Overview
Background
The travel industry is constantly evolving, and the way people plan and book trips has changed dramatically in recent years. With the rise of smartphones and mobile apps, travelers have more information and options than ever before. This has led to a demand for travel apps that are easy to use, informative, and provide a seamless travel experience.
Challenge
As a user researcher, I want to understand the pain points of how people plan to to travel in the future, post-pandemic.
Solution
Build a modern-day mobile app that helps travelers plan their next trip.
Role
Product Designer
Tools
Figma
Miro
I first created a case study plan to define my research goals and to outline the different methodologies I would use.
Research how users plan travels as a family and find a solution for users to experience a more efficient way to plan travels
Explore this data to identify and understand the main problem users face when planning travels
After gathering data, begin ideation of a mobile app that will make user’s travel planning experience easier
Next, in order to gain a better understanding of the users and identify pain points, five people who travel with their family were interviewed.
Some research questions included:
How do users go about planning their travels?
What are some challenges users have while planning trips?
Identify Atlas’ competitors and evaluate strengths and weaknesses
I gathered the notes I took for each interview and separated them into four categories.
Empathy Map
From the data collected during the interviews, an empathy map was produced to delve deeper into understanding the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of users.
User Persona
Sadie Fletcher, a fictional character, was formed to represent and empathize with users by visualizing their needs, goals, and motivations. Sadie continually is a crucial user throughout the design process.
User Insight Statement
Sadie needs a solution on creating an itinerary for traveling at an expertise level and that doesn’t take too much of her time so that she may have an enjoyable and memorable traveling experience with her family.
During the interviews, I discovered that users find planning travels to be a lengthy process and are looking for information from other sources on where to visit and what activities to do.
Therefore, I believe that users need a shorter planning process and a source that offers them easy access to places and activities at a tour guide level 24/7 and that I might be able to help if I created an app that plans travels for users and tracks places to visit and activities to do during their travels.
We might do this by offering travel and activity packages to users anywhere they travel to that includes flight, transportation, lodgings, and meals. Doing this will allow our product to give users a world-class traveling experience and a break from planning their travels.
Problem Statement
We believe by creating an app that plans trips for users who enjoy traveling but have a difficult time planning their travels will achieve a seamless and personalized traveling experience, as well as boost user satisfaction.
Atlas was designed to achieve an enjoyable, memorable, and smooth user and traveling experience. We have observed that our product or service isn’t meeting the company’s goal for a travel app that users can rely on to plan their travels, which is causing this decrease amount of user engagement over time to our business. How might we improve the app’s features so that our customers are successful based on an increase number of new users joining over time and user satisfaction?
I Like, I Wish, What If
By using the I like, I wish, what if technique, insights from users were able to be collected and areas for improvement were able to be identified.
Feature Prioritization Matrix
The notes from I Like, I Wish, What If were condensed to evaluate and prioritize potential features for Atlas. This was a necessary step of the design process on making informed decisions about which features to develop based on their impact on users and the business moving forward.
User Scenarios
Here, is a detailed description of Sadie interacting with Atlas to plan a travel with her family that allowed a better understanding of the context of how users would use Atlas and to identify areas of improvement.
Storyboard
I formed a visual representation of Sadie’s journey with Atlas to depict her actions, thoughts, and feelings as she interacts with Atlas and to communicate the user experience.
User Journey Map
Sadie’s steps that she took to accomplish traveling with her family was mapped out to visualize various scenarios of Sadie using Atlas, identify potential usability issues, and validate design decisions.
User Flow
A diagram was built to portray the steps a user takes to plan their travel with Atlas.
Competitor Analysis
While there were no direct competitors of similarity, I analyzed other traveling apps and associated their strengths and weaknesses with Atlas to gain a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape, including the product, services, and strategies of indirect competitors. From this analysis, I utilized insights to inform design decisions, ensuring that Atlas stands out from the competition and meets users needs effectively.
Sketches
I began to sketch out the user flow to reflect Sadie’s needs.
Wireframes
I translated my sketches into wireframes for the layout of Atlas and to conduct usability tests.
Usability Tests
I prepared a user testing plan to determine whether participants were able to easily navigate thorough the app and user’s satisfaction with Atlas. Participants were given a scenario and asked if they could:
Sign up for an account
Search for a travel destination for a specific date range
Select a travel package and book a trip
Usability Test Analysis
I synthesized the results and organized the data from usability testing to high priority for users and high priority for Atlas. I found the following key takeaways:
Having to manually enter a password was a hassle. Participants forget passwords and would rather have a fingerprint or Face ID to enter their password
Participants wanted a way to view their travel itinerary after booking their trip
Participants were able to easily sign up and navigate their way through the app
Iterations
I revised the previous user flow based on the results from usability testing.
I implemented revisions into high-fidelity designs based on compiling iterations from usability testing.
Design
For my design process, simplicity and functionality were an instrumental part. Based on user feedback from usability testing, users liked how they could easily navigate through the prototype. It was key to keep consistent, organized, and detailed yet maintain functionality in design moving forward with bringing the wireframes into high-fidelity.
View the mobile prototype below or click here to view it in Figma.
