EXPEDIA GROUP

DESIGNING SUSTAINABILITY

OVERVIEW

Project Statement

How might we design an experience that encourages Expedia and Vrbo users to make environmentally sustainable traveling and lodging decisions without incorporating the concepts of greenwashing, the practice of misleading users regarding environmental impact by using false or exaggerated claims, and eco-guilt, any guilt/shame a user might feel for not following sustainable practices?

User Group

Middle-class solo travelers that can afford to live sustainably, but have neutral attitudes towards sustainable policies & movements.

What Is Sustainability?

This project was centered around the concept of sustainability, but what exactly does this mean? Our team defines sustainability as:

"A framework for engaging travelers and the travel industry at large in supporting goals that would help improve the environment and build a healthier planet. This includes, but is not limited to, protecting the environment, addressing climate change, minimizing plastic consumption, and expanding economic development in communities affected by tourism."

The biggest hurdles our team faced in regards to promoting sustainable practices was eco-guilt, any guilt/shame a user might feel for not following sustainable practices, and greenwashing, the practice of misleading users regarding environmental impact by using false or exaggerated claims.

Approach

Because sustainability is such a complex problem space, our team divided ourselves into two subprojects for flight (expedia.com) and lodging (vrbo.com) in order to better tackle unique sustainability issues related to each. We utilized an agile approach, implementing two-week sprints for each subproject.

FINAL DESIGNS

Expedia.com

Final Design Overview

For Expedia.com, our team designed the "Hive", a community for Expedia users who are interested in travelling sustainably. Upon joining, Hive members are presented with more sustainability-oriented options for booking flights.

As an added incentive to flying sustainably, our team also devised a point system, rewarding the user more depending on what sustainable options they chose for their flight.

Learn more about the "Hive", a free community that encourages and rewards sustainable Expedia customers.

Modified search for Hive members.

Sustainability-oriented search results page.

Modified checkout for Hive members.

Vrbo.com

Final Design Overview

With Vrbo.com, we decided to focus on the hosts rather than the guests, as we found more opportunity to introduce sustainable practices when we focused more towards hosts.

In our design, Vrbo hosts have the option of being an "eco-host". Eco-hosts would be given increased visibility to guests, deals on sustainable tech, financial support from Vrbo & more under the condition they verifiably follow the required sustainability practices Vrbo lays out. Tackling sustainability from the end of the host will also improve sustainability from the guests.

Hosts can set guidelines and rules that guests must follow.

An impact/cost matrix for hosts to determine what they can implement onto their property to increase sustainability.

Graphic mock-ups to be given to hosts and/or displayed on host propertys for guests to see.

RESEARCH & DESIGN PROCESS

Expedia.com

Understanding the User

GOALS

+ Discover ways to motivate users to engage with sustainable options

+ Research what de-motivates users to engage with sustainability

APPROACH

Our team took a deep dive into researching and understanding eco-guilt. We looked into ways to make sustainable options more attractive for users, and how to motivate users to choose these options long term.

TAKEAWAYS

MOTIVATORS:

+ Feeling a sense of community

+ It’s easy to get discouraged regarding climate change/sustainability. It’s important users’ don’t feel alone in their sustainability efforts

+ Rewards!

+ Rewarding purchases that benefit the planet motivate users to make sustainable choices

+ Being transparent

+ Greenwashing is real and harms the sustainability movement. Data transparency is central to combatting this

DEMOTIVATORS:

- Equating sustainability to moral goodness

- Not everyone can afford to make more sustainable choices, they shouldn’t be shamed for that

- Striving for perfection instead of progress

- Small, attainable actions will enable users to be sustainable long term

Comparative Analysis

GOALS

+ Explore and gain insight from other industries’ approaches on how to communicate sustainability to their consumers

+ Analyze what competitors are doing in regard to sustainability and use these findings to move our project forward

APPROACH

Our team looked at a variety of similar websites and companies to Expedia for inspiration on how to properly present sustainability information to Expedia’s users.

TAKEAWAYS

OVERALL FINDINGS

+ Subtlety is more appealing to users and reduces eco-guilt

+ Using simple terms creates a better user understanding

GOOD EXAMPLES:

Seventh Generation

Clear categories and definitions for sustainable options

Ben & Jerry's

Fun wording and puns that get users' attention in subtle ways

BAD EXAMPLE:

Booking.com

There is no mention of sustainability anywhere on their website (at the time of the project)

Design Evaluation

Guerilla Testing

We conducted guerilla testing (gathering random participants from a public space) on our Mid-Fi designs with 10 participants.

TAKEAWAYS:

+ Merge the mid-fi designs into one coherent system

+ Provide clearer definitions and context for our design

+ Prioritize price, as that's what users care most about

+ People loved the bees in our design!

Other Testing

Our team also conducted concept testing and A/B testing to gain further insights into our design

TAKEAWAYS:

+ Users don’t research into an airlines’ sustainability practices

- The community/Hive concept caused some confusion in users

- Users felt somewhat apprehensive to join the community due to how frequently they book flights

+ The priorities of how users interpret flight information is:

+ Price

+ Location

+ Sustainability filters

Vrbo.com

User Flow

GOALS

+ Evaluate the current onboarding process for Vrbo hosts

+ Identify areas where sustainability information may be helpful/engaging

APPROACH

Our team mapped out the process of becoming a Vrbo host, inspecting the different pages and how they would be navigated, and how we might insert sustainability into this process.

TAKEAWAYS

+ Many of the landing pages can be condensed and offer information on sustainable practices

+ During the creation of the first flowchart, our focus was on Vrbo guests. Lots of the information present on the site was dependent on being supplied by the homeowner, so we shifted focus onto homeowners and Vrbo partners.