The Problem:
Busy, young professionals lack the time to thoroughly research and share activities for group vacations due to long working hours and the lack of trusted sites. How might we help young professionals with limited time achieve a well planned itinerary for a unique vacation experience that allows for collaboration with a group in order to save them time/resources and ensure that they are not missing local attractions?
The Solution:
Pocket Concierge: A travel planning app that reduces the amount of tools necessary to plan and research vacation destinations while providing collaborative functions for a travel group.
Approach & Deliverables:
Work in a collaborative team to determine pain points associated with group travel itinerary planning. Provide a high fidelity clickable prototype based on thorough user research and analysis, usability testing, feedback and iterations.
Research
User Interviews
For a deeper understanding of how users plan their vacations, we interviewed 5 people from various backgrounds who all share a similar interest in traveling. We asked questions regarding how they research for their travel, collaborate on group trips, and how much time they devote to planning their vacations.
Research Statement
As a user researcher, I want to understand a user's thought process about how they plan events and activities for an upcoming vacation.
Objectives: To Understand...
- The hierarchy of the planning process (how much times spent researching & planning, when is the planning
- What type of aid (apps, calendars, paper/pen) used for planning an itinerary for vacation
- How the user shares plans, itinerary or ideas with other travelers
Analysis
After our research phase was complete, we synthesized the data into our problem statement and theorized on a solution. We organized our user interview insights into an affinity diagram and empathy map in order to gain a deeper understanding of our users' pain points and generate innovative solutions for their needs.
Problem Statement:
Busy, young professionals lack the time to thoroughly research and share activities for group vacations due to long working hours and the lack of trusted sites.
How Might We...?
How might we help young professionals with limited time achieve a well planned itinerary for a unique vacation experience that allows for collaboration with a group in order to save them time/resources and ensure that they are not missing local attractions?
User Insight Statement:
Young, busy professionals who like adventurous and unique travel experiences need a simple and easy way to plan an itinerary and collaborate with a group because they lack the time to do proper research for a well planned out vacation.
Based on the user interviews, our affinity diagram and empathy map showed that our users spend significant amounts of time researching and planning their itinerary for group travel. They enjoy a structured schedule but are still open to a new and unique experience. The users fear disorganization will negatively impact their vacation causing them to miss out on an activity.
Ideation
Following the analysis of our research, we sorted our data into a feature prioritization matrix to determine what elements would provide the best value to the customers while mutually benefitting the company. Our user journey map helped us to illustrate how the user would engage with the app and provided a narrative of our how the app solved our user's pain points. This helped us to avoid feature creep and stay on track with the true needs of our users to provide the best overall experience.
Feature Narrative
To create an app experience that allows the user to plan upcoming group travel, research popular destinations and local activities, create an interactive itinerary, and communicate with travel group members and friends within the app. The key feature components are:
- Account Creation - This allows the user to save itineraries, connect with friends, rate and review destinations and activities, and upload travel photos to their profile.
- Travel Planning - Users can create interactive itineraries based on recommended local activities and popular destinations, group suggestions, or manual input.
- In-App Communication - Users can connect with friends via in-app messaging services. Options for direct or group messaging allows users to seamlessly plan upcoming travel with multiple groups or send ideas to a friend.
- Destination Research - Users can research activities and excursions local to their destination for an all in one planning experience. Trusted ratings and reviews from real users provide security in itinerary development. One click ‘favorite’ function allows for ease of browsing while saving ideas to user’s account.
User Flows
We used our user flows as the guideline for how our users will flow through the app to complete their tasks. We wanted to keep the path simple and intuitive to give the users a streamline experience to enhance our customer retention rates.
Design
After determining the user flows for the three main tasks, we started with sketching ideas for the onboarding and account creation wireframes. We then combined our sketches into the most effective low fidelity prototype and performed five quick guerilla tests to determine usability and pain points.
High Fidelity Prototype
Based on usability testing of our low fidelity prototype, we developed the high fidelity wireframes based on iOS standard guidelines. We designed the app with three main tasks in mind:
- Create an account
- Create a new itinerary
- Add an activity to an existing itinerary
We wanted our app to convey a fun and colorful theme while still maintaining a professional level to encompass any type of user, from the business traveler to the adventure seekers. Based on a competitor analysis, we opted for a bottom navigation bar along with an expandable top menu option to create an intuitive experience with easy to find features.
Feedback & Iterations
Based on 6 rounds of usability testing of our high fidelity prototype, we determined that the ‘start new itinerary’ icon was not intuitive for our users. We also noticed that users had difficulty distinguishing the difference between the tabs for the explore page and “My Trips” or “Travel Buddies”. To overcome this problem, we provided a helpful tutorial upon the creation of the user’s account.
Overall, we received positive feedback from all user testers about the multifunctionality of itinerary planning, research and group collaboration. We also received valuable feedback on how we could progress the app in the future if we were continuing with this project. One thing we would consider would be to revise the hierarchy of our menus and docked navigation bars to create a better flow.
Future Progression
- Add ability to create “dual itineraries” for partial group members to plan simultaneous activities
- Location based services and ability to connect with a local guide at your travel destination
- Add ability to book activities/events in app
