From assumptions to a structured, insight-driven approach

Redesigning accommodation search to match agents’ workflows

COMPANY

Worldia

ROLE

Product Designer

EXPERTISE

Product Design

YEAR

2023

Product

B2BC travel platform

Team

1 Product Designer,
1 Product Manager
Developers

1 Product Designer,
1 Product Manager
Developers

Scope

Redesign of the accommodation search experience

Tools

Figma
Dovetail
Hotjar

Challenge

Accommodation search was a critical workflow for travel agents, but the experience lacked efficiency, clarity, and depth - leading to friction, time loss, and reduced trust in the platform.

Objective

Redesign the accommodation search experience to make it faster, more intuitive, and aligned with agents’ mental models.

Success metrics

Reduce time to find relevant accommodations
Increase map usage efficiency
Improve engagement with accommodation details
Reduce reliance on external platforms (e.g. Booking.com)

Approach

User research & Data analytics

Behavioral analysis (Hotjar)
Call reviews (Ringover)
User interviews

While data-driven decision-making is essential in product design, analytics at the time were limited due to an ongoing tracking restructuring and inconsistent tagging.

As a result, this project relied primarily on qualitative insights (user interviews, call reviews, behavioral observations) to guide decisions. What I would track:

Search-to-selection conversion rate
Time to find an accommodation
Map interactions (zoom, pan, clicks)
Usage of filters (e.g. search by area)
Engagement with accommodation details

Strategic decision

The key question was structural, not visual: should we move from a modal-based navigation to a full-page experience to properly support map-driven search?

I chose to redesign the experience around three principles:

Make the map central to the workflow
Reduce cognitive overload
Increase information richness to build trust

Exploration & validation

Benchmark

To inform design decisions, I ran a competitive benchmark across leading platforms.
I identified patterns, documented opportunities, and aligned with product managers in collaborative workshops.

ux audit

Conducted a full audit using Baymard guidelines
I validated design decisions and prioritized improvements

👉 Together, the benchmark and audit ensured our redesign was aligned with industry standards and focused on high-impact improvements.

This was my first attempt at improving the accommodation search, but the UI and UX were not satisfying. The large header block felt heavy, the filters displayed too much information, and having two search bars created confusion. The ‘modify rooms’ button also didn’t fit in this context.
I explored several directions and ended up with this version, featuring an optimized map. I consolidated the filters into a single button that opens a modal, and refined the search bar. However, the room selector button still felt out of place.
This was the final version we presented to the agencies. In my opinion, it was less dense and clearer.
This was my first attempt at improving the accommodation search, but the UI and UX were not satisfying. The large header block felt heavy, the filters displayed too much information, and having two search bars created confusion. The ‘modify rooms’ button also didn’t fit in this context.
I explored several directions and ended up with this version, featuring an optimized map. I consolidated the filters into a single button that opens a modal, and refined the search bar. However, the room selector button still felt out of place.
This was the final version we presented to the agencies. In my opinion, it was less dense and clearer.
This was my first attempt at improving the accommodation search, but the UI and UX were not satisfying. The large header block felt heavy, the filters displayed too much information, and having two search bars created confusion. The ‘modify rooms’ button also didn’t fit in this context.
I explored several directions and ended up with this version, featuring an optimized map. I consolidated the filters into a single button that opens a modal, and refined the search bar. However, the room selector button still felt out of place.
This was the final version we presented to the agencies. In my opinion, it was less dense and clearer.
This was my first attempt at improving the accommodation search, but the UI and UX were not satisfying. The large header block felt heavy, the filters displayed too much information, and having two search bars created confusion. The ‘modify rooms’ button also didn’t fit in this context.
I explored several directions and ended up with this version, featuring an optimized map. I consolidated the filters into a single button that opens a modal, and refined the search bar. However, the room selector button still felt out of place.
This was the final version we presented to the agencies. In my opinion, it was less dense and clearer.

usability testings

I conducted usability testing with five travel agencies to validate the redesigned experience and inform next product decisions.

Search by area is a key mental model

Agents naturally search for accommodations by neighborhood (e.g. Chelsea) and immediately used the search bar for this purpose.

Impact: Strongly improves search efficiency and saves time.

Agents naturally search for accommodations by neighborhood (e.g. Chelsea) and immediately used the search bar for this purpose.

Impact: Strongly improves search efficiency and saves time.

Favorites feature shows strong intent

Agents quickly understood the “Add to favorites” concept and expected it to already exist, even without a full flow.

Impact: High-value feature to support comparison and decision-making.

Filtering needs to match user priorities

Agents showed limited interest in filtering by points of interest and preferred filtering by area instead.

Impact: Misaligned filters reduce usability and slow down workflows.

Navigation changes must stay invisible

The shift from modal to full-screen navigation was barely noticed and felt natural to users.

Impact: Improves usability without increasing cognitive load.

Conclusion

Impact

This project allowed us to validate key product decisions early, before moving into development.
It helped identify high-value features such as search by area and favorites, which directly address agents’ needs.

By improving the structure of the experience, we reduced navigation friction and reinforced trust in accommodation data - a critical factor for agents when making decisions.

context & outcome

Due to an ongoing platform migration and limited resources, the redesign was not fully shipped immediately.

However, its impact went beyond delivery. The project helped establish stronger discovery practices within the team, improved collaboration between Product and Design, and created a shared understanding of agents’ workflows.

The insights gathered throughout the process later informed multiple iterations of the accommodation experience.

takeaway

This project marked a shift from assumption-based decisions to a more insight-driven approach to product prioritization.

It highlighted the importance of grounding design decisions in user insights, even in contexts where quantitative data is limited. Early validation helped reduce uncertainty and align stakeholders around meaningful improvements.

More broadly, it showed that impactful product work doesn’t always come from immediate delivery — it often starts by reshaping how decisions are made.