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XPLORIE
Website Redesign
OVERVIEW
Xplorie is a 20 year old B2B (business to business) company that has been connecting vacation rental properties with local activity providers in order to provide free activities to guests for every night of their stay at no extra cost.
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This past year, Xplorie decided to launch their consumer-facing website for the first time. Our team helped with the UX design of the site before the launch.
THE PROBLEM
During user testing of Xplorie's prototype launch site, we found that site visitors were often confused about Xplorie's brand message and purpose due to vague descriptions of the activities program. We also found that the beautiful photography and graphics within the website initially drew users in, but overwhelming and unclear content sent mixed messages, causing doubt and frustration to testers.
XPLORIE ORIGINAL SITE (LANDING PAGE)
"It looks like a typical trip-planning site for booking vacation rental homes and vacation properties."
XPLORIE ORIGINAL SITE (SEARCH RESULTS)
"The filters are all over the place and hard to use- it'd be much better if they were all organized in one place."
AFFINITY MAPPING
Through affinity mapping, we found that the most prominent and urgent usability issues stemmed from unclear brand identity and purpose and lack of relevant information, especially regarding price.
GOALS
TO HELP USERS UNDERSTAND WHAT XPLORIE IS.
“We want people to explore the site;
not just go directly to the booking engine.”
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-Alex Grigorian, CIO of Xplorie
TO GAIN THE TRUST OF USERS.
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“Many people distrust the word 'free'."
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-Alex Grigorian, CIO of Xplorie
REDESIGN
Because the original site was already so beautiful and engaging, we tried to change as little as possible in terms of aesthetics. We mainly focused on adding relevant information where it was needed and removing unnecessary or confusing elements.
HOME/LANDING PAGE
In place of the Instagram symbol in the header, a wishlist (1) was implemented for easy-access to 'favorited' properties. We also emphasized the words "free activities" in the short description (2) and made it clear that the user could find a longer explanation below.
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ACTIVITIES SEARCH
Because Xplorie is so activities-focused, we introduced the option to search for properties by local free activities. By using this search, users would be able to see the destinations (if any) offering the selected free activities pop up on the map.
PROPERTY DETAIL PAGE
The sections of the property detail page have been organized to be more linear. There is also a fixed tab (1) which scrolls the user to the desired section.
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The payment information on the right is also a fixed panel (2); it contains the exact amount the user will be paying if they book the rental, given that the dates and number of guests are filled in. On the original site, the total amount would change - often drastically - from this page to the next because the taxes and fees were revealed afterwards.
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SEARCH RESULTS
All the filters that were originally located at the top of the results page have been moved to a fixed panel on the side so users can constantly access them while browsing. Users can also easily toggle between these filters (1) and the map (2) on this same panel.
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During testing, we found that users expressed dissatisfaction upon discovering that there were conditions to the word "free" regarding the free activities. In order to quell this, we tried to make the terms as clear as possible, as many times as possible. We found that an effective way to do this was in the form of an information bubble (3).
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SKETCHES
Home Page
Activities Search
Property Details
Home Page
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UX DESIGN PROCESS
The development process for this project consists of user research, user flow, site map, sketches, wireframes, iterations, and more.
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