9 experience and interactive design hidden in the Airbnb website

If you've ever used Airbnb to book a place, you'll find out in the process that the company has a top product design team. The enterprise, which is changing the entire industry, is providing users with a seamless experience, and this is the original intention of writing this article today.

As a product designer who likes to study user experience, interactive design, and UI, I particularly like to dissect successful products, looking for hidden interactions and user experience designs. Whether these designs are designed to enhance the overall user experience or motivate product growth, you will find these designs very interesting and worth sharing.

Without further ado, let's take a look at what I found out of Airbnb:

　1. Emotional infection (User experience)

When we open the Airbnb Web page, we are immediately surrounded by a friendly and secure atmosphere. I believe that there are many factors to create this atmosphere, but there is one of the most prominent and decisive, that is, the photos used in the page. If you look closely at Airbnb all the pictures you choose, you will find their pattern: most of the pictures are taken by a few "friends" who smile and enjoy life in an elegant environment.

This is the typical use case of "emotional infection". Wikipedia's explanation for "emotional contagion" is straightforward:

It refers to the two individuals in the emotional interaction and transmission of the trend, when people unconsciously, subconsciously imitate each other's emotional expression, they can feel the emotional reflection of the peer.

When Airbnb surround you with the ubiquitous scenes of life and smiles, we are influenced by the Airbnb community and emotionally associated with those happy travellers and the brand.

In fact, this approach is not uncommon, many enterprises in the emotional design can be called handy. For example, "How Facebook creates emotional responses by controlling the news that users are browsing" can give you a lot of inspiration.

2. Copy-driven sentiment (user experience)

Airbnb is very consistent in the language usage of the entire site. "A world of belonging", "Anywhere", "Welcome home" and so on. The wording of many copywriting is not particularly conspicuous or unique, but it must have been created by deliberate deliberation. They customized the old, stereotyped accommodations search for more emotional, personalized searches.

Never underestimate the power of copywriting. They can build content for any experience and process. For example, when you are doing an Australian travel project, you have three of the most beautiful photos of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, so how would you match the copy? The ideal choice for your next trip "may be a good copy, but if you change it to" top of this week's exclusive sanctuary! ", the clicks must be better than the former. The second copy can mobilize the mood of the user, some people are going to travel directly to Australia, because others are doing so!

　3. Save previous search results (user interaction)

I often go to the café waiter will remember the habit of my coffee, which is also prompted me to join the VIP member of this store is an important reason. If a store remembers your needs and is willing to customize the service for you, the experience can be quite unusual.

usually after you have searched a website, the site will record your search history for a period of time. But what's different about Airbnb is that it records all of your search records through an online service-even if you no longer Airbnb the search records. This means that you in Google, Baidu, Ctrip, where to search for the Maldives, you open Airbnb, click the Search box, the Maldives will come out immediately. Intimate!

While this is only a small detail, it can be a glimpse of Airbnb's insistence on creating a seamless browsing experience.

　　4. Grasp the pain point: Price range (user interaction)

With the growth of Airbnb, the list of every search has thousands of results, and the choice of obstacles is enough to make users headache. But I found in a subsequent search that Airbnb began to use a bar chart very carefully to show the average price range of the listings, which you don't have to sift through hundreds of of pages.

5. Picture switch in the list (user interaction)

What's the most important thing when you're sifting through your listings and your place of residence? The most important thing is the actual appearance of the place! is consistent with the photo! When you get the search results, each of the listings and location of the basic information is very complete, most importantly, the pictures are the main, and the group of pictures you do not have to jump, direct browsing , very convenient!

　6. List Live Update (user interaction)

The list is updated in real time this feature is not added to every site, but with this feature of the site is not easy to use or two said. And Airbnb is doing very well! When you search out the results, the right side is the map to the left is the list, when when you select a different location on the map, the search results are automatically updated, and a little brain tonic will make you realize that this is definitely a thoughtful design, and that this additional interactive experience is definitely within the scope of surprises.

　7. Social identity and limited sales

In fact, this is also a rather classic "skills." Through limited sales to create a sense of urgency, so that users can see how many people at the same time with the competition is through the number to create social identity to promote product sales.

The first time in Airbnb inquiries and reservations, due to the number of reservations, local tight, the result of my booking failed. The next time I go to Amsterdam, I'd like to book this place, and I'll make a reservation and get ready next time. Sometimes people are so strange, the more they can not get the more they want. Of course, the balance and skill of this need to be well controlled.

Excessive control may cause hunger marketing, which is undesirable.

　　8. Stick to core values (user experience)

How wonderful it is to hear the greetings of "friends" from all over the world on a special day. Airbnb is doing such a thing for the user. For Airbnb, this is one of my favorite brand retention strategies.

I remember Airbnb's founder Brian Chesky said in an interview that Airbnb offers far more than a simple accommodation, offering a place to help people make friends.

At the end of last year, I received an email with the title "Greet every season with your Airbnb owner." This is a wonderful proposal to promote friendship and build a community! These wonderful things can really make people feel good and fascinated, so I prefer to book a room in Airbnb compared to other similar services.

　9. Dynamic Home (User experience)

Airbnb's homepage design has the visual focus, for the visual direction also has the guidance. Unlike many of the same Web sites, Airbnb will explore the links and omit, but focus on allowing users to follow the site's visual flow subconsciously.

When you search, click on a few places, when you return to the home page, you will find that the home page has been based on your browsing records for personalized customization, in line with the needs, recommendations also help you save the exploration of the steps to explore. Although this function is insignificant, you will be amazed at this small change.

These interesting detail designs not only make the experience better, but also the timing is good. Book a few places, search more than 10 cities, you will find this is a warm website, you will become a warm person.

Conclusion

Today's Airbnb has become a 20 billion dollar business, and the achievement of such an empire is only 7 years. This is an exciting entrepreneurial story, and if you haven't read their stories, then I think you can take a look at this article first. So, what kind of experience does design in Airbnb?