HelpStay Website Critique

https://helpstay.com/

What is helpStay?

HelpStay exchange provides free volunteering abroad opportunities in more than 100 countries where you can swap skills for accommodation.

Website: HelpStay.com

What is this critique thing all about?

I am writing product critiques to improve my product sense. So, here is my 2nd product critique.

Device Setting: iPhone X & Chrome Browser

Landing page Design

Chrome Browser

My first impression

1. The name is very intuitive — HelpStay i.e. you help and stay at someplace. Even their CTA is clear “Give a little help, stay for free” which is aligned with the name.
2. Subscribe Banner: The first thing that the user will see when they open this website is the newsletter subscription. Usually, most users have very little clue about the websites they open for the first time, if the website asks users for their personal details early on, users will likely close it and move on. This is applicable for HelpStay. Even the CTA on the subscription banner says “Are you ready to get going?” — No! User just opened this site. Let them read it if they find value in it and they will sign up.
3. There is a small CTA under the “1000+ volunteers stay in 100+ countries” title i.e. “How it works” this is a pop-up for a video that answers a lot of my questions like how helpStay works, how I can sign up, and what kind of volunteer work type I can choose from. In the video, users can see that they have to pay 20 dollars each year for signing up. This can throw off the user a bit since they still haven’t properly understood the value clearly and now they see they have to pay 20 dollars towards the end.

Mobile

My first impression

1. Here, the banner takes over the entire CTA and website name. In order to maximize the email capture, the value prop is being affected. This is local optimization for getting emails.
2. The ideal way to gather emails for a newsletter is to give value and then ask them for signing up for the newsletter. The user understands what they will gain from the newsletter. Also having provided the value first, if the banner shows up the user will sign up due to the law of reciprocity. Since people feel the need to reciprocate when they receive something.
3. HelpStay should add the subscription newsletter after the user explores 2+ stays. This will confirm that the user is interested and then the banner can show up “Don’t miss new amazing stays!” or “Get notified first when a new stay joins!”. Using FOMO and the existing trust to make the user sign up for the newsletter.

Journal

1. When I saw the “Journal” option on the top menu bar I was presuming this will be a journal of the volunteers. Reading a travel journal will act as a testimonial consisting of both positive and negative different stays. But these are paid blogs.
2. Giving users a place to write about their experiences, be social by either hosting Reddit or Facebook embedded pages could boost the trust of not so confident users who are dicey(or anxious) about going on volunteering. Remember, users will be comparing multiple websites for volunteer stays and they want reasons to close other websites and focus on just one! HelpStay should give users a reason to close other volunteer websites by giving them an interface to read about the good experiences and showing them photos creates an environment of FOMO and excitement.

Second Page

Chrome Browser

1. “Support our young children (Tanzania)”, “Teach English (Honduras)” or “Housekeeping, Gardening (Latvia)” these stays sound amazing. Makes me want to open up all these links and read how I can also do it.
2. There is a “star” or rating system which is empty for all the stay listings on the website’s first page. This makes me a little skeptical that — Are these new listings? If they’re new listings, why does the website show it on top? Building trust is the most important ability to showcase early on for the website which sends people to a foreign country to volunteer. Showing previous volunteers ratings who have gone through these “stays” is one of the best ways to gain website visitors’ trust. This is a clearly missed opportunity.
3. Users can also click on the “heart” icon which bookmarks the stay for them. Other users can also see how many people have clicked on the “heart” icon. This can make some stays look more exclusive than others due to the social proof of other users. People adapt to the behavior of the masses whenever they are unsure or when the situation is ambiguous(here choosing a stay in a foreign country). People are most likely to look at and accept the actions of others as correct. The greater the number of people, the more appropriate the action seems. Also, having “hearts”( bookmarking stay interest) and “stars”(review of stay) just side by side feels congested.

Third Page

Chrome Browser

• In the testimonials volunteers are talking about making pizzas, going on hikes, staying in the desert, which makes their experience sound really fun and exciting.
• I would love to have seen more testimonials on this website. Helpstay can connect their testimonials with blogs that these volunteers might have written. Everyone wants a happy ending, so let’s give them.

User Anxiety

As a volunteer going to a foreign country for exploring and working does sound like a lot of fun. But there are a lot of issues around which users will have anxieties and those need to be addressed on the website early on.

A good example of resolving anxiety early is when you see “No Credit Card Required” when you sign up for a website. No Credit Card CTA is added since companies found out that a lot of users churn off since they don’t want to give their financial information to a company they just heard about. Until the user can understand the value proposition and trust the product, asking for Credit Card will just give the user a reason to churn off and find an alternative.

In case of resolving anxieties early for HelpStay, we need to focus on:

1. Covid-19 Situation: Users need information around covid situations for different countries is, does (s)he need a vaccination certification, is working in hostels or animal shelters safe, etc?
2. Woman Safety: For women, are these stay safe? Everyone has seen bad news coming out of different countries. Women need to be assured that these stays are safe for them.
3. Social Life: Do the volunteers get to work with other volunteers? Or are they going to be working alone for months? Having a volunteer community to work with and go out improve the overall experience.
4. Is this legit?: Looking at “1000+stays and 100+countries” CTA does give some confidence that HelpStay is legit. But as a volunteer, I would love to hear comments from volunteers currently working on a monthly online event, read and see photos of volunteers over Facebook and Reddit groups.

Fin:

I am writing product critiques to improve my product sense. If you have suggestions please feel free to comment or DM me. :)

Harpreet Vishnoi