Increase conversion through booking redesign
Highline Stays is a vacation rental platform focused on providing exceptional getaway experiences in the Georgian mountains. Currently featuring a single location, Melody Tay, the small business owner, envisions expanding her portfolio to build a thriving empire of unique rentals.
While taking UX courses through Coursera, I offered to help improve Melody's website’s user experience. It was a great opportunity to apply UX fundamentals to a real-world project while continuing to learn.
Role
User Research
Visual Design
Prototyping
User Testing
Date
Oct '23 - Dec '23
THE CHALLENGE
In addition to her own website, Melody also lists on sites like VRBO and Airbnb, where she sees much higher success rates. She’s not sure why her own site isn’t performing as well or how to boost her booking rate so she can rely less on third-party platforms.
How do we encourage potential guests to book through Highline Stays website?
First, I need to understand why users weren't booking through Highline Stays…
MY DESIGN PROCESS
RESEARCH
Conducted interviews with 10 users who visited the website but chose not to complete a booking, uncovering key insights into pain points and barriers.
Carried out a usability study during the interviews to evaluate the website’s functionality and user experience.
ANALYSIS
Identified recurring patterns of friction points from the interviews and usability study, organizing them into actionable insights.
Analyzed website data to pinpoint drop-off rates and understand user behavior.
SYNTHESIS
Created design solutions that were directly informed by the insights gathered during the analysis phase.
Tackled the most common friction points first to make the biggest impact.
PROTOTYPE
Made a usable prototype to test my assumptions by getting it in the hands of the customer.
Made quick tweaks and improvements to the prototype based on user feedback
THE RESEARCH
INTERVIEWING USERS
I thought I could book in the calendar view and am now not sure where to go.
The amenities section is overwhelming. Do I really need all this information?
8/8
PARTICIPANTS
were able to successfully finish booking on the site but only…
3/8
PARTICIPANTS
found the process intuitive and easy
THE ANALYSIS
REVIEWING USER DATA
After spotting user pain points in interviews, we dug deeper by looking at website data to get a full picture of the current user experience issues.
Website analytics
Homepage
40 users
Checks Availability
35 users
Clicks 'Book Now'
10 users
Successfully books
1 user
We also ran surveys with 20 people to understand their feelings and find out why they might be hesitant to book through the site.
Surveys
On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 signifies difficulty, 80% of survey participants rated the website's ease of use at 4
" Website was pretty straightforward other than the booking feature. The overall ease was present, even though the site can be optimized"
On a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 represents discomfort, 50% of survey participants rated their comfort level with the website at 3.
" The site could feel a little unofficial because of the confusion with how to book."
"Expanded amenities section is overwhelming to view, feels out of place when everything else has its own tab."
KEY FINDINGS
Users feel unsure about how to start the booking process, which often leads them to abandon their bookings.
Users find the Amenities section overwhelming and messy, which makes the website feel less professional.
THE DISCOVERY
INSIGHTS FROM MY RESEARCH
Users kept getting lost on where to start booking. They’d find their dates on the Availability page and try to book, but there was no option to continue from there. Instead, they’d have to go to a different page, which disrupted the booking flow.
Another common issue my research uncovered was that, while the website had a lot of relevant information, it was difficult to sift through. The disorganized layout made the site feel unprofessional and not fully established. It didn't
So…armed with this new knowledge, I started to design solutions to solve these user problems.
THE SYNTHESIS
MAKE BOOKING THE EASIEST STEP IN VACATION PLANNING
The booking experience will be super intuitive, with easy-to-find access points that guide users through the process. We’ll make sure key info about the vacation rental is clear and easy to understand, so users can make decisions quickly and confidently. The goal is to keep things simple and smooth, making booking feel like a natural part of planning their trip.
SIMPLE ACCESS TO BOOKING
The design will include additional access points to the booking page, ensuring a seamless transition from browsing the vacation rental to reserving dates for a stay.
KEY INFO AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
Key information about the vacation rental will be easily accessible and well-organized, enabling potential bookers to review details quickly and effortlessly.
THE APPROACH
WHAT ARE OTHER COMPETITORS DOING?
I started looking into competitor products to see what the common practices were and get a feel for user experience.
On the Loge landing page, they immediately have two entry points into the booking flow. The "Book Now" and "Check Availability".
Autocamp's website also have two entry points on the landing page, both "Book Now" and "Check Availability".
Airbnb’s flow stands out by having the booking entry point right at the top while showcasing all their available rentals. With their huge inventory, it makes sense that the landing page focuses on booking and rentals—those are clearly the two main things they want renters to see.
PAST DESIGN
ONLY ONE OPTION TO GET TO BOOKING
The past design only had one entry point that allowed a potential renter to book.
Most users are trying to access booking from the Availability page…which does not have a booking entry point.
NEW DESIGN
The updated design enables users to input their information AND check for available dates seamlessly on the same home page before routing them to the booking section.
I also revamped the Availability page for a clearer date display as well as introducing a Summary card… consolidating all essential booking details for user convenience.
PAST DESIGN
OVERWHELMING AMOUNT OF INFORMATION
Users mentioned that the amenities section was helpful but felt a bit overwhelming with all the info. I saw this as a chance to simplify and rearrange things to make it easier to digest.
NEW DESIGN
REFLECTIONS
Grateful for the opportunity
Pivoting my career into UX design was both exciting and a little overwhelming. While taking my online UX course, I decided to apply what I was learning in real-time by working on my friend's vacation website. It was a great way to put theory into practice and gain hands-on experience while studying.
At the start, I was bursting with ideas, eager to make big changes to the site's features. But I quickly took a step back to make sure my decisions were in line with user needs. To do this, I focused on research - combining interviews and data analysis to get a clear picture of user frustrations and the challenges they faced on the site. This deep dive taught me a valuable lesson: the importance of connecting user pain points with functional improvements
Throughout the journey, I leaned on advice from experienced UX pros, who became a huge part of my learning experience. Their insights and feedback helped me refine my skills and my approach to user-centric design, data-driven decisions, and power of collaboration. This project was my entry into the UX world, and it solidified my belief in empathy and iterative design as key to creating meaningful user experiences.
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