OYO JAPAN
Search Portal
OYO is the third largest hotel chain in the world, consisting of hotels, homes, and living spaces. OYO entered Japan in 2019, backed by Softbank Group’s $100 billion dollar Vision Fund.
Working primarily under OYO LIFE, our constant struggle was to improve the user journey of booking their perfect apartment.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Industry
Real Estate, Hospitality
Region
Japan
Time
Late 2020
Problem
The typical user journey of searching began above the fold on the homepage. However, many new users came from campaign landing pages, and many returning customers clicked through from emails.
Following user journeys on Google Analytics, the drop-off rate from users was high, as they became distracted by unneeded elements on our homepage.
User Research
In addition to analyzing user flow with Google Analytics, our team conducted research to learn more about how our users search for apartments.
Top-Down Thinking When Apartment Hunting
Most naturally, when discussing where they wanted to live, most users discussed starting their search at the prefecture level, followed by their budget.
Tokyo Residents Prefer Searching by Train Line
The majority of users who live in Tokyo place great emphasis on living as close as possible to a train station, as residents of Tokyo commute to work by train.
Solution
Our team decided to create a dedicated search portal with keyword search, train map, city and prefecture selection.
Our goal was to funnel users directly into booking pages, instead of being distracted by content below the fold - especially on desktop screens, where heat maps showed less engagement.
Conclusion
When sending users to our dedicated search portal, we found that the drop-off rate noticeably decreased in comparison to the previous user flow. Users were viewing more booking pages, instead of pages that would not lead to conversion.
Returning users, already knowledgable about the service, are only interested in searching; as a 100% online service, with no brick and mortar locations, these small tweaks are key in increasing our booking conversion rates.
