GALA BREZIGAR

{ Hire Space }

Redesign of back end architecture and interface

During the initial meeting with Hire Space we were given two challenges: to get venues to complete their venue profiles and to make it clear for venues that they are able to add team members to an existing account. This was an issue because it is not apparent to the users there is a relationship between an account and multi user/team profiles. To achieve these objectives we conducted research through interviews and surveys with users of the site. We redesigned the architecture and the interface in the backend of the site and managed to increase profile completion by 70% shown through user testing.

Comparative & competitive analysis

We started off by taking look at the competitors to hirespace and the first result was that when people are trying to hire a venue, they listed many different ways they would approach this. This means that Hire Space faces competition from everyone promising these bookings. Listing websites, agencies, and search engines. Some of the names that came up repeatedly are: Hubble, Co work, We work, Venue Search, Venue Seeker and Google.   However, the first three are dedicated to specific market segments while Square meal is perceived mainly as restaurant focused. About the results of survey we can say that: only 5% of respondents said they used Appear Here who focuses on pop up retail shops, Design My Night Night Life accounted for only 1% of respondents, While only 4% said they use Meeting rooms for on demand office and conference spaces And SqureMeal accounted for 7% of respondents

Survey

In order to understand why are venues failing to update their contact information in Hirespace it was necessary to learn why are venues attracted to the website to begin with and then how are they using the website.
To do this we carried out a survey, we found that that services and features provided by competitors what venues said found attractive was: 1. Well known and reputable, 2.Costumer Support, 3. Professional photography, 4. Multiple Logins, 5. Dashboard, 6. User Reviews, 7. Link calendars and 8. Ability to update enquiry/event status.
We found out even that the main criteria when choosing each advertising platform are 21% price, 15% website traffic and monitor enquiries and 14% convertion rate.

User interviews

We carried out 12 interviews with the venues manager, and even though the venues were different, several patters started to emerge. We were able to divide venues in two different groups. Those who have a very strong positive relationship with them regardless of whether they set up the profile themselves or not. How can Hire Space ensure continuity in their relationship with a venue? The answer was: costumer service. We have found that it is those providers who are in regular contact with the venues, sending enquiries, professional photographers and promoting venues to update their profiles regularly who remain in the awareness of the venues. Hirespace competitive advantage above all others and the reason venue managers are interested in resolving why are they not getting enquiries is that they believe Hire Space is the main venue listing website out there.

Personas

Based on our findings from the survey and interviews with the venue managers, we created some personas to help us focus on our users goals. The personas are representations of core users of hirespace: Mark Adams - Venue / Conference Manager: “I need to know clients are receiving information and updates on a regular basis about their events.”
Claudia Albano - Local Community Centre Manager: “I want to be able to keep everything organised with minimal effort and lots of ease.”

Features Analysis

We needed to prioritise the key features for the website, we did this by using a Moscow board which lists all the features in order of importance and reduces the list down by excluding the features which would be nice to have but not essential for the minimum viable product. The key features we wanted to include were:
Dashboard
Members access time
Analytics
List of enquires
Venues page
Members page

Design studio

With the personas in mind we held a design studio with my team, one of the stakeholder’s and two other industry experts. This allowed us to sketch many ideas and layouts during a short period of time. We wanted the focus to be on the dashboard layout and content, making sure all the information for the venue manager was accessible in a clear overview. We held three rapid sketching rounds taking the best ideas from each person and implementing them in our designs for the following rounds.

Paper prototype & user testing

During research we discovered that the best way to do that would be to have a dashboard that would give all the information in a single glance. One of the changes following user testing conducted to test the prototype was the addition of a detail page for each team members. During several iterations we refined the details of the dashboard. For example, the user interviews made it clear that the what was important to the venue managers was to have at hand the different stages of enquires. During subsequent user testing we have received clear indications to reword some information, especially during the listing process. Lastly during the venue setup test it was found that the hierarchy was not clear so we changed the order and labeling.

Proposed solution & future steps

We believe the increasing venues sense of owner ship of their profile will give them the control in how they are marketed and enable to maximise the exposure they get to potential costumers a platform like Hire Space represents. The design that we have present to you today will allow venues to easily see activity in their venue and multiple log ins will ensure that even if it is not possible to access the account with someones email, the account can be accessed through the venue profile itself.
About future steps we identified these areas:
Professional Photography
Calendar
Reviews
Average price for Similar Venues
Periodic Profile Update