Travo
These days, due to the impact of the pandemic, traveling together with friends becomes increasingly rare and hard, especially for those group tourists who have limited travel experience. In order to help them create a memorable and well-organized trip, I initiated this app called ”Travo”.
My involvements in this project include conducting primary research and semi-structured interview, creating a user journey map, rapidly prototyping wireframes, and holding workshops for usability tests.
App Design
Time Frame
2022.6-2022.7
Role
UI/UX Designer, UX Researcher, App Designer
Involvement
Semi-structured interview, user flow, empathy map, rapid prototype, usability test
Overview
In this app, I’m aiming to help young adults group tourists to plan and experience a well-organized, treasured and memorable trip.
Project
Self-initiated
>> Define
>> Ideate
>> Takeaways
Problems
Young group tourists who lack of travel experience fail to plan and experience a well-organized trip.
Limited experience leads to info overloaded
Unfair division of labor
Tackle unforeseen change
Money Splitting
People with limited experience with traveling will choose to go over tons of blogs or videos to prepare, which is easily leading the wrong impression and causing even more difficult choices because of information overloaded.
During the preparation stage, not all the travelers in the group are involved and participated in planning the trip, therefore not all of them are familiar enough with the trip itinerary and scheduled plan.
During the travel stage, group tourists who lack of experience will not be coupled with the ability to tackle the sudden changes due to weather, physical reasons, or personal issues which might happen during the trip, and waste time on searching and comparing.
After the travel stage, calculating money expenses can be really annoying.
Solutions
Smartly generate customized plans
Engage equally when preparing
Modular itinerary
Expense tracker
For group tourists who lack of experience, the most useful feature would be understanding needs and biases + generating customized plans. The whole plan can be divided into transport, stays and travel, and the final result will be defined after voting.
Make sure everyone checked in and participated when the deciding task needs to be done. In the trip-planning stages, this will get everyone involved and buying into the decision to take a trip together. Everyone has an equal stake in its overall success.
Instead of arranging everything fixed and detailed, providing a modular and adjustable itinerary can easily and conveniently tackle unforeseen changes that might happen in the trip.
Creating a money strategy and expense tracker which can automatically bill and distribute for everyone will be great for group tourists.
Process Overview
Primary research
Empathy map
User Journey
Semi-structured interview
Problem statement
Persona
HMW question
Solutions
Visualizing concepts
Prototype
Usability tests
Final designs
Style guide
01
. Empathize
Background Research
Going on grand adventures with friends together is always a good idea, especially these days. The pandemic has affected the convenience of our lives and traveling become far more precious. Generally, all of the group tourists have gone relatively smoothly, however, you still might face a couple of challenges during the whole trip.
Quantitative Research
I did a quantitative research with 45 responses collected, all the information is useful and insightful.
of responses admitted there are problems that existed during the trip
would want to have a well-organized app to help them track their trips
75% claim that there should be a clear division of labor when planning the trip
85% complain about the difficulty of making a satisfying travel plan for everyone
40 out of 45 responses say that it is hard to tackle with the sudden change during trips
38 out of 45 responses agree that money splitting can be a problem after the trip
80%
95%
Empathy Map
After reviewing 45 responses from the primary research, I completed an empathy map to help me know better about my users. Especially what they think and feel, which are the main pain points and main user goals. (click on the pic to see details)
User Journey map
In order to better discover the design opportunity, I made a detailed journey map based on three phases: before the trip, during the trip, and after the trip. From this map, I analyzed steps users might take and obstacles they might encounter, as well as their current method of solving problems.
The 3 design opportunities I discovered covered the three stages of the trip.
Semi-structured Interview
I conducted a semi-structured interview with 3 people who had experiences traveling together with friends before. And each of them told me about some detailed problems that they met before
“ Before the trip, we always need to plan or schedule at least a brief checklist. In this case, some people will be OK with everything and let the other teammates plan all the stuff. However, it will end up with these people are not familiar with the trip at all. This can be really unfair to those who schedule plans hardworkingly, and also can lead to unpleasant conflicts easily during the trip. “
Sherine
25 yrs old
Maggie
23 yrs old
“ I have ran into a problem really annoying during the trip this spring break with my friends in Vermont! We have confirmed the plan yesterday already, but some sudden change happens during the travel. In fact, we climbed a mountain in the morning and found out that it would be too tiring to go to another trail in the afternoon. So we sat in the restaurant for an hour and half to search for our next generation. We switched from apps to apps, from blogs to blogs, and compared between comments, timelines and commuting time. After carefully deciding, we finally met to an agreement, however, it turned out that there are no tickets left…”
Thomas
24 yrs old
“ My main concern will be money splitting which is pretty annoying after the trip ends. Also transferring photos is not that convenient. “
02
. Define
Problems statements
Limited experience to plan a satisfying trip on their own.
Not all the travelers in the group are familiar enough with the trip and participate in the preparation stage.
Lack of ability to tackle the sudden changes which might happen during the trip, and waste time on searching and comparing.
Not creating a convenient money strategy.
HMW Questions
How might we help group tourists with limited travel experience to enjoy and experience a customized, well-organized, flexible, and memorable trip?
03
. Ideate
Design goals and solutions
Automatically and smartly generate well-organized travel plans for the group to vote from.
When preparing, make sure everyone checked in and participated when the deciding task needs to be done.
When traveling, providing a modular and adjustable itinerary can easily and conveniently tackle unforeseen changes that might happen during the trip.
After the trip, create a money strategy and expense tracker which can automatically bill and distribute for everyone.
Brainstorming
04
. Design & Iterate
Prototyping
Major improvements and iterations
Based on 3 rounds of usability tests, I iterated the prototypes in several different phases. Overall, the improvements helped leverage the hierarchy, focus, and clarification of the app.
Change the “sharing link” to “adding people to the group”
Originally I was planning on sharing the invitation link page with friends after creating the group.
However, after testing, I decided to change the sharing button to add the friends’ button inside the group page. Because it will be more convenient to add in more than one.
Edited the lengths of the itinerary blocks to match the estimated tour time
Originally I only listed out the main destinations using blocks.
Then after researching and testing, I noticed that people are more likely to be interested in pictures and charts than words. So I edited the lengths of the blocks to match the length of time.
