Helping families and group travelers find ideal, affordable accommodations
Travel Companion app for large group travel
User Experience Design
Personal Project
Project Details
Team
Role
Product Designer UX Research
UI Design
Interaction Design
Prototyping
Testing
Vanessa Atkinson
Niti Thakar
Duration
3 months
September - December 2023
Tools
Figma
Adobe Suite
Google Suite
Miro
Trello
Overview.
Let’s Go Travel is a platform that helps families and group travelers quickly find ideal, affordable accommodations within their budget, solving the issue of sacrificing comfort due to high costs. Current travel apps often fail to provide these qualities, leading to overspending and reduced comfort.
The Challenge
Recognizing the gap in the market where traditional travel apps often fall short in offering affordable, spacious options for families and large groups, our mission was to create a solution.
Meeting Group Travelers' Comfort Needs
Key Features
Viewing booking details and receive notifications about check-in instructions or changes to their stay
Booking management
Search results based on number of guest, number of bedrooms/ beds
Advanced search and filter options
Integration with maps to provide users with location of hotel, nearby attractions and local amenities.
Maps and location information
Understanding the problem
User Interviews
We conducted 7 user interviews in order to discover what obstacles people run into while planning for a trip. We discovered that there was a high priority need for finding spacious accommodations for a group while staying on budget.
Tell me about the last time you planned a trip?
Do you travel solo or in a group more consistently?
What is your relationship with traveling?
What is your biggest frustration while planning your trips?
Findings
“The hardest part is to find a bigger space in budget according to everyone's choice and needs.”
“I don't like wasting a bunch of money on the room. Two rooms are ideal for a family of five but they are costly.”
Survey
We surveyed 12 participants, ages 30 to 50 years old. These participants averaged travelling 4 - 5 times per year. We needed to fully understand the motive behind our users traveling characteristics.
Findings
The cost of accommodations is of more importance than the comfort of accommodations. Showing us that participants sacrifice their comfort because of cost.
The majority of participants travel in groups of 3 or more. Concluding that the size of accommodations is of importance.
Affinity Mapping
By grouping the related concepts together, this brought clarity, and deeper understanding to understanding our users.
Findings
Opportunity to book accommodations for larger groups.
Access to affordable accommodations while also having enough room for all of their guests.
Looking for accommodations that also have amenities, such as a hotel.
Product vision and solution
From these findings, we decided as a product to identify key business goals:
We want users to be able to enhance affordability and comfort
We want users to have a streamlined booking process
We want users to have improved user experience while using Let’s Go Travel application
These three goals collectively address the core challenges identified in the travel market for families and large groups, positioning Let’s Go Travel as a valuable and indispensable resource for planning group adventures. By prioritizing user satisfaction and convenience, the platform aims to differentiate itself from competitors and build long-term customer loyalty.
We each did some market research on competitors to investigate the current offerings in the market and take inspiration from particular features that we liked about each app.
User Flow
We decided to focus mainly on the booking a hotel option for our users. The “booking a flight” option would be something that I would love to work on in more depth.
Sketches
We sketched out ideas for Let’s Go Travel app to visualize layouts and concepts before committing to detailed designs. It saves time, helps us iterate quickly, and ensures alignment with our vision and stakeholder expectations from the start.
Defining the MVP
Based on the sketching sessions, it was revealed that there were commonalties in the product vision. We identified the following key user stories:
Search and Filter Functionality: A robust search and filtering system that allows users to specify their accommodation preferences such as location, dates, number of guests, budget range, and amenities.
Accommodation Listings: A database of accommodation listings that cater to families and large groups. Each listing includes detailed descriptions, photos, pricing information, and availability status.
Booking and Reservation System: A secure and user-friendly booking and reservation system that allows users to book accommodations directly through the platform.
User Profiles and Preferences: User profiles where travelers can save their preferences, past bookings, and favorite accommodations.
Designs
Once we've got the basic architecture down of Let’s Go Travel app with wireframes, we dove into user testing! With each test, we gather feedback that helps us fine-tune the app, making it more user-friendly and enjoyable for everyone. We conducted 7 usability tests:
Navigate through the onboarding to create an account
Try to book a hotel
Use the filter to book accommodations
Wireframes, Usability Testing
In our final round of usability tests, we again tested 7 users to gain insights and acquire feedback from. We learned that the user needed the fact that the filters have been applied to the search results to be clearly displayed, with an overlay. Updates to the UI design to each screen also needed to be done, making our app user-centric and a pleasant experience for all.
Prototyping
Development
I used Figma to allow the engineers to inspect the HTML and CSS of the designs.
Results & takeaways
Following the completion of this iteration of the Let’s Go Travel App, we adopted a comprehensive approach. This encompassed meticulous project planning, insightful user interviews, differentiation between problem and value propositions, creation of wireframes and clickable prototypes, proficiency in guerrilla testing, and fostering creative collaboration within our team.
To further enhance our insights, we delved into Analytics, Metrics, User Feedback, Conversion Rates, Task Completion Rates, and Long-term User Behavior. These elements provided crucial data points that shaped our iterative improvements.
We prioritize iteration and feedback, acknowledging their pivotal roles in the creation process. Without user feedback, identifying areas for enhancement would be impossible. With each project, we eagerly anticipate refining our skills and expanding our knowledge base.
Here are some key takeaways from this project:
Teamwork Makes the Magic Happen: The coolest designs? They come from everyone working together. It was awesome seeing how each person brought their own angle during our sketching sessions. Non-tech folks? They're full of bold ideas, not bogged down by tech details. Techies? They keep us grounded, making sure our dreams match reality.
Design Thinking Wins the Day: Thinking smart about design was key here. Using a lean framework like design thinking kept our workshops on track and our ideas sharp throughout the project.
