INDUSTRY:
TRAVEL + HOSPITALITY
CLIENT:
AIRBNB
YEAR:
2024
EXPERIENCE:
FIGMA | WIDE-FORMAT PRINT DESIGN
Airbnb 'Icons' Drop Calendar
about.
Airbnb Icons was a launch that Airbnb did in May of 2024 where they introduced Airbnb experiences and homes that partner with celebrities and popular franchises. Over the course of 6 months after the launch, a new Icon would drop twice a week in the app on Wednesdays and Sundays. Each Icon drop would go through a lifecycle of the following:
Coming Soon
Countdown
1-hr countdown
Live
Live (slot two)
Sold Out
Archived
At any given time, there could be anywhere from 5-20 of these icons present on the app all in different states. Leadership needed a way to see all of these Icons and how they all line up with each other, so the idea we came up with was to show the full 'above the fold'/'below the fold' app scrolls on every Wednesday and Sunday.
challenge.
What ended up coming together was a horizontal calendar of over 75 scrolls next to each other, amassing to a calendar that was 8 ft tall and 40 ft wide. The scrolls were divided into months, and within each month was a capture of what the app would look like every Wednesday and Sunday of that given month. This calendar lived in the creative suite next to where all of the VP's and CEO have their meetings and work throughout the day, so this calendar needed to be absolutely pixel perfect from beginning to end.
Printing such a calendar in house was a breeze compared to the real challenge– only a few of these Icons were set in stone, and ideas and partnerships were constantly coming in and out of Leaderships queue for potential Icons. My job was to make sure this calendar was updated on at least a 2 week cadence, and ensure the calendar stayed pixel perfect at all times.
result.
Through the collaboration between myself, the product team and the global marketing VP, we were able to create a truly gigantic and comprehensive look at screenshots of the entire scroll of the app on each drop date from May to September.
On the very left, we included a grounding section which essentially is a double click look into what each Icon entails:
Coming Soon Date
Countdown Date
Live Date
Month the Icon drops
the date the entire calendar was updated
If you scroll to the right, you will see the full app scroll mockups and the lifecycles of Icons as they move up the queue and back down into the archives. What resulted from this was an easy to digest view of which Icons will be present together and how their timing is going to effect the overall experience. We got great feedback from Leadership and this proved to be a vital resource in the decision-making process for the launch of Airbnb Icons.
