A Traveled Path Homes
Client: A Traveled Path Homes
Roles: UX Researcher, UX Writer, UX Designer, Presenter
Methods: Competitive Analysis, User Interviews, Kano Analysis, Usability Testing, Personas, Wireframing, Prototyping
Tools: Figma, Google Sheets, FigJam, Quicktime
Team: Michael Roth, Annie Donegan, Morgan May, Thomas Vang
The Brief:
Build an MVP of a SaaS website for a startup connecting traveling professionals with accommodations.
What I Did:
In addition to doing design work, I took the lead on research for this project. This included competitive analysis, user interviews, Kano analysis, and usability testing.
Introduction
A Traveled Path Homes is a start-up in the lodging industry. It exists to help traveling professionals, particularly medical professionals and teachers, to find safe, affordable and convenient lodging when traveling for contract-work.
Services like AirBnB, VRBO and Expedia are too broad and focus on vacationing, so they don’t adequately serve the contract-based niche needs of these traveling short-term employees.
There are property owners that want to rent to A Traveled Path’s clients and traveling professionals ready to occupy those properties. However, right now, there is no physical product yet for the company, and what they need is proof of concept for investors to begin supporting their vision.
This boiled down to two primary problems:
1) A Traveled Path needs a functional software as a service website because they need investors to back them moving forward.
2) Traveling professionals need to find safe and affordable temporary housing near their contracting place of work. that meet the specific requirements of someone working away from the comforts of their home.
The Process
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Kano Analysis
Wireframing
Low/Mid Fidelity Prototyping
Usability Testing
Design Iterations
High Fidelity Prototyping
Annotated Wireframes
We landed on this process because it would allow us to learn more about what needs exist, what users want, and develop a website that meets user’s needs. Allowing for usability testing after mid-fidelity prototyping gave us the opportunity to revise our designs before completing a high-fidelity product.
The Research
What services currently exist for lodging for traveling professionals?
How well do the current services meet their needs? What opportunities exist for A Traveled Path Homes?
A Competitive Analysis revealed a lot of what currently exists for users. How are traveling professionals currently meeting their needs? What are services like VRBO and AirBnb currently offering? Where is there an opportunity for A Traveled Path?
User interviews with traveling professionals (both teachers and medical professionals) and landlords allowed our team to gain further understanding as to how well current services are helping users find housing and keep properties occupied.
A Kano Analysis helped us identify the design needs of both sets of users, and revealed what features would be most needed and attractive to each user group.
What did we learn?
Travel Nurses often have 3-month long contracts far from home, and are expected to find their own housing. So they need the option to book longer term stays without competing with short-term renters to avoid having to move around constantly.
Traveling Professionals need a way to gauge the relative safety, cleanliness, and reputation of a property, and landlords, a way to gauge the reputation of the potential tenant. Additionally, because traveling professionals need to stay close to their place of work, they need to know how far a property is from the hospital or school.
The listing of basic creature comforts and amenities are sometimes the driving force behind a renter’s decision.
“It’s important to have basic home comforts– like having fully furnished kitchens, laundry machines, and the allowance of pets make for more comfortable, convenient stays.”
A Property Owner’s aim to keep their properties occupied. Two months would be the longest that an owner would be comfortable with having a property vacant.
“I want to keep my properties occupied for the safety and security of my properties, so I need reliable tenants to stay in them.”
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
The Design Iterations
I contributed to the design team in building these high fidelity prototypes that would specifically cater to traveling professionals and property owners.
For traveling professionals- we created a design that:
Had a warm, welcoming feeling
Required minimum one month stays
Had amenities displayed prominently
Displayed information about proximity to work
Clearly showed photographs for properties
Included property reviews to support reputation
Made messaging a prominent feature
These were features that were noted as important to users based on the research that was done.
Renter Walkthrough
Messaging Walkthrough
Based on the research, the team created a design for property owners that:
Included a smooth and seamless add property feature
Allowed for property owners to include specific details about particular features of their property
Featured a property owner dashboard with financial information and messaging
Owner Add Property Walkthrough
Owner Dashboard Walkthrough
Next Steps
Business Goals
We would discuss with A Traveled Path about further business goals, such as pitching to investors and obtaining stakeholder feedback
We would work on partnering with hospitals, school organizations, and landlords as the product and business grows, to offer appropriate accommodations and serve geographic markets.
Additionally, verification of the traveling professional through the showing of documents, would be another step in A Traveled Path’s process, which will allow for the website to be used solely by traveling professionals.
Design Goals
We would coordinate with developers and engineers to scope out the creation of a live platform
We would also scope for the design of a mobile platform/app to streamline the use of A Traveled Path Homes’ services.
Lastly, we would develop additional features, such as 3D Property walkthroughs, after the development of the live service.