trivago

During our qualitative research the Search & Flow team discovered that many travellers stated issues like "I wish it was easier to find hotels which meet our preferences", "I only want to see hotels that meet my preferences, the rest are irrelevant" and "I need to trust that my preferences are reflected accordingly."

Through our discussions we came up with a lot of different solutions to those problems. So we had to make decisions on which to prioritise. To do this we used assumption maps to decide how important it would be to test various solutions. From there, we prioritised speed. Speed was the focus in terms of giving travellers the results that they are looking for quickly. But, we also focused on speed from a development and design stand point.

With that in mind, my product manager encouraged me to take on a solution for a relatively simple solution which we had thought of. Adding a pet-friendly filter to our guest booker.

I started by documenting insights into trivago's competitors in regards to how they implement, display and promote their additional features in their Guest Selectors. Generally, when performing a competitive analysis I'll look into other industries work too. But, in this case guest selectors are quite a niche feature and are really only travel specific. Reference images have been tested via mobile simulator on the following devices:

Macbook Air

iPad Pro 11

iPhone 12 PRO

Through the competitive analysis, we identified that adding specific guest-related criteria such as pets or cribs could help travelers narrow down their search results quickly. As a result, we decided to implement a pet filter in the guest selector to cater to the needs of pet owners and make it easier for them to find suitable accommodations. This not only addresses the needs of a specific user group but also improves the overall search experience for all users.

At trivago designers generally go straight into high-fidelity prototyping unless there is a very significant departure from the current product. However, in this case where I'm making only a minor alteration to the experience in terms of UI it definitely didn't feel necessary to sketch out ideas given that trivago has a solid design system in place which provides an easy starting point.

Previous design of the guest selector before this project.

My initial direction was to follow Airbnb's footsteps based upon the competitive analysis which I had performed earlier. Adding another counter for pets, so that travellers could state exactly how many a hotel should expect from their booking. However, I quickly learned that trivago doesn't have the data required to refine results based on the amount of pets allowed at an accommodation. Therefore, we can only provide easier access to the pet filter rather than a new feature entirely.

The intial design of the pet-friendly guest selector, adding a counter for pets.

Something which I had to consider was whether or not users would recognise the distinction between this filter and the guest counters. Starting with changing the input from a counter to a checkbox I worked on multiple methods to communicate to travellers what exactly is happening when they tick that box.

A popover with text used as a pets disclaimer.

I also collaborated with a UX writer, taking and giving suggestions for the accompanying copy for this design. As well as setting a character limit on translations for the copy to ensure that the design remains consistent across all of the different languages which the product, trivago is offered in.

A design with a German translation of the guest selector with text for the pet-friendly filter.

Although I don't have access to specific metrics (since I left trivago before our assumption tests were put into practice), I'm confident that my design solutions met the goals and objectives of the project based on the positive feedback I received from my colleagues.

Through this project, I was able to develop my skills in user interviews, interaction design, and prototyping. I also learned that even a relatively simple design challenge should not be taken at face value and should be explored thoroughly. Plus, I got a lot of valuable experience in collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams from discussing findings from our user interviews, design critiques, frequent feedback meetings, collaborating with a UX Researcher and UX writer as well as producing a design handoff document for engineers.

Overall, I believe this project was a success (since it has been implemented and is live), and I'm excited to apply the skills and experience I gained to future design projects.