BetterUI: What Would You Improve On Booking.com’s Search?

Here is a long overdue open challenge for some exploratory design work. Looking forward to learning from your ideas I created this Figma template of Booking's search box to make it easier to edit and take part in this exercise.

UPDATE - Sept 11, 2019: 62 votes have been placed which we used to sort all the ideas by, ranging on a probability scale from 3 (very likely positive effect) to -3 (very likely negative effect).

Instructions

• Copy this Figma template to make it editable.
• Design your single best improvement (B) for Booking’s search (pick any starting state).
• Describe your idea title and hypothesis as a question (see my example to the right).
• Share your Figma file back with me before Wednesday September 4th (jakub@linowski.ca) and I will republish your idea on the blog for people to vote on. :)

Why Do This?

I just want to see what kind of creative ideas are out there that might be potentially turned into interesting patterns and inspire others (I'm not affiliated with Booking at all).

The Submitted & Prioritized Ideas

Score +1.73 IDEA 9: Price In Calendar - Jiří Paďour, UX Designer @ Invia.cz

Question: Will an option to choose a date according to price lead to more bookings because of feeling a good deal/choice? Notes: People don't perceive price as absolute, but relative to something. If they see, they have a good deal, they are more likely to buy. (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +1.18 IDEA 7: Location Tips - Jiří Paďour, UX Designer @ Invia.cz

Question: will the option of choosing some strategic area lead to more bookings, because of "Peace of mind" of choosing a well-situated place? Notes: I spend lots of time figuring out, which place is reachable in some reasonable time from an airport/train station etc. (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +1.06 IDEA 8: Check-in, Check-out Range - Jiří Paďour, UX Designer @ Invia.cz

Question: Will an option to add Check-in and Check-out in range lead to more bookings because of possibly more interesting offers? Notes: Some travellers don't have a strict date from-to. This option would show more possibly interesting results. (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.92 IDEA 6: Location Grouping - Uros Durdevic, Product Designer @ SpacemanUX

Question: will grouping city locations make selection easier and option for wider search area give more results and opportunity for the customer, thus leading to more bookings? (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.79 IDEA 1: Availability Gauge - Jon Vanseader, Partner @ Clutch Marketing

Question: will showing days with most availability lead to more bookings because it shows how to save money or get the best choices? (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.61 IDEA 10: Search With Flight Information - Hing-Cheung Li, UX Designer & Developer @ ABF Research

Question: Will showing the number of daily (direct) flights from their location in the autocomplete results help a user make a decision choosing a destination?

Score +0.53 IDEA 11: Budget & Region Search - Alex Tester, Owner @ Smooth Websites

Question: will offering a way to search other than by destination attract more budget-conscious travelers, or those who have time off but no idea how to use it? Notes: The general idea is to pick people up when they’re earlier in the funnel - who don’t have the whole holiday planned out yet. The region drop-down could start with continents and then drill down from there. All fields are optional, as long as one is chosen the user should be able to search. (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.34 IDEA 2: Surfaced Popular Dates - Jakub Linowski @ GoodUI :)

Question: will surfacing common dates lead to more bookings because of an easier expression of desired dates? (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.31 IDEA 5: Take Part In - Victor Gubanov, designer @ Insaim.ru

Question: will an info button help to choose a date and get more bookings because of knowledge of an upcoming holiday? The following screenshot shows a hover state of the tooltip. (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score +0.24 IDEA 3: Go On An Adventure - Lars Skjold Iversen, Search Engine Explorer @ Umbraco

Question: will giving an option to get inspiration lead to more bookings because it helps those undecided to find their next destination? Clicking the Adventure option will lead you to a randomized destination page (destination picked based on user data, personalization and seasonal popularity). :) (Figma File if anyone wants to fork and edit this.)

Score -1.35 IDEA 4: Alphabetical Auto-Completion - Alexander Krieger, CPO @ Volders

Question: I wonder what would happen if you could click a first letter to show the first city faster?

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