RICHARD LUNDQUIST

2023

Gammalstorp Booking

A booking app built from scratch, tailored to timeshare villages that want fairness and stress-free booking. As Product Owner and UI/UX designer, I facilitated the full process from concept to release.

My role

  • UI/UX
  • Product Owner

Overview

Managing a shared village

Almenr builds co-living projects in Sweden and Denmark. One of their projects is a timeshare village in Gammalstorp, Sweden, consisting of 12 houses shared by a community of owners.

In early 2023, as the community formed and construction began, a critical need emerged: How should the shareowners book their stays fairly?

I facilitated a digital interest group within the community to guide the development of this platform, serving as both Lead Designer and Product Owner.

The Challenge

Balancing fairness and freedom

When 80 shareowners share a village of only 12 houses, a standard booking calendar isn't enough. We needed a system that could:

  1. Ensure Fairness: Most importantly, we needed a "fairness algorithm" for peak seasons (summer) to ensure every owner got an equitable chance to visit, rather than a "first-come, first-served" race.
  2. Seamless Payments: Handle stripe payments and booking management.
  3. Community: Enable users to see who else is in the village to foster community.

Process

Defining the fairness logic

We started by meeting with the stakeholders (the shareowners) to define the specific mechanics of the "Fairness Algorithm." We debated various models—score-based systems, point usage, and rotation schedules—to find a solution that the community felt was just.

Core functional requirements identified included:

  • Stripe integration for payments.
  • A weighted booking system for high-demand periods.
  • Issue reporting workflows.

Iterating with the community

I adopted an iterative design process:

  1. Wireframing: Low-fidelity sketches to structuralize the complex booking flows.
  2. Prototyping: Moving to Figma to create interactive mockups.
  3. User Testing: I conducted focus groups and individual testing sessions. This was crucial for validating if users actually understood the "fairness score" concept presented in the UI.

Wireframes
Early wireframe of the booking app.

User Stories Mapping
One of the most important methods (in my opinion) are User stories. I brainstorm based on previous user knowledge, and common sense, how the user will react in certain situations, and based on that come up with requirements and issues that I would otherwise have missed.

Task Flow Diagram
Another key method is writing task flows, to get an overview of all paths. In a complex flow like booking, it is crucial to know every diverging path and what could "go wrong".

Booking App Interface
Once the mockup was being finalized, I could prepare to hand it off to the developers.

Key Learnings

Balancing tech and people

  • Stakeholder Management: Balancing the opinions the shareowner group as well as Almenr taught me how to facilitate compromise and drive consensus.
  • The Power of Testing: Early validation with paper prototypes gave us a preview of what it's like to book using the algorithm.
  • Product Ownership: Stepping into the PO role helped me understand the trade-offs between "perfect UX", technical feasibility and leadership.

The Solution

A fair algorithm for peak seasons

The final result is a custom booking application integrated into the Almenr platform (almenr.dk). It successfully manages the high-pressure summer booking lottery and daily off-season stays, by enabling "prebooking" in certain seasons, were user can express interest in a range of days within the selected season. At a set date, the bookings will be decided based on the algorithm, taking into account all prebookings made, the user history of previous bookings, to ensure that stays in high-season times are distributed fairly.

Mid-fidelity Mockup
The finished application. Houses placed on an interactive map (illustrated by me).

Richard Lundquist