TravelX wants to create a community-driven mobile app where real travelers can discover, create/edit, and share authentic experiences all in one place and on the go.
Project
Concept
Year
2019
Role
Product Designer
Task
User Research, UX Strategy, Interaction Design, Prototyping, User Testing
TravelX wants to close the gap between each stage of trip planning and create an app that can ‘do it all’. This app must allow travelers to flow through the natural planning process of researching, gathering/organizing of options, and mapping out locations in order to create an appropriate agenda- all while sharing details with friends throughout and after the trip.
Research Goals
Identify
Target demographic
Process of trip planning
Factors that influence travel decisions
Pain-points in planning
Reasons for travel / Type of traveling
Average destinations visited per trip
Understand
Travel market trends and statistics
The decision process when selecting a destination
Pros and cons with booking through a travel agency/package deal
Market Research &
Competitive Analysis
I began with research on current travel behaviors, habits, and already existing platforms as a frame of reference of which to build from.
Through competitive analysis, I gained a better understanding of how both direct and indirect competitors solve problems for similar user needs. Exploring already existing features allowed me to further help position TravelX within the travel landscape and potentially tackle problems in a new angle.
Market Research
80%
Prefer to DIY
Travelers prefer to self-serve in order to get information that they need while only 36% would be willing to pay for personalized services (Think with Google Research Report).
69%
Listen to online reviews
69% listen to online review sites (with 17% increased trust if content is from a travel influencer), 51% listen to personal recommendations, 37% guidebooks, 29% apps, and 20% social media (STR Consumer Travel Insight Report 2019).
55%
Consult social media
Consult social media when trip planning as ‘research’, to inspire and inform their planning with 21% of travelers who follow influencers that create travel content. (Smart Insights Report).
Qual. Interviews
Surveys and in-person interviews were held with participants between ages 22-40 of different demographics.
User Pains Points
Recommendations from real people are great but patches of information via text, email, social media, and word of mouth are disorganized and incomplete
Compiling information into schedules and maps is a cumbersome, inefficient, and overly manual process
Hard to find authentic and unique experiences
Users use at least 3 apps when trip planning for a trip
User Wants/Needs
Users want authentic and unique experiences
Users want recommendations and validation when scheduling an agenda
Users want the option to create or customize their own itineraries
Users need to map out locations before creating an agenda
Season/time of year is an important consideration for users when booking a trip (ex. avoid peak season, tourists, traveling during school year)
Creating a Persona
Taking the compiled data from my research, I created a user persona that realistically targets the widest audience, millennial working professionals, who have the time and resources to travel without family/children constraints. Although the interviews conducted included students and families, research reveals that millennials (ages 24 to 39) travel the most, 35 days each year, but were followed closely by Generation Z travelers (ages 18 to 23), who travel 29 days each year. Generation X travels the least, the result of work and family commitments. (Expedia Media Solutions)
Empathy Map
To synthesize my interview findings, I created an empathy map to help me understand my observations from the 1:1 user interviews and to identify patterns that were common across most participants answers.
