We interviewed hosts and worked with our Customer Support and Trust and Safety teams.
There are countless scenarios when dealing with payments and transactions.
Learnings
For hosts with many reservations, it's difficult for them to track which transaction belongs to which reservation.
For hosts space with multiple addresses, they need to know from which location that money is coming from.
Hosts need to know when their renters have paid VS when that money will hit their bank.
ACH payments take 6-10 business days to process, as opposed to card, which take 3-5.
Each user is in a different time zone. We didn't account for this in our previous build.
There are full refunds, partial refunds, and money covered by Neighbor's Host Protection coverage.
If a renter is late on a payment, the host needs to know.
Hosts need to provide bank and tax information in order to get paid.
Design progression
Explanation
(Slide 1) Sketches
(Slide 2) Early wireframes
(Slides 3-4) A hodgepodge of exploratons.
(Slide 5) A single-page desktop design idea
Here are a few ways that we incorporated research
We show information about the reservation or renter, such as the items they are storing.
If the host has multiple addresses, we show which address the transaction is from.
We created different transaction states for each scenario, such as refunds or late payments.
If a host has not added their bank or tax information, we ask for it.
Did we user test?
We did not. Our deadlines were tight, and we didn't anticipate the spaghetti-mess of transactions. I regret not testing, though we were happy with the designs.
Final designs
Hosts can track their earnings, including pending payouts. They can also see "missed earnings" (in red) if they fail to approve a prospective renter.
Hosts can verify all transactions for themselves.
During tax season, hosts can download their 1099s. We explain how taxes work for these hosts. Hosts can also add their bank accounts to receive deposits.
How did it turn out?
The product team reorganized, and I was moved to a new strike team. Another designer gave support for the build.
For that reason, I never learned how the new designs performed.
I would have enjoyed seeing this one through to the end. I was proud of our work.
Reflection
Startups move fast. They can be messy. We want everything to be well-planned and researched, but that's not always the case.
Sometimes you just deliver as much value as you can with the time you have.
