What if your favorite content, tools, or preferences were just a tap away? Roobykon's decision to create Favorites List brings this dream to life by letting users effortlessly track and manage the things they value most. This powerful tool not only simplifies navigation but also refines how users engage with the platform.
How does a Favorites Feature work? Let's explore this simple yet powerful addition.
Feature details
Adding favorites functionality
To implement Favorite Feature and make it intuitive, we introduced heart icons on all listing cards and listing pages. Users can easily add or remove listings from their favorites by clicking on these icons. This functionality is available to both logged-in and unlogged users. For unlogged users, the process is slightly different: when attempting to add a listing to favorites, they are prompted to create a name for their list. Once named, the system guides them to log in or register. Upon successful authorization, the newly created list, along with the selected listing, is seamlessly saved to their profile, ensuring a smooth and personalized experience.
Creating and saving favorite lists
Whenever a user clicks on the heart icon, a pop-up window appears, offering two options: to create a new list or to select an existing one. This functionality is a great example of how to add a favorite icon to a website for improved user experience. After entering a title and saving it, the heart icon turns blue. Users can create multiple lists, and each list’s cover image is automatically set to the primary image of the first listing added.
Managing and organizing favorite lists
Each favorite list includes tools for editing the title, organizing the favorites list, applying a date filter to view availability, or removing listings. When the date filter is applied, users can see which listings are unavailable. These non-available listings remain visible on the map, marked with a distinguishing icon to help differentiate them from the available options, making it easier for users to manage their favorites list effectively.
Storage and data management
All favorite list data is stored in the user's public data, ensuring that lists are accessible across sessions and easily managed.
Key implementation challenges
Creating the Favorites feature presented important technical challenges, specifically in displaying all favorite locations on the map. It was easy to show available locations, but making sure that unavailable listings were shown correctly took extra work to keep a smooth and helpful user experience.
The development team needed a way to help users see their favorite places clearly, regardless of current availability. Our solution was to create a visual system that distinguishes between available and unavailable listings.
Why Favorites feature matters in modern digital marketplaces
The Favorites feature offers strategic benefits for marketplace owners. For starters, it gives insight into user preferences and browsing behaviors in great detail. Users, by saving an item to their favorite lists, are generating useful data about their interests that may later be used in tailoring recommendations, targeted marketing, and product curation. This fine-grained understanding of user intent makes it possible for platforms to better tailor experiences to scale conversion rates. Websites with favorites features capitalize on this data to optimize their user experience and increase sales.
From a user's perspective, the Favorites feature addresses critical pain points of online shopping and booking experiences. Users typically browse through numerous alternatives before making a choice, so saving and organizing listings reduces cognitive load. Allowing customers to create custom lists, categorize their interests, and revisit potential purchases or bookings easily transforms what could have been an overwhelming browse into an intuitive, personalized experience.
The functionality brings major psychological benefits: the saving of favorites creates a sense of ownership and emotional investment in the platform. Users would feel more attached to the marketplace if they could curate their own collections, which increases loyalty to the platform and return visits. The ability to compare and organize listings at their own pace reduces purchase anxiety and supports more confident decision-making.
