Wanderlust
A travel planning app
Overview
When traveling, it’s always hard to plan on where to go, what activities to do, and restaurants to try. The planning is taking too much time as it requires a lot of research like reading blogs to see the reviews, watching Youtube videos, checking friends’ Instagram posts and stories, and ask them for details. This project aims to help people view others’ itineraries and see images, videos, locations, reviews all in one place.
Role: Research and UX Design
Timeline: 80+ Hours
Project Type: Mobile iOS
Tools: Figma
Prompt
“I booked a ticket to Chicago, but I don’t have time to plan my itinerary. I can’t decide on what to do. I have to research and list the things I want to see and check if these are next to each other. I wish there’s an itinerary readily available for me.”
What’s the problem?
Limited time to research due to busy schedules
Narrowing down where to go, in consideration of time, distance, food, and the price
Online reviews are overhyped or fake
Calculating the time and distance for each leg of the trip
What’s the solution?
A customized feed based on the user’s chosen destinations. The options are categorized by food, where to stay, budget-friendly, activities, tours, things to see, nightlife for users to filter what they are looking for easily.
The user can view other travelers’ stories and the list of the destinations per day with reviews, cost, and time spent.
A story wherein users can add the location for other travelers to see where exactly it can be found.
A planning tool wherein users can make their itinerary after saving the places they want to visit. They can see the total time and distance for each leg of the trip.
The stories are pinned to the map by order. Users can see how far the places are from each other.
Process: Here’s how it was done
Empathize : Research
Before jumping to any design decisions, I listed the research objectives, questions, and assumptions. Then I started to examine the travel app competitors in order to understand how they solve similar issues. To validate the assumptions and to understand the potential users’ needs, motivations and frustrations, I sent out a survey and collected 17 responses. And lastly, to deeply understand the users, I did a 1-on-1 interview with 4 participants.
Research Objectives
Identify potential target customers
We want to know how people decide on which activities, sceneries, and restaurants to go
We want to learn the process of people researching for the things they want to try/explore
Understand the pains of making a plan or itinerary
Research Questions
What are the problems when making a plan or itinerary?
How might we make it easy for people to plan their itinerary/trip?
How do people choose when there are too many options?
How do people decide which places to go/explore?
How might we help them explore a destination?
What websites and social media platforms are the most helpful when looking for ideas?
Assumptions
Most likely, you will ask someone you knew for recommendations and places they’ve been to and try it as well.
Reviews are important, and if a friend recommends it, you’ll most likely try it.
Images and videos are compelling when deciding to go or not
Potential Users
People who are new to the city
People who like to try different activities, places to eat, etc.
People who like to take pictures/videos and share them with others
People who can’t decide on what to do next
People who don’t have enough time to do their own research
People who like to explore their city
Competitive Analysis
Takeaways: Here are the functions that are useful for the Wanderlust app:
Tags are helpful to see what they will expect from the location (activity, restaurant, attraction, culture, etc...)
Ability to plan the itinerary
A map to see the distance between each destination
Date and time to easily see the schedule
Recommended places to visit
All the details regarding the location (open schedule, ratings, reviews, price, website, etc..)
Images and videos to help users decide if they like to visit the place or not
1-on-1 Interview
I sent out a survey to 20 participants and collected 17 responses. Also, an Interview Guide was created to help with the user interview process.
I broke down the key statements of the participants and sorted them out to help me identify the main goals, needs, and frustrations of the users.
Here’s what the participants were saying
Findings
Needs
To see other travelers’ photos and videos to decide if the place is worth visiting
To hear honest reviews and recommendations from friends’ experiences
To access all the information in one place
An efficient way to organize the itinerary
Frustrations
Limited time to organize the itinerary due to a busy schedule
Group alignment is a challenge due to different preferences
Calculating the time and distance for each leg of the trip
Motivations
Seeing breathtaking photos
Discovering unique places
Define
Persona
To capture the user needs and requirements, I created this persona based on the research findings. This is a good reference to keep the user in mind.
POV and HMW
After doing a persona, Brianna’s points of views (POVs) were clarified to ideate how we can help her have a better user experience.
Framing Brianna’s POV
Brianna checks social media, especially Instagram, and needs to see other travelers' photos because she wants to make sure the places are worth visiting.
Brianna needs to ask her friends/family for suggestions because she wants to hear honest reviews.
Brianna needs to see the time and distance in each place because she wants to make the most out of her time.
Brianna needs to check itinerary blogs because she wants to lessen the time making her itinerary trip.
When traveling as a group, Brianna needs to ensure that everybody agrees with the itinerary because not all have the same preferences.
How Might We…
How might we help users to make an itinerary that will not take too much time and effort?
How might we help group travelers to plan an itinerary when they have different interests?
How might we pleasantly show itinerary blogs?
How might we help users discover unique places to visit?
How might we show honest reviews to users?
