Gen Z is deeply engaged in social media but faces growing loneliness, struggling to build real-life connections despite constant online interaction. "How can Airbnb transform Gen Z's online connectivity into meaningful in-person experiences that build real connections?"
Solution
Airbnb Sports connects Gen Z through shared activities, creating meaningful connections and lasting memories. By promoting well-being, inclusivity, competition, and collaboration, it helps users challenge themselves, bond over common interests, and build communities through sport.
Design Process for Airbnb Sports
Internal Markup, Competitor Analysis, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Opportunity Solution Tree, User Personas, Wireframes, Storyboarding
Tech Stack
Miro, Illustrator, Figma, Blender, After Effects
Understanding Users
Key User Interview Insights
Social Media Paradox
While Gen Z users are highly active on social media, it often substitutes rather than enhances real-world interactions. Mobile phones and loud environments further disrupt social bonding. In addition to this, users find it harder to translate their online connections into authentic offline social interactions, as the digital realm doesn't always foster the same depth of connection that in-person experiences offer.
Social Activities
Gen Z prefers low-pressure activities to reduce social pressure and make meeting new people easier. Smaller groups and activities are favoured in social interactions. Common interests foster bonding, aligning with the app's goals, while the preference for spontaneous interactions highlights the need for real-time connectivity. These insights shaped the app’s focus, helping users break the ice and build connections.
Economic Considerations
Considerations of economic accessibility highlight the need for inclusive experiences within the app's offerings. For some users, the cost of living makes social activities more expensive and less accessible, influencing how and where they engage with local culture and participate in group activities. This emphasizes the importance of providing affordable and enriching experiences that are accessible to the target audience.
To better understand my target audience, I conducted user interviews exploring travel habits, social preferences, and challenges in connecting with others. Insights revealed Gen Z’s preference for low-pressure, real-time interactions and activities based on shared interests.Using affinity mapping, I identified key patterns, with sports, common interests, and team-building emerging as strong drivers of social connection.An Opportunity Solution Tree helped refine my ideas, leading to the integration of sports with meet-up and event hosting features. Sports offered a natural fit due to their health benefits, social appeal, and alignment with Airbnb’s community values and global event sponsorships such as the Olympics.
Targetting User Needs
User Persona Examples
After narrowing down my idea, I sought to deepen my understanding of the target audience to guide my design decisions and identify opportunities for developing my solution. I crafted personas representing various individuals, including both homebodies and travellers, to ensure alignment with the brief's objectives. Using these personas, I commenced the development of my Airbnb app extension, integrating features aimed at addressing identified pain points. Throughout the iterative process of refining the app, I continuously referred to the user personas as a guiding framework to ensure the solution remained aligned with the needs and behaviours of the target audience.
Design
Process
Using Illustrator, I designed sports icons that match the visual style and consistency of Airbnb’s existing iconography. In Figma, I created wireframes at various levels of fidelity to explore layout, structure, and user interaction, while replicating the style of the existing app to seamlessly integrate new feature concepts. After this I began to develop storyboards for my D&AD video, in which I used a combination of After Effects and Blender to execute.
Design
Final Resolution
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Result
Motion and Interaction
Discover Your Sport – Effortlessly browse through a variety of sports and easily discover the activity that suits your interests.
Find Nearby Events – Discover upcoming sports events near you with real-time availability and location details, or take the opportunity to host your own..
Connect with Participants – Join group chats, view participant profiles, or watch videos from past events to break the ice before you arrive.
