Hosting students made simple –
The EF Language homestay app
Company
EF Language Abroad
Project duration
Dec 2024 - Jun 2025
Role
Experience Design Director
Bringing together everything host families need, from reviewing allocations to payments and referral programs, in one organised application.
SituationEF Language needed a unified, global-ready app that helped families manage day‑to‑day hosting:
Reviewing student allocations, photo uploading for compliance, payments.
MVP released in
7
Schools
+100
Homestay families
The main task for host families is to review new student allocations.
TaskLead the end‑to‑end experience direction for the Homestay app and referral integration.
Guide an external designer through discovery, concept, interaction design, and test‑and‑learn cycles.
Partner with the PO on UX decisions, prioritisation, and scope.
Validate two high‑leverage funnels: referrals and student allocation.
Improve the calendar interaction.
One of the flows tested for to dos and notifications.
ActionStructured the app around a host’s main objectives:Home: main tasks for hosts to act on.
Calendar: monthly view with clear check‑in/out bands and ability to block off certain times.
Students: upcoming/current/past with actions (accept/decline, contact, support case).
Referrals: personal link + QR sharing
Account & Compliance: photos, documents with status, preferences.
Payments: weekly payout history, filters, and export options.
View of user testing heat maps: the affordance of the ‘referral link’ didn’t align with user expectations – some users didn’t anticipate multiple sharing options when clicking the link or icon.
ResultUnified host experience: hosting tasks, payment and referrals in one app, reducing tool‑switching.
Smoother availability planning: calendar interactions matched real host behaviour (quick set/resolve).
The main screens from the MVP version of the EF homestay app.
Key takeaways
The calendar view intention was beyond what we could develop in the given time and ended up being more of a visual overview than a highly interactive tool.
By focusing on the main functionalities we were able to ship the app in a very short time frame. Some features like loyalty integration had to deprioritised.
Hosting students made simple –
The EF Language homestay app
Company
EF Language Abroad
Project duration
Dec 2024 - Jun 2025
Role
Experience Design Director
Bringing together everything host families need, from reviewing allocations to payments and referral programs, in one organised application.
SituationEF Language needed a unified, global-ready app that helped families manage day‑to‑day hosting:
Reviewing student allocations, photo uploading for compliance, payments.
MVP released in
7
Schools
+100
Homestay families
The main task for host families is to review new student allocations.
TaskLead the end‑to‑end experience direction for the Homestay app and referral integration.
Guide an external designer through discovery, concept, interaction design, and test‑and‑learn cycles.
Partner with the PO on UX decisions, prioritisation, and scope.
Validate two high‑leverage funnels: referrals and student allocation.
Improve the calendar interaction.
One of the flows tested for to dos and notifications.
ActionStructured the app around a host’s main objectives:Home: main tasks for hosts to act on.
Calendar: monthly view with clear check‑in/out bands and ability to block off certain times.
Students: upcoming/current/past with actions (accept/decline, contact, support case).
Referrals: personal link + QR sharing
Account & Compliance: photos, documents with status, preferences.
Payments: weekly payout history, filters, and export options.
View of user testing heat maps: the affordance of the ‘referral link’ didn’t align with user expectations – some users didn’t anticipate multiple sharing options when clicking the link or icon.
ResultUnified host experience: hosting tasks, payment and referrals in one app, reducing tool‑switching.
Smoother availability planning: calendar interactions matched real host behaviour (quick set/resolve).
The main screens from the MVP version of the EF homestay app.
Key takeaways
The calendar view intention was beyond what we could develop in the given time and ended up being more of a visual overview than a highly interactive tool.
By focusing on the main functionalities we were able to ship the app in a very short time frame. Some features like loyalty integration had to deprioritised.
Hosting students made simple –
The EF Language homestay app
Company
EF Language Abroad
Project duration
Dec 2024 - Jun 2025
Role
Experience Design Director
Bringing together everything host families need, from reviewing allocations to payments and referral programs, in one organised application.
SituationEF Language needed a unified, global-ready app that helped families manage day‑to‑day hosting:
Reviewing student allocations, photo uploading for compliance, payments.
MVP released in
7
Schools
+100
Homestay families
The main task for host families is to review new student allocations.
TaskLead the end‑to‑end experience direction for the Homestay app and referral integration.
Guide an external designer through discovery, concept, interaction design, and test‑and‑learn cycles.
Partner with the PO on UX decisions, prioritisation, and scope.
Validate two high‑leverage funnels: referrals and student allocation.
Improve the calendar interaction.
ActionStructured the app around a host’s main objectives:Home: main tasks for hosts to act on.
Calendar: monthly view with clear check‑in/out bands and ability to block off certain times.
Students: upcoming/current/past with actions (accept/decline, contact, support case).
Referrals: personal link + QR sharing
Account & Compliance: photos, documents with status, preferences.
Payments: weekly payout history, filters, and export options.
One of the flows tested for to dos and notifications.
View of user testing heat maps: the affordance of the ‘referral link’ didn’t align with user expectations – some users didn’t anticipate multiple sharing options when clicking the link or icon.
ResultUnified host experience: hosting tasks, payment and referrals in one app, reducing tool‑switching.
Smoother availability planning: calendar interactions matched real host behaviour (quick set/resolve).
Key takeaways
The calendar view intention was beyond what we could develop in the given time and ended up being more of a visual overview than a highly interactive tool.
By focusing on the main functionalities we were able to ship the app in a very short time frame. Some features like loyalty integration had to deprioritised.
The main screens from the MVP version of the EF homestay app.