Goals
Solution
Takes too much time ⌛
Travelers spend significant amount of time and effort in searching for information about their destination, discovering attractions and creating their itinerary which leads to frustration.
Information Overload 😩
The abundance of sources makes it difficult for travelers to sift through them and find relevant, trustworthy and up-to-date information. This causes confusion and a feeling of uncertainty in travelers.
Lack of Local Knowledge 🎡
Travelers face challenges in understanding the local culture, customs, and logistics of their destination, especially if it's an unfamiliar territory. This can make it challenging to make informed decisions.
Messy Collaboration 🙍♀️🙍♂
Planning activities and creating an itinerary that aligns with the preferences and schedules of all travelers involved, especially in group trips, can become complex and very messy.
Understanding The user
The target audience consists of people who partake in leisure travel. They tend to either travel solo or with travel companions such as friends or family members.
These leisure trips are centered around relaxation, sightseeing, exploring, and having a good time. They are not bound by work or specific obligations and have the freedom to explore and experience new destinations at their own pace.
What do my potential users think?
Interviews conducted with 5 users [age group: 21 - 48] who were frequent travelers to understand the problem from their perspective.
The interviews were semi-structured and conducted remotely. The questions below formed the basis of the research.
Some interesting points from the potential users -
👨👩👧
“We focus on including family or child friendly attractions when kids are involved.”
😔
“In my last trip, I wasn’t aware that all the attractions are closed on Mondays.”
📱
“I like to save reels for travel destinations that I like. It’s pretty how those travel bloggers film them.”
🤦♂️
" It becomes a very messy process when I have to decide on what places to visit and which day to go with my friends."
🫂
“I reach out to my relatives and close friends who have already visited the place when I am preparing my itinerary. It helps to have reviews that I can trust.”
🫤
“There is a lot confusion when I plan a trip. Last time, I organized my itinerary using an excel sheet lol. Felt pretty old school.”
Synthesizing my Research
Time to open FigJam and make sense of the data I have!
Affinity Mapping
Categorizing the data to obtain insights
I segregated the information to identify the needs and frustration points of the users.
To understand the travel planning process in depth, I mapped out the steps taken by the users to form their itineraries, sources referred for travel information, travel habits and digital usage.
Meeting my Competitors
Yes-No-ing the features in the market
From the data obtained from user research, I touched upon 4 direct competitors to find out what features are currently working for the users and whether they are aligned to the expectations of the users obtained from the survey.
‘Discovering new attractions’, ‘Creating and managing the travel itinerary’ and ‘Collaborating with the travel companions’ were the common challenging part of travel planning for most.
Onwards to a Solution
Defining the design goals and structuring a solution.
Leveraging the key findings and persona attributes, I understood that the ideal solution should emulate the current behavior patterns of the users in accordance to their needs while reducing the space for frustration.
Visual
Comprehensive
Efficient
Feature Prioritization
Using MoSCoW analysis to prioritize features based on the findings during research and competitive analysis.
Information Architecture
Before jumping into screen design, I defined the structure of how the users will navigate through the whole app to achieve their final objectives.
Visual Designing Begins!
Figma time to visualize and actualize the solution.
Exploration
Freehanding the Pre-Eliminary Wireframes
At the early stage of design, I created main user scenarios that outline the key task and actions to catch the necessary components and layout requirement.
Style Guide
Color Branding
Poppy Surprise #FF5733
Downriver #0A2753
Typography
Aa
Regular Medium Semi-Bold Bold
Aa
Regular Medium Semi-Bold Bold
Components
Hi-Fi Design
Sign Up + Onboarding
Preference + Destination Selection
Home
Attraction Details
Add attraction to trip
Explored Featured Attractions
Travel Guides
Profile + Trips
Create New Trip
Trip Details + Itinerary
User Testing
5 participants, 6 testing scenarios
I conducted moderated user testing sessions remotely for 5 different users. I asked the participants to complete 6 scenarios and observed their movement patterns, mental models and ability to complete their goals.
Key Findings
#1. Confusion in differentiating attraction and travel guide cards
I conducted moderated user testing sessions remotely for 5 different users. I asked the participants to complete 6 scenarios and observed their movement patterns, mental models and ability to complete their goals.
#2. Too many steps to create a new Trip
4 out of 5 participants expected to be able to access the ‘create trip’ button from the home page itself. One participant tried to find ‘create trip’ option in the menu where you add an attraction to an already existing trip. Creating a trip from the profile section was not their first response.
Reflections
What I’d do differently next time.
I conducted moderated user testing sessions remotely for 5 different users. I asked the participants to complete 6 scenarios and observed their movement patterns, mental models and ability to complete their goals.
Future Steps
What’s next for Toura?
Work on the insights and improvements obtained from the user testing. Explore possibilities of implementing AI in other parts of Toura. Research with a more diverse spectrum of users. Rethink my problem statement and brainstorm the intricacies and problem spaces I might have missed.
Test, test and test more.
