WelcomeScreen
Overview
Objective: To design and help short-term rental hosts enhance guest experiences by displaying key information while providing property owners with an ad interface using existing TVs and streaming devices.
Role: Co-Founder and Head of Product
Team: Tara Kumawat (Dev), Sanjeet Kumar (Dev), Akshith Pottigari (Dev), Dylan Williams (CEO), Ankit Agarwal (CTO)
My Process
I led the design and product strategy from the ground up, overseeing the entire process from research to execution. My approach includes in-depth user research, ideation, and iterative design phases, working closely with developers to drive feature development.
Problem Identification & Product Market Fit
Validating the Need for Digital Signage in Short-Term Rentals Through User Research
As my co-founder and I navigated this space, we noticed growing interest in digital signage. To validate this, we conducted extensive user interviews with short-term rental property owners and property managers.
Outreach
Key Insights from User Interviews
Gathering User Insights
A Clear Market Gap
These insights confirmed a real demand for an in-room digital signage solution. Hosts needed a way to streamline guest communication while leveraging their screens for engagement and direct marketing. This research directly informed the development of WelcomeScreen, ensuring it solved real pain points in the short-term rental space.
Product Development End to End
Implementation:
Developed an intuitive interface enabling hosts to customize information and automate processes through property management systems, delivering personalized guest experiences.
Key Features
V1
Initial Design Strategy:
Crafted to align with anticipated user preferences, this version focused on presenting key information to facilitate early insights. It provided a strategic baseline for collecting feedback and guiding subsequent enhancements.
V2
Interface Accessibility Enhancements:
Updated icons to address weather API integration constraints. Optimized opacity and tested various background colors to improve text visibility for older guests, enhancing overall accessibility.
V3
Visibility Enhancements:
Refined font colors based on feedback to improve visibility of key dates, enhancing user clarity
Design Streamlining:
Added watermarks for dual-role Airbnb users, boosting marketing effectiveness.
Marketing Optimization:
Unified font alignment and sizing, improving interface consistency.
User Interface Refinement:
Removed the weather icon from larger displays after tests showed it reduced visual appeal, ensuring a cleaner look.
Backend Information Interface Organization and Efficiency
Organized content into three intuitive tabs—Display, Guest List, and Property Details—to streamline navigation and avoid information overcrowding. Displaying full information upfront minimizes clicks, enabling users to swiftly access details and reducing backend interaction time.
Backend Display
Guest List Automation with PMS Integration
The integrated guest list simplifies management by enabling the easy setup of automations, streamlining guest control processes and enhancing efficiency.
Scalable Property Management Features:
Designed with property duplication and grouping options to support users managing a few to hundreds of properties, ensuring scalability and operational efficiency.
Direct PMS API Integration During Sign-Up
Recognizing PMS integration as a key feature, it was seamlessly incorporated into the sign-up process. This approach validates serious users while introducing intentional friction to ensure quality engagement.
PMS Integrated Sign Up Page
Sign up/ Sign In User Flow
Design Handoff Process to Development Team
Once a high-fidelity design is finalized, handoffs are marked ready for development to ensure consistency. Each feature includes interaction states, key color hex codes, and edge cases within a flexible, structured system. Changes are accompanied by descriptions, reasoning, and important notes from alignment calls to guide development.
Figma Design Handoff Example of TV Sign Up Flow
On the Roadmap Streaming Device Development
After gathering user feedback, we found that while our current product was well-received, users wanted a more permanent solution that didn’t require guests to exit the app. To address this, we are developing a dedicated streaming device and UI application designed to enhance advertising opportunities and create a seamless, interactive experience for both guests and property managers. Currently in development, the project will be tested with two boutique property groups managing over 100 properties each once completed.
Potential UI for TV Streaming Device
Outcomes
Beta Testing
13 hosts are beta testing the product on various TV platforms and apps, critically reviewing the setup process to ensure optimal usability before launch.
On the Horizon: Streaming Device Development
We are developing streaming device hardware and a UI application tailored for boutique property groups, enabling property managers to display advertisements and promote their services. Currently in the development stage, the project will be tested with two boutique property groups managing over 100 properties each.
Main Constraints Faced
The software needed to be both usable and scalable across various management levels while ensuring compatibility with multiple TV and streaming devices. Diverse aspect ratios introduced inconsistencies, causing content distortion and complicating responsive design efforts.
Solution to the Main Constraints:
Developed design guidelines to support multiple screen sizes and aspect ratios, ensuring visual consistency across TVs and streaming devices. Conducted extensive visual testing to address content distortion issues. Collaborated with developers to refine adaptive content delivery, ensuring optimal display on all devices. Created detailed documentation to support scalable design practices.
Reflecting on Building WelcomeScreen:
Working on WelcomeScreen highlighted the importance of precision in visual design, especially for a product consumed primarily visually. Small details, such as typography, spacing, and contrast, were critical for crafting a polished and intuitive user experience on large TV displays.
Designing for TV remote navigation presented unique challenges, requiring a balance between the limited freedom users have and delivering a seamless, efficient experience. This constraint encouraged me to think critically about every interaction, prioritizing simplicity and clarity.
The project also underscored the value of collaboration with backend teams. Aligning user expectations with technical feasibility was essential to creating a product that remained both functional and delightful. This experience strengthened my ability to design within constraints while maintaining a user-first approach.
