Voice assistance in your Airbnb
Voice Interaction & Conversation Design
Design context:
As a short-term rental platform, Airbnb is committed to making it easier for hosts to provide a friction-free experience for their guests. By investing in research and design, Airbnb can continue to innovate and deliver value to both hosts and guests on their platform.
💁 🏠 🛏️
To achieve the coveted super-host badge, hosts on Airbnb must maintain good reviews. One of the key factors that contribute to good reviews is the host's responsiveness to questions from guests. By promptly answering inquiries and addressing any concerns, the likelihood of positive feedback from guests could be increased.
✈️ 🧳 🎒
Guests may sometimes skip the instructions and house rules provided by hosts, which could lead to numerous questions and issues during their stay. To be more attentive to guests' needs, hosts could utilize audio assistance with the help of smart speakers (assuming that they are programmable).
How might we help airbnb hosts provide a better staying experience for guests, when they aren't available to answer guest’s questions?
Scenario:
Sometimes, guests staying in an Airbnb may need extra garbage bags but don't know where to find them. This case study outlines my process for designing a prototype of a smart speaker that can answer common questions about the household, including where to find household items such as garbage bags. Since Airbnb hosts may store their garbage bags in different locations, guests need to be able to locate them easily. I began the voice interaction design process by focusing on three key elements:
Build the narrative:
[Intent]
Write a concise intent - an action that fulfills a user's spoken request. Usually includes an {item}. In this case, guests are looking for garbage bag, so [FindGarbageBag]
[Utterance]
“Hey Alexa, where I can find garbage bags?”
[Variables]
Other possible expressions for user's spoken request [FindGarbageBag].
“Help me find garbage bags.”
“Locare garbage bags.”
“...”
The conversation between users and the voice assistance should flow just like a human-to-human conversation (blended with some customer service skills). Before creating the flow chart, I ideated some potential conversations that users might have with the voice assistant. By considering how users are likely to ask questions and what kind of responses they expect, I was able to create a conversation flow that felt intuitive and easy to use. Ultimately, the goal was to design a smart speaker that guests could interact with in a way that felt natural and intuitive, enhancing their overall experience during their stay.
[Conversation Transcripts]
Me: Hi Alexa.
Speaker: What can I help you with?
Me: Can you find garbage bags for me?
Speaker:Sure! They are in the closet on the main floor.
Me: Hi Alexa,
Speaker: What can I help you with?
Me: Can you find me a garbage bag ?
Speaker: There is no garbage bags at your current location. Do you want me to find a local store selling garbage bag?
Me: Hi Alexa,
Speaker: What can I help you with?
Me: Can you find garbage for me?
Speaker:Sure! They are in the closet on the main floor.
Me: Hey Alexa, I can’t find any garbage bag on the main floor.
Speaker: I am sorry to hear that. Do you want me to find a local store selling it?
Just like low-fi prototype, the design for conversation needs to be prototyped and iterated:
Take-aways:
As a guest, the question you ask to the voice assistance will impact the results/answers from it. Being able to get the questions answered def feels great, but it’s very important to ask a valid and answerable questions.
To avoid the conversation with a “dead end”, the “path correction” will need to be taken into account. If users speak “No”, always provide a potential solution to pull users back to the right track.