Project Freewheel
Prompted by an existing member with accessibility needs, discovering a solution to help wheelchair users find accessible homes.
Role
As Lead Product Designer, I was responsible for coaching and guiding the product designer involved in this project.
Year
2023
Company
Love Home Swap
Like in the famous Christmas film ‘The Holiday’ Love Home Swap is an international home swapping site. With just a yearly subscription, members can look for suitable homes to swap with as much as they want. Members choose home swapping because it is a cheaper and authentic way to travel.
The Problem
The current filter ‘wheelchair friendly’ isn’t sufficient to search for an accessible home. There are very few options for wheelchair users.
Always compromising between price and accessibility.
Often images on hotel sites or Airbnb are not detailed enough to make a decision.
Lots of accommodation isn’t as advertised, which can lead to holidays ruined.
Going on holiday can be an anxiety-inducing experience.
There is a wide variety of different reasons someone might be in a wheelchair and therefore have different requirements.
The Opportunity
To be the first in the industry to offer accessible homes and therefore have a differentiator in the market.
Business Objective
Bring in more customers and revenue.
Travellers with an impairment spent more money on trips than those without (£740 vs £660).
Travellers with an impairment have longer average stays both internationally (11.6 nights vs 7.3) and domestically (3.3 nights vs 2.9)
Better demographic fit, those aged 65 and over made up 7% of all inbound trips compared with 39% of trips taken by travellers with impairments and their travelling companions.
The Process
After an ideation workshop on the guest experience, 3 iterations of the prototype was tested. Findings included:
Users want to be confident UGC (User Generated Content) is accurate.
Verified icon inspired more confidence.
Photos play a big part in deciding if a property is suitable for their taste and accessibility.
Step free access and accessible parking were important filters.
Users said they felt confident about booking the property.
After an ideation workshop on the host experience, 3 iterations of the
prototype was tested. Findings included:
Although users went over time, they has no issue with how long it took them to complete the walkthrough.
Users didn’t see the points incentive until they were 20% in.
Users felt that the 200 points incentive was too low.
Users weren’t using the link to view example images.
Users took photos that matched our criteria for verification.
On the third iteration a decision was made to capture the property information on Typeform as an MVP. This was tested with internal and external users.
Next Steps
Build an inventory of accessible properties to launch to the public.
Success metrics:
No. trips agreed
No. accessible homes
No. new member with mobility issues