Client: Expedia Group Multifamily
Project Type: Product Creation
Role: Sr. Experience Designer
Agency: Internal
The Company
Expedia Group Multifamily Solutions (EGMS) is a subsidiary of its parent company, Expedia Group. The goal of EGMS is to connect the multifamily industry (apartment industry for the layman) to the short-term rental market. EGMS does this through a variety of tools (Flex) and services, which they have named the Flexible Living Platform.
The Product
While EGMS has an entire suite of products, the one that we’ll be looking at is called Flex Travel. Flex Travel allows apartment residents to travel to different apartment complexes within their property management company’s “network” for a below-market rate. For example, let’s say you live at an AMLI apartment in Los Angeles. You plan on visiting Chicago for a weekend getaway. Flex Travel would allow you to book a short-term rental at any AMLI in Chicago for a price considerably cheaper than what you would find on Vrbo or Airbnb.
My Role
I am the sole designer responsible for all things EGMS. This includes two external tools (Flex Manage and Flex Travel), an internal tool (Flex Backoffice) and the marketing website.
Validate with the market
There were multiple prospective clients asking for a solution like this, so we know there was a demand in the market. We quickly made a low-fidelity prototype and brought it back to them to gather feedback. Once the idea was validated, we began to flesh out some of the details.
The details
Again, this is just like any other travel platform, with a few key distinctions. We used best practices and patterns where applicable (example: search and product pages) however, there were a few parts of the experience that were unique to our product that required even more exploration. For example, onboarding a user to the platform.
User onboarding
With most websites, a user can simply create an account. However, what we were offering was a part of a closed network. We felt that the best way to verify users was by requiring a four-digit numeric code specific to their property management company. In addition to that, they would be required to provide information about their relationship with the property management company.
Validating with the end-user
Once the information architecture had been mapped out, wires built and the high-fidelity design specs created, we were ready to validate our ideas with our end users. We did this by conducting a remote, unmoderated usability study.
