TravelFeed
UI/UX Design for IOS
TOOLS
TIMELINE
2 months
MY ROLE
Solo UX/UI Designer
About the Project
What is TRAVELFEED? This app allows users to schedule their trips conveniently and efficiently by providing helpful information or suggesting itineraries at destinations on over the world. It also helps users manage time, attractions, and budget during the journey. Besides, this is also a community sharing travel experiences. This project is to fill in the lack of a Travel planning app in Social Media format, hoping that people can have a go-to place when it comes to travel planning and inspiration.
Empathize
The User?
I defined the target user as: young people from 18 to 38 years old belong to the Millennial generation – who are not afraid of “hard” are only afraid of “waiting”, hating having to waste time, love technology, internet, travel experience, discover and conquer, like to share and have high community cohesion.
User Goal?
Want to use time and budget effectively throughout the journey from scheduling to the end of this journey.The Problem?
One-third of travelers reported using social media frequently or very frequently to plan a vacation, mostly for travel tips and advice (57 percent), and looking at photos of places they plan to visit (56 percent).
To prepare for the trio, usually, they have to make a plan, but often encounter problems such as:
- Have hard time planning for short trip. Have trouble planning in detail. Doesn’t have enough information to plan for all activities.
- Couldn’t find legit review and doesn’t like leaving review.
- They have difficulty determining travel time and distance from point to point to arrange the schedule so that it is reasonable
- Must use another Chat app such as Whatsapp, Messenger, text message, etc. to talk to their group.
- It is inconvenient to manage your budget and trip costs, especially when traveling with a group.
Value?
For User:- There is 1 community with the same interest in travel. Have more knowledge, experience interesting places.
- Maximum savings of time spent on scheduling.
- Create a bond between team members when they can plan the trip together, experience together, keep beautiful memories together during the journey.
For TRAVELFEED:
- Features booking, buying tickets directly when searching, businesses with more partners are hotel booking businesses such as Booking.com, Expedia, airlines, tourist destinations with fees.
- When there is an ideal number of users, businesses can increase sales from advertising for places, shows and festivals are about to take place.
Solution?
From the problems that users encounter, the application offers the following solutions:- Build an online ecosystem of tourism on the application itself, which provides useful information for users in planning travel such as location, reviews, cost.
- Propose a suggested schedule based on the information interests that users have provided, or based on the highlights of the same direction.
- Building Chat features in the app, integrating Chatbot technology to find information, such as allowing members of the group to vote on the oration when chatting with the group.
- Build a budget management function, cost to have clarity and not make your budget exceed your budget.
User Personas
After analyzing feedback from user interviews and competitive usability testing, I created 3 lightweight user personas for TravelFeed based on their different behaviors:
- Vincent, an Intimidated Traveller, loves the idea of traveling but is always afraid of the planning and the unknown.
- Hannah, a Spontaneous Traveller, who loves to travel, has a weekend getaway but doesn’t have a plan in mind for most of the time.
- Nicolas, an Expert Traveller, knows where to go, what to do, and loves to explore.
Intimidated Traveller
CONCERNS
Vincent likes to travel but has not been a spontaneous person. It requires him a lot of effort when it comes to planning for a vacation. Time and budget are what concern him the most. He is afraid of going to places without enough information.
GOALS
He would like to travel more often. Reduce time of planning. Having legit information comes in handy.
I love to travel and see new places but my work doesn’t allow me to travel as much as I want.
MOTIVATION
- Ease of Mind
- Less time planning, more time enjoying
- Has better time and budget estimation
Spontaneous Traveller
CONCERNS
Hannah likes the idea of traveling but cannot decide on where to go. Time and budget are what concern her the most. She is willing to try new places but afraid of going by herself.
GOALS
She would like to travel more often, especially for short distant and weekends getaway. Able to have a plan on the go. Would love to see new friends when traveling.
I love to go out but don’t know where to go.
MOTIVATION
- Prepare
- Avoid risk when traveling
- Make sure to have a great experience
Expert Traveller
CONCERNS
Nicolas likes to travel to enjoy different cuisines. It requires him a lot of effort when it comes to planning for a vacation. Places to eat and activities are what concern him the most.
