airbnb, VRBO, etc). As a result the cost of acquisition and retention ballooned making it difficult for smaller brands to compete. However this opened up a window of opportunity as the focus for these larger companies had shifted from quality to conversion — unbalancing the user experience along the way.

    Over the course of the following year we carried out extensive research, chatting with industry leaders, meeting home owners and sitting down with guests to understand their purchasing habits and motivations. Through that due-diligence we were able to determine that a small but lucrative market existed within the creative industry and that those potential customers shared our values for architecture, travel and knowledge.

    The challenge would be to avoid the tropes of standard e-commerce that had become prevalent (aggressive FOMO, unrelenting notifications, price gouging, etc) and instead thoughtfully reimagine the shopping experience for an audience that would be invested in a product that demonstrated a strong point-of-view, good taste and a clear understanding of the properties and locations listed.

    Collection Carousel
    Collection Carousel

    The Power Of Collections

    The mandate for the product was simple, let the homes do the talking and give our experts the tools to curate those homes. Thus the collection framework was born, a powerful and extendable design system that allows for multiple layout permutations to be built across any page (it's like Lego for adults).

    Collection Double Feature
    Collection Double Feature
    Design thinking leads to productive cross functional outcomes

    Harnessing the power of Sanity CMS, React (a little API magic) and some nifty CSS grids we were able to produce dynamic and engaging product pages that are updated by constant collaboration between, product, design, marketing and the travel teams. As the saying goes 'team work makes the dream work' and this is a great example of how design thinking leads to productive cross functional outcomes that benefit everyone.

    Collection Private Sale
    Collection Private Sale

    Designing For Discovery

    Whilst working through the information architecture blueprint the concept of 'choose your own adventure' became a go-to tenet. As we started to put prototypes in front of our alpha testers it reinforced the need for this concept and so discovery became the center piece of the navigation allowing for seamless traversal between pages and search.

    Search Drawer
    Search Drawer
    Making sure you can move quickly without losing context

    We designed search with speed in mind making it fast to use without sacrificing performance. This was made possible thanks to a balance between cached results, live API calls and some secret sauce from our AI powered sorting algorithm. All of this is delivered through our proprietary typeahead UI with advanced geo mapping that always places homes with precision.

    Search Results
    Search Results
    Testing our approach with alpha users was imperative

    Deciding which parameters are set in the initial drawer vs. the search results screen was another important step in making sure you can move quickly without losing context. It was crucial that we did not weigh a guest down with unnecessary cognitive load but still provide enough options to allow them to make an informed query. Again testing our approach with alpha users was imperative to striking the correct balance.

    Filter Controls
    Filter Controls
    Filter Pills
    Filter Pills

    Serving The Right Information At The Right Time

    Sometimes it can be tempting to throw everything you know about a subject together and serve it up in one go. The rationale being akin to 'what if I accidentally miss something vital?' In practice however this leads to noisy layouts and places an unnecessary cognitive load on your audience.

    Property Page
    Property Page
    Access to additional content is always within reach

    The property page takes this lesson to heart, only serving the most relevant information required to make a purchasing decision — at the same time making sure that access to additional content is always within reach.

    Property Details
    Property Details
    Clear and concise hierarchy makes it easy to understand

    Guests put great value in the ability to understand not only a property but its host as well. We wanted to promote this behavior through social proofing by including the option to see host stats and reviews left by other guests. Clear and concise hierarchy makes it easy to understand this information at a glance.

    Host Details
    Host Details
    Guest Feedback
    Guest Feedback

    Avoiding The Churn

    The authentication process during product onboarding tends to account for the highest bounce rates within that application. We tackled this issue head on by reducing the information required during account creation and moved any tertiary data collection to a post authentication step. This helped significantly lower the rate of churn and led to an increase in the number of completed profiles.

    Sign Up
    Sign Up
    Through iterative optimization we were able to increase satisfaction and drive conversion

    We spent a great deal of time ensuring that the product experience on smaller screens was optimized to avoid any of the usual pitfalls associated with form fields. Mimicking the UX/UI patterns of dialog modals (found in native mobile operating systems) allowed us to offer the same streamlined authentication process from larger screens without sacrificing usability. Through iterative optimization we were able to increase satisfaction and drive conversion.

    Sign In
    Sign In
    Multi-factor
    Multi-factor
    Profile
    Profile
    Dark mode isn't just a gimmick — it can lead to real conversion gains

    After implementing dark mode accessibility we were able to map a direct uptick in session length during off peak hours. We balanced the inverse color scheme to allow the UI to be viewed with comfort in low light conditions. The account menu also makes it easy to select a preference between on, off and automatic mode. After launching this feature we were able to show that dark mode isn't just a gimmick it can lead to real conversion gains.

    Sign In - Dark
    Sign In - Dark
    Multi-factor - Dark
    Multi-factor - Dark
    Profile - Dark
    Profile - Dark

    Optimizing The Flywheel

    Understanding and optimizing the core flow has been essential for keeping a healthy active flywheel. We mapped out all purchase paths and scrutinized for both the expected and unexpected behaviors associated with navigating through those sections. Finally we were able to streamline the navigation to allow for the optimal route through the product balancing a need for conversion with a desire for moments of delight.

    Product Flow
    Product Flow

    Placing Value In Content

    For any company large or small it's essential to always invest in innovation whether that's through technology or people — and sometimes it's a bit of both. While content strategy is often considered the domain of social media we decided to take a chance on building ours internally, running it in synergy with the property catalogue. By telling compelling stories we helped strengthen the brand’s authority and increased trust in the product.

    Location Page
    Location Page
    Guides enabled us to connect our knowledge with the product

    Our content strategy became the bedrock of the brand as we continued to build trust through our newsletters, articles and in-person events. A simple idea emerged through this campaign to create location specific guides which went on to net big SEO returns. Guides enabled us to connect our knowledge with the product allowing guests to move quickly between inspiration and checkout.

    Location Guide
    Location Guide

    Boutique continues to thrive thanks to its love of travel & design. That passion is shared equally between guests and hosts alike. To the guests Boutique is aspirational, to the hosts it represents pride and to the team it’s about providing the very best product experience with a chance of turning aspirations into reality.

    You can visit the live product today and start your next travel adventure or stick around and take a peek at some of my other work.