Ideate
Task Flows & User Flows
I made a user story to help me visualize the decision points and screens that a user would take. I find doing these flows helpful for ensuring that I am designing sequentially and thoroughly.
Sketches
Following the user flow in mind, I quicky sketched out some solutions using pen and paper first.
Style Guide
Wanderlust app is for travel; the users should feel the vibes of being stress-free, calm, fun, energetic, and adventurous. I opted for blue color for users to feel serenity and peace.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Sign In Page
The “Browse as Guest” was added to give users freedom of control. The user has an opportunity to browse the app without creating an account.
Discovery
During onboarding, users can select the destinations they want to visit. From there, the homepage is customized based on the user’s chosen destinations.
The options are categorized by food, where to stay, budget-friendly, activities, tours, things to see, nightlife for users to filter what they are looking for easily.
Discovery
According to the user research, most participants are using social media to discover places to visit. The app has story guides wherein users can browse breathtaking travel photos of other travelers. They can save the place for future references and add it to their itinerary. When posting a story, the user can share the location, add a review, cost, and time spent. The review will help other users to decide if they want to visit the place.
Create a trip
After browsing, users can save the destinations and add it to their trip plan.
Manage and Organize
This section will serve as their itinerary wherein users can manage and organize the trip by adding a time and date. Users can see the total time and distance for each leg of the trip.
Prototype & Testing
Using the wireframes, I used Figma’s prototyping tools to make a functioning mockup for users to interact during usability testing.
I recruited 4 participants to test the new app. I conducted a moderated testing via zoom, wherein they shared their screens with me as they completed the tasks given. Each participant was given three scenarios and tasks and a short interview to get more feedback. After the testing, I transcribed and summarized what the participants were saying and looked into common patterns and difficulties. The testing helped which screens need iterations and improvements.
Test objectives
Determine flow efficiency if users can easily navigate through the product and determine if there's a need to add or remove steps.
Determine if users can complete the tasks easily and identify if there are any difficulties or confusion.
To get overall feedback on what the users think about the new app.
User testing results:
Scenario #1
Scenario: You and your friend are going to Barcelona, Spain next month. You don’t have any ideas yet on where to go.
Task #1: Sign up and show me how you would discover things to do in Barcelona, Spain.
4 out of 4 participants successfully finished the task
1 participant clicked on browse as a guest first. She didn’t want to sign up because she didn’t want to get emails.
2 out of 4 participants checked the stories first
2 out of 4 participants like to see the categories for “attractions, where to stay, food, tours”.
Scenario #2
You want to make your own itinerary guide for your Barcelona, Spain trip.
Task #2: Use a story guide to save places you want to visit on your Barcelona trip.
4 out of 4 participants had difficulty completing the task.
2 participants clicked the bookmark icon, but since not all icons were working on the prototype, I had to interrupt to complete the task wherein you can save the place when viewing the story.
1 participant took some time to understand the flow. She tried it three times to fully understand it. She was looking for the same saving interaction as Instagram.
1 participant got confused with the bookmark icon. She thought it was just for saving a destination for future reference and not an “add to trip” function.
3 participants got confused with the term “Story Guide”.
Scenario #3
You’ve saved places on your 2-day Barcelona Trip. You want to set a specific date and time for Cassa Batllo.
Task #3: Show me how you would do it using the prototype.
4 out of 4 participants finished the task successfully
1 participant has to redo it again to set a specific time. She wasn’t able to see the option to select a specific time right away.
Summary of findings
Overall, the test showed that the app is easy to navigate and use. The participants felt that the app is somehow similar to other social media and travel apps; that’s why it makes it easy to navigate. But they thought it was still lacking because some buttons were not functioning. All participants said they needed some time to be familiar with the app, and it will be easier after. I needed to step in when the buttons were not working due to prototype limitations and how to save a place. Some participants took some time to fully understand the flow and look for the same saving interaction as the other famous apps like Instagram.
Iterations
After summarizing the usability results, I updated and added some screens to improve the design.
Next Steps
A walkthrough of steps on how to use the app.
Add a tooltip to first-time users on what the icons are.
Add a “save” button on the story itself
Add a “save” button to the story guide
Walkthrough on how the app works
All participants said they needed some time to be familiar with the app since this was their first time using it, and it will be easier after. To solve this issue, onboarding screens were added. This walkthrough serves as a guide on how to use the app.
Before
Participants had difficulty locating where they can save the place. They were looking for the save icon on the story itself.
After
The bookmark icon was added to the story. An alternate path to save the place.
Final Thoughts
From this project, it’s crucial to study the existing design of famous related apps. During user testings, participants were looking for the same interaction as Instagram.
When creating a new feature or app, it’s very important to give users a complete walkthrough to know what the product is about and how it works.
Next Steps
A collaboration tool to help group travelers plan their itinerary
Retest to validate the changes made