Optimizing booking calendar
A user-centric approach to usability and efficiency
Role Product designer
Credits Lodgify
Year 2024
How might we improve Lodgify's calendar experience to boost usability and reduce errors?
The calendar is one of Lodgify’s most frequently used features, crucial for managing bookings, scheduling tasks, and tracking property availability. However, users like Ashley, a property manager juggling multiple rentals, face challenges such as inefficient rental organization, mismatched regional calendar settings, and difficulty quickly identifying specific properties.
From a business perspective, these frustrations lowered customer satisfaction (CSAT at 66.5%) and drove user churn as customers look for better tools elsewhere. Solving these pain points was crucial for improving the experience and retaining Lodgify’s competitive edge.
Before
Multi property view
After
Multi property view
Before
Single property view
After
Single property view
How did I have an impact?
Collaborating closely with my Product Manager, Engineering Lead, and stakeholders, I played a central role in defining and delivering solutions that addressed user pain points while aligning with business objectives.
Through the design thinking process, I:
Refined problem statements using users feedback.
Created and validated scenarios to align design and engineering needs.
Ran user tests with mid-fidelity prototypes to refine solutions.
Resolved concerns and ensured alignment on the project’s direction.
This project reinforced the importance of collaboration, user testing, and stakeholder engagement in delivering meaningful solutions.
What did we propose?
The solution redefined Lodgify’s calendar by introducing a more user-centric and scalable system, addressing both operational inefficiencies and usability gaps. The design prioritized intuitive workflows, flexibility, and enhanced visibility to users to streamline their operations not only in short, but also in mid and long term.
We developed a fully reimagined desk booking feature that saw immediate adoption and sustained usage by key clients during tests, and achieved significant reductions in user complaints through better feedback loops and clearer communication of system functionality.
Before
Long term multi view
After
Mid term view for multiple properties
After
Long term view for single properties
Process
1 Discovery
Benchmark
Tool-Based Insights Analysis
2 Definition
Findings and Insights
Prioritization
Feature mapping
3 Ideation
Design Critique
Prototyping
User testing
4 Iteration
User Testing Refinements
Final Alignment
1. Discovery
User’s Insights Analysis
For this project, we leveraged Productboard to centralize and analyze user feedback. This tool allowed us to identify recurring frustrations like inefficient property organization, mismatched calendar settings, and difficulty distinguishing properties.
By systematically sorting and evaluating feedback, we pinpointed high-impact usability issues and prioritized solutions to address the most significant challenges, ensuring user needs were at the core of our approach.
Benchmarking and Technical Evaluation
We analyzed competitors to identify best practices and gaps in access rights management. This highlighted opportunities to differentiate Lodgify while ensuring our solution could be implemented within the platform’s technical architecture.
User's feedback collection
2. Definition
The discovery phase uncovered key user needs that shaped the calendar redesign, making it more user-friendly, efficient, and flexible for Ashley, our persona.
Efficient Rental Organization
Ashley needed a way to quickly organize and focus on specific rentals for a given timeframe. Currently, she spends too much time scrolling through the calendar as rentals are ordered by creation, making important bookings easy to miss even with filters applied.
Customizable Calendar Start Days
Ashley required the ability to set the first day of the week to match her country’s standard. The default Monday-start view caused booking errors and frustration, as her mental model aligns with Sunday-start calendars.
Property Distinction
Ashley needed a way to distinguish properties with similar names or photos. She often relies on unique number IDs for clarity, but the lack of visible identifiers in the calendar slows her down and increases the risk of errors.
3. Ideation
Ideating and sharing with the team
I developed a low-fidelity proposal and presented it in a Design Critique session with the design team. The session focused on user problems, a reorganized calendar layout, and related user flows to address pain points.
Given the calendar’s independent existence in the app (led by another designer) and its critical role in the platform’s architecture, this session allowed me to align with the design team, gain valuable feedback, and ensure consistency across the product.
4. Iteration
User Testing Refinements
I developed a prototype and conducted user tests to validate the solution. Initial feedback highlighted the need for a smoother way to sort rentals directly on the calendar. After refining the solution in collaboration with the Engineering Lead, further tests confirmed that the new inline sorting interaction was both user-friendly and efficient. The remaining tasks were also tested, and users performed them smoothly, showing the solution effectively addressed all key issues.
Before
1st proposal
After
Iterated proposal
Alignments
Stakeholders raised concerns about the scalability of inline sorting for users with many properties. Since our persona, Ashley, manages 2–6 properties, a filter feature could be introduced later to address this.
Despite strong support from the Product Manager, Engineering Lead, and myself, the feature was simplified to meet stakeholder priorities. This reinforced the importance of early alignment, balancing user needs with feasibility, and staying flexible within project constraints.
Key outcomes
The revamped calendar empowers users like Ashley to manage properties with precision and flexibility, setting the foundation for more strategic and efficient rental operations. Below are the key outcomes and final features:
Reorganized Calendar Layout
Improved navigation and clear grouping of functionalities, allowing users to manage properties with ease across multiple views (e.g., “Single” and “Multi”).
Streamlined Operations
Reduced errors and friction in daily tasks by aligning the system with users’ mental models, fostering efficient property management.
Customizable Calendar Settings
Enabled users to tailor views, such as reordering rentals, selecting property identifiers, and aligning regional preferences like the start of the week.
Enhanced Productivity Features
Introduced tools like drag-and-drop reordering, clearer time frame selection, and hide/show options to reduce clutter and focus on priorities.
Responsive Design
Delivered a fully responsive layout that adapts seamlessly across devices, ensuring a consistent experience regardless of screen size.
Impact & Results
We expect the following post-launch impacts:
Positive feedback: Increase CSAT from 66.5% to 75%, aligning with industry standards and reflecting improved user satisfaction.
Increased efficiency: Boost CES from 3.5 to 4.5, reducing friction when managing calendar availability and streamlining user workflows.
Less support needed: Lower the number of inquiries related to configuring preferences, decreasing support load and improving the self-service experience.
Learnings
User Insights Matter: Productboard helped prioritize user pain points and focus on impactful solutions.
Team Alignment: Early design sharing ensured consistency and valuable team feedback.
Iterative Design: User testing refined the solution, especially for rental sorting.
Usability Meets Performance: Collaboration with engineering balanced design improvements with system efficiency.
Stakeholder Buy-In: Clear communication avoided misunderstandings and ensured alignment.
Flexible Solutions Win: Customizable settings addressed diverse needs and improved the overall experience.