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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.