Project Overview

The 4-week project focuses on UX research to address a travel planning-related user problem.

The product fills a market gap in group travel planning and collaborative decision-making.

A mid-fi prototype is created to map out the user experience of the product.

My Role

UX designer
UX researcher

Timeline

Overall: 4+ weeks
Discovery & Research: 2+ weeks
Design & testing: 2+ weeks

Project Background

Who doesn’t want to go see the big, wide world? Traveling is fun, as long as it is well planned.

However, everyone is different, with different interests, different tastes, and even different methods of planning. The burden usually falls on that one person who is the most organized, or sometimes we do not have a choice but to do it even though we don't like planning. But how do we make a good travel plan that makes most people happy?

After we go through the trouble of looking for inspiration, comparing options, discussing within the group, and finally deciding on the things that would make most people happy, we still have people asking, “Where are we staying?" What is our flight number? What documents do we need? I don’t like that hotel, can we change that? Will that be ok with people in the group?”

The struggle is so real, that we only wish if there is one place to engage everyone in the planning process and a place for all the decision-making so people are informed.

Problem

Users often have to jump between different social media apps to share travel plans and ideas with their friends.

Solution

A travel planning mobile app that engages everyone to make travel decisions collaboratively as a group.

My Design Process

Design Process

User Research

User insights

User Interviews:

During the ideation phase of the project, I conducted 5 user interviews to build new personas and inform the design.

Target participants consist of people who prefer to travel in groups and preferably have some experience making travel plans. These participants will allow us to better understand the difficulties that come with making group travel and activity plans.

Affinity Diagram

Summary of user insights:

User insights can be divided into three categories, which correspond to the three stages of planning. The app solution also addresses the three aspects of group planning.

User Persona

Story Board

StoryBoard

Let’s relive the journey together. To figure out where to go, Vicky knows that everyone is different, with different interests.

After we go through the trouble of looking for inspiration, comparing options, discussing within the group chat, and finally deciding on the things that would make most people happy. Yet, sometimes we still have people asking, “Where are we staying? What is our flight number? What documents do we need? I don’t like that hotel, can we change that? ”

The struggle is so real.

DEFINITION & IDEATION

Competitors

Competitive Analysis

I analysed 4 planning tools that support group planning. As you can see on the chart, they all specialise in one or two aspects,whether that’s inspirations or just document organising, although some of them have really smart features like document syncing. Essentially, what group planners need is an easy to use tool with only the essential features so it engages everyone in terms of what they need to decide as a group.

Competitor Analysis

Feature Prioritization Matrix

Feature Prioritization

TGT is focusing on an all-in-one starting point for group planners to engage, inform everyone, and organize everything about the trip.

Prototyping

Sketches

I began the design process with low-fidelity sketches and wireframes to accelerate decision-making through visualization without losing time. My sketches were based on the initial user interviews, the business goal, and the heuristic evaluation.

Wireframes

UI Style

Travel TGT Logo & Icon

Branding

The app's overall user interface is based on three components: fun, simplicity, and ease of use. Hence, I got a lot of inspiration from the ocean breeze and vacation vibe.

Color Palette

Components

Test & Iterations

Testing Feedback Matrix

Usability Testing

I did 5 usability tests in the first round and 3 after iterating on the issues that we’ve identified:

Iteration 01

Rearrange the buttons on the 'Destination Card'.

Iteration 02

Add the ‘Destination Description" page to the Discovery page for more destination info, providing recommendations for each destination.

Iteration 03

Redesign the share with friends’ choices to make it easy to share/invite friends through other apps.

Task 1: Screen Flow

Task 1: Create a New Trip

Vicky wants to create a new trip for this upcoming easter break with my friends. She also wants to throw in some potential destination ideas..

Task 2: Screen Flow

Task 2: Voting on Destinations

Vicky wants to have everyone in the group voting on the destination options, so she can finalize on where to go and keep everyone updated.

Prototype Demo

Next steps

01

More features of 'customizing trip' can be further developed.

02

More UX writing and copying can be added.

03

More microinteractions can be added to the prototype.

Learnings

Storytelling

User flow breakdown is an efficient way to map out the user experience and do iterations.

Design

Setting up a design system at the beginning is crucial. ‘Figma hygiene’ makes iterations so much easier.

Features
Concentrate on problem solving features rather than creating eye-catching elements.

Thank you for reading my case study!

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