OVERVIEW
Airbnb Together is a social feature that helps travelers connect with others during their trips. It focuses on making real-life meetups easier and more natural, whether that's joining a local event or exploring a city with someone new.
The idea came from seeing how many people, especially Gen Z, feel isolated while traveling. Airbnb Together focuses on trust, shared interests, and simple group meetups to make social travel feel safe, fun, and effortless.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Product Design
UX Research
Motion Graphic
DURATION
6 weeks
Feb - Mar 2024
The Problem
80% of Gen Z aged 16-24, struggle with feelings of loneliness, anxiety, or depression sometimes or always.
The lack of meaningful social connections and support networks
further intensifies feelings of isolation and loneliness among this demographic.
Source: Loneliness is on the rise and younger workers and social media users feel it most, Cigna survey finds (2020)
How might we leverage social platforms to create meaningful
connections and combat feelings of loneliness, anxiety, or depression among Gen Z?
Initial Research
Competitor Analysis
Key Insights
✔️ Trust and safety are non-negotiable
✔️ Users are tired of cluttered or outdated platforms
✔️ Group experiences feel safer and more natural
✔️ Travelers want convenience, not commitment
✔️ There's no current platform that truly blends travel and social connection
75% of participants answered that they were interested in a dedicated social platform within the Airbnb app to connect with other users and share experiences, and top 3 of them want to get opportunities from the connection:
87.5% of the participants answered that they had never interacted with other Airbnb users beyond booking accommodations or experiences.
Are Gen Z solo travelers feeling lonely?
Exploring how Gen Z travelers connect and what they truly need from a social travel feature led to key insights through surveys.
Survey and Results
93.8% of the participants answered
how concerned they were about privacy and security when engaging in social interactions within the Airbnb app.
Persona
Solution
What if Airbnb introduced a dedicated social page to foster genuine connections among users, enhancing community and belonging within the platform?
User Testing
Iteration 1
Some users struggled to read the smaller text, especially on mobile.
Increasing font size and spacing made the screen feel more comfortable and easier to scan.
Before
✅ Made the fonts bigger to improve readability and flow
Iteration 2
Before
After
Users felt uneasy sending a request without knowing who they were connecting with.
By adding a profile preview, they felt more in control and open to connecting.
✅ Added a step to view the profile first so users feel more confident
before connecting
After
❌ Text felt too small and hard to read
❌ Couldn’t check the user’s profile before sending a request
User Interview
“I usually travel alone, and I wish there was a safe way to meet people while I’m in a new place. But honestly, I don’t trust random meetups on social media. It feels risky.”
Solo Traveler
Wants to connect but needs a sense of safety and structure in the interaction.
“Even if I wanted to meet people, I wouldn’t know if it’s allowed or safe. Airbnb just doesn’t feel like a place for that.”
Frequent Airbnb User
Feels disconnected and unsure if socializing is even encouraged within the app.
Conclusion
What I learned
Working on Airbnb Together, a social platform for connecting with others, taught me how to design experiences that encourage real-world interactions. I learned how maps, social features, and an intuitive UI can make it easier for users to engage and build connections. This project also showed me the importance of balancing aesthetic design with usability, ensuring that the platform feels natural and easy to navigate. Most importantly, I saw how thoughtful design can bring people together, making digital interactions more meaningful and impactful.
What's Next?
I want to improve the design based on feedback, making it even easier and more fun to use. I’m also excited to explore new ways to help people connect through digital platforms. This project showed me how design can strengthen real-world relationships, and I want to keep building experiences that do just that!
Final Design
Together
The Together Page is where people share past trips, leave honest reviews,
or even post plans to find others to join. It’s all about connecting through real experiences.
It allows users to upload posts, videos and stories.
Share photos, videos, text, and other content that disappears after 24 hours.
It leads to the Experience Details page that the user has experienced.
Exlpore
Explore Page enables users to connect with like-minded individuals by searching for keywords of interest, and facilitating friend requests to others who share similar interests, thereby expanding social networks and enhancing the exploration of shared passions within the Airbnb community.
Search for keywords
they are interested in.
make friend requests to other users
who share keywords they are interested in.
Users can see who’s joining. If it’s a friend, their profile shows up right away.
Others become visible after the experience.
Experience
The Experience Page makes it easy to find the right activity and see who’s joining, especially if they’re friends, which helps build trust.
Users can also share their own experiences, write captions, and leave comments right on the post to connect with others.
