How can we support travellers for the entirety of their journey?

Duration: 9 months
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Context: Innovative Product Development Couse
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Team: Richa Shah, Sayli Pednekar
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Tools Used: Figma, Miro, Canva
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My Contribution: Conducted user interviews and competitive analysis, created user personas and information architecture, and designed low/high-fidelity wireframes.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

"Every trip is lived three times: when you dream of it, when you go, and when you remember it."

In 2021, COVID-19 was starting to subside, and we knew people would be more willing to travel now more than ever. However, it would be troublesome to determine which place would be safe to visit or plan a trip according to the travel guidelines of that particular place. This problem was relatable, so we decided to develop a solution for it as part of our Innovative Product Development Course.

We designed a travel application that provides a destination recommendation system and customized itinerary planning while ensuring travelers’ safety during an emergency using the User-centred Design (UCD) process. Our goal was to understand the problems faced by the users, analyze the shortcomings of existing solutions, and eventually design a user-centered prototype of an application that helps them streamline the travel planning process.

After implementation, we evaluated the usability of the application using the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) method and identified the design shortcomings.

SURVEY

As a part of the preliminary research phase, an online survey was conducted through Google forms to understand the users’ travel necessities.

RESULTS

  • About 28% of people travel as frequently as once a month, and another 25% travel at least once in 3 months.
  • 66% of people travel primarily in groups.
  • 54% of people plan the dates, mode of commute as well as accommodation well in advance on their own
  • 35% of people rely on well-established organizations or websites for booking hotels, and 30% book directly

UNSTRUCTURED USER INTERVIEWS

"Location safety is the most important factor when I travel with my kids"

We conducted informal online user interviews with 10 users to get more detailed insights. It consisted of travel-specific questions plus follow-ups asking them about their travel styles, opinion, thoughts, experience, problems faced while planning a trip, and general expectations from travel-related applications.

MAIN INSIGHTS

  • Assistance with the route and itinerary planning
  • Maintaining a to-do list and being reminded about important tasks
  • Sharing itinerary with other travellers to view or edit
  • Saving travel related documents in one place
  • Flexible itinerary planning
  • Getting updates about weather, Covid conditions and guidelines
  • Getting information about local hotspots, culture, people and events

Brainstorming

Initially, we were unsure what features to include and whether the solution would be a website or a mobile application. To get more clarity, we drew paper frames and decided on our main focus.

  • Since the solution had to be a constant support to our users, we went ahead with the mobile application.
  • Assistance with the route and itinerary planning

After understanding the user pain points and crafting user personas, we wanted to understand the relative strengths of other competing travel applications. Two important features lacking in these applications are feedback from other users on a particular itinerary and a mechanism to ensure the user's safety.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

After creating these Low-Fidelity Wireframes, we realized we had technical constraints. For instance, the application had to be developed at the end of the course, which meant we had to remove certain functionalities like the expense tracker. The final features are described in the next section.

FINAL FEATURES

Customized Search

PROBLEM: Search for different locations is often for simple criteria such as main state or climate. It doesn’t precisely fit individual users.

SOLUTION

  • Filters are provided with different keywords suiting the individual’s specific needs such as occasions like festivals, budget, COVID cases

Destination Details

PROBLEM: Users need access to up-to-date information about the situation of each country.

SOLUTION

  • Dynamic data such as weather information, and COVID statistics of the place. 
  • Safety of the place is also provided. If a user has marked a certain place or attraction unsafe, then it will be displayed.
  • News regarding those destinations will also be displayed.

Emergency Information and Contacts

SOLUTION

  • Information such as local guide contacts, nearest embassy details, and emergency contacts will be provided
  • Users can save this information in the Phonebook Section along with other important contacts

Customized Itinerary

PROBLEM: Customized itineraries and collaborating with other users to view or edit itineraries are uncommon.

SOLUTION

  • Users can create their own itinerary from scratch, join somebody else’s trip or create a custom itinerary based on user’s preferences such as duration, free time, budget
  • User can see their itinerary in map view and can choose to keep that as the starting page when travelling
  • User can save their important details like hotel reservation, travel tickets 

Travelogue

PROBLEM: Users often miss the must-have experience in the area and don't get feedback on itineraries they have created.

SOLUTION

  • Users can create and share their own travelogues based on a itinerary.
  • User can review and rate other travelogues

Information Architecture

We devised an information architecture to decide how to best organize and structure all the features and make it easier for further wireframing.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

Usability Evaluation

We tested the usability of the working model with 5 users and the User Experience Questionnaire was used to get a comprehensive impression of the usability in the following aspects: Attractiveness, Perspicuity, Efficiency, Dependability, Novelty, and Stimulation. This measure was selected since it has simple, fast data collection and can be compared with a benchmark. Along with that, we observed the flaws which hinder the use of our application.

  • We observed that the proposed design performed well in terms of Attractiveness and Perspicuity. This indicates that the look and feel of the application were acceptable for the users. The users were able to easily get familiar with the product.
  • However, the scores for Novelty and Efficiency were low. It was observed that some interactions were complex. Especially for the older participant struggled with small touch targets and confusing navigation. Furthermore, the participant said that the destination filters felt more targeted to a younger audience.
  • Privacy concern was also raised by the participants since no terms were displayed and location information would be required for personalization.
  • While the contacts feature was well appreciated, a participant pointed out how the local guides information would be collected and how to determine whether they are reliable.
Reflections

Working on this project while collaborating with my teammates was really fun. More importantly, I was able to recognize three important things that are required in the design process, and we missed them.
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Firstly, bias played a significant role in our design decisions. These biases about our own experiences with travel lead us to prioritize certain features based on our own preferences.

Secondly, we underestimated the importance of understanding and working within technical constraints. Our solution heavily relies on whether the amount of data about destination is present in a curated dataset. Furthermore, we did not have developers capable of creating such a complex recommendation system. We failed to consider the practical limitations imposed by technology, resources, and implementation capabilities.

Lastly, our approach to research lacked inclusivity. We relied too heavily on standard user research methods and failed to actively engage with diverse user groups. Inclusive research is essential for understanding the unique needs and challenges faced by different communities especially in terms of income and physical capabilities.

SAYLI PEDNEKAR
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