BON VOYAGE
UX - Mobile App
How might we help travelers better plan their next vacation?
Problem
Traveling is the second fastest growing sector in the world, and while there is no shortage of different travel websites, apps, and online resources, people still struggle planning for vacations efficiently and finding activities tailored to them.
Solution
Bon Voyage is a mobile travel app that leverages people's interests to recommend activities and provides a centralized hub where to keep all their travel plans and itineraries.
Project Overview
Timeframe: 4 weeks
Team: Marco Vertucci
Role: UX Designer, Product designer
Deliverables: Research Report, Information Architecture, Annotated wireframes and clickable prototypes
Tools: Sketch, Invision
RESEARCH
Understanding the challenge
Traveling is one of my passions and throughout the course of my life I have used a variety of different website, apps, and online resources to plan for travel in advance as well as for more spontaneous adventures.
I wanted to create a simple solution to pain points I have experienced related to searching for activities, restaurants and experiences when planning to travel abroad. The challenge is to guide users in the task of creating an itinerary and discovering new places.
Understanding the market
One of the new emerging trends in the travel sector is the constant growth of online booking, making mobile extremely important to the business strategy of a company. Travelers can now easily review a great variety of deals on the web and choose the ones which meet their needs, preferences, and expectations most.
In 2018 travel and tourism contributed $8.8 trillion and 319 million jobs to the world economy
In the following decade the digital travel space turnaround will hit $11.5 trillion
In 2019 for the first time the number of mobile online booking travel transactions is set to surpass desktop ones
Competitive Analysis
The goal for Bon Voyage is to provide a personalized experience for the user based on their preference and be their one stop shop for everything they need when traveling.
What differentiates Bon Voyage from other travel site like TripAdvisor and Expedia is the focus is less on reviews, which are important but can be skewed, and more on finding the things that the user enjoys.
User Interviews
After getting a sense of the mobile app travel market, I went on to get insights into the users themselves, conducting user interviews to get a better sense of what users value the most when traveling.
SYNTHESIS
Persona
I used the information from the interviews to create the persona of Lucas, a 35 year old advertising manager that embodies the ideal user of the app and will allow us to empathize with the design.
He and his wife plan a vacation at least once a year. They like connecting with locals and rely on their recommendations for food, but like to have an itinerary to maximize their available time when visiting tourist attractions.
User Stories
As an avid traveler, I want to connect with locals so that I can experience their culture without feeling like a tourist.
As an organized traveler, I want to easily and quickly build an itinerary so that I can maximize my time spent abroad.
As a budget traveler, I want to confidently compare options so that I can personalize my experiences based on price and interests.
Problem Statement
Frequent travelers need a way to maximize their time abroad, so that they can connect with locals rather feel like like tourists.
IDEATION
App Map
Keeping in mind the goal of the user is to build an itinerary based on personalized experiences in order to connect with local culture, I wanted the user to be encouraged to explore the app and its suggestions but also having multiple ways to be able to access their itinerary.
The application map helped me visualize at a high level what would be displayed on each page in the top and bottom navigation.
Sketches and Wireframes
I started exploring ideas through paper wireframes. This gave me enough information to be able to test patterns, language and context with a few users before translating my design into low fidelity without having to spend too much time on Sketch.
I centered my design decisions around what is most important to Lucas, which is helping him plan efficiently and finding ways to streamline the flow of creating an itinerary and personalize suggestions by adding interests.
Mood board and Style Guides
Started exploring the visual design of my app by collecting inspirations and creating a mood board and style tile. I felt like my app was geared towards a younger generation and I tried to match typography, color, UI elements, icons, photography that have that fun, playful style that travel is all about.
DESIGN
High Fidelity Mockups
I used the style tile as reference as I worked on bringing my wireframes to a higher fidelity. Using the results from our usability testing, I iterated on the high-fidelity mockup, keeping the pain points users experienced, brand guidelines, and the user behaviors from the personas at the forefront.
EVALUATE
Next Steps
In terms of next steps, I would love to keep iterating on the product and get more users to test it. I think going more in depth with the personalization and suggestions as well as various social integrations would add another dimension to the app and it could really resonate with a younger audience.
Reflections
From this project, I learned just how valuable usability testing really is in the iterative process, starting early and often in order to avoid setbacks later. You can never fully anticipate how users will interact with a product, and just by having a few users test it I was able to find patterns and gain insights that I wouldn't have thought of otherwise.
I also learned that I enjoy the entirety of the user experience process, from research all the way to crafting the UI. When creating something as ubiquitous as a travel app, I found that you need to really think about what problem you are solving and how to improve a part of that experience rather than creating something that’s simply visually appealing.