GOALS
He would like to be able to explore more whenever he travels. Reduce time of planning. Having the itinerary comes in handy.
I love to travel just to enjoy good food.
MOTIVATION
- Explore
- Get to see new places
- Enjoy different experiences
Intimidated Traveller
Spontaneous Traveller
Expert Traveller
CONCERNS
Vincent likes to travel but has not been a spontaneous person. It requires him a lot of effort when it comes to planning for a vacation. Time and budget are what concern him the most. He is afraid of going to places without enough information.
CONCERNS
Hannah likes the idea of traveling but cannot decide on where to go. Time and budget are what concern her the most. She is willing to try new places but afraid of going by herself.
CONCERNS
Nicolas likes to travel to enjoy different cuisines. It requires him a lot of effort when it comes to planning for a vacation. Places to eat and activities are what concern him the most.
GOALS
He would like to travel more often. Reduce time of planning. Having legit information comes in handy.
GOALS
She would like to travel more often, especially for short distant and weekends getaway. Able to have a plan on the go. Would love to see new friends when traveling.
GOALS
He would like to be able to explore more whenever he travels. Reduce time of planning. Having the itinerary comes in handy.
I love to travel and see new places but my work doesn’t allow me to travel as much as I want.
I love to go out but don’t know where to go.
I love to travel just to enjoy good food.
MOTIVATION
- Ease of Mind
- Less time planning, more time enjoying
- Has better time and budget estimation
MOTIVATION
- Prepare
- Avoid risk when traveling
- Make sure to have a great experience
MOTIVATION
- Explore
- Get to see new places
- Enjoy different experiences
Define
How Might We
- Increase the chance people write reviews after each place they visit?
- Give the user recommendations that match their need?
- Reduce the hassle of planning for the user?
Key Features
- Instead of asking for a review, give the user the feeling of sharing an experience.Using social media format
- Extensive filters that are customizable and save-able
- Built-in planning tools
User Story Map
Plan for a trip
Share experience
Find interesting places
Filter choices
Organize trips
Making reservation
Post experience
Give rating
Browse for ideas
Read other’s experiences
Search for a place
Put the activities in the timeline
Link to book or make reservation
Post on page
Rate the place
Browse on Newsfeed
Add friend
Filter the search
Have a route map
Save the reservation
Take picture
Browse on ideas based on profile
Follow travel bloggers
User suggestion form
Get itinerary templates
Book directly from the app
Share trip itinerary template
Vote on what good and what to improve
Save the preferences
Chat, comment, and private comment
Ideate
Sketch
Homepage
The homepage features the search bar and trending travel destinations. Below the panel, there is a section for all categories.
Favorite
The favorite screen shows all the saved destinations and itineraries, with the option to group them by category.
News Feed
News Feed is where to show the user’s friends and following posts. This might include rating, pictures, and itinerary.
Profile
Profile screen is the hub for the user to store their information, stories, and photos.
Review
Review screen show picture, title, rating, and details about the description and review.
Filter
When searching for a person to follow, the user can choose gender, age, location, and mutual friends.
Wireframe
Branding
User Testing
We performed usability testing on 5 users who fit the persona.
There were 5 tasks during the testing:
- Sign up for an account
- Search for a location
- Search for a person
- Review a place
- Manage a trip
Below are key takeaways from our usability testing.
Next Step
Remaining Questions
What are the outstanding accessibility issues that we want to address? Will users of the app validate that the favorite tab is useful? Does the review page gives them enough options to write a review?- How will we reduce the hassle of planning?
- How will we increase the chance people write reviews after each place they visit?
New Feature
I plan to integrate following features to the app:- Add direct booking option
- Add a budget estimation for each itinerary
- Option to find people who travel solo to the same location and connect with them.
- Reminder feature to remind users during the trip.
This is exactly what I have been looking for. I like that all contents on this platform is curated for travelers and the filters work in travelers' favor as well.
1 Account creation