Timeline
3 month as solo student project for Designlab UX/UI bootcamp
Product
Responsive website
My role
UX/UI designer
Problem
Planning a group trip is stressful.
Traveling in a group can be overwhelming and comes with its own amount of stress. When several people need to make joint decisions, it can rapidly transform a joyful occasion into everyone’s nightmare.
The goal was to understand what challenges travelers planning group trips are facing so that we can create a solution that can assist them in coordinating their trip while taking everyone’s needs and requirements in consideration.
Solution
Journey is a travel website allowing people traveling in a group to efficiently plan their entire trip in total collaboration without having to leave the platform. If they are short of ideas, users have the option to take quizzes to get personalized activities, accommodation options or even restaurant suggestions.
Persona
Competitive Analysis
I analyzed 4 apps and websites advertising to help in the planning of group trips. I noticed that none of them had all the elements needed to plan a group trip stress free from start to finish and realized there was a gap in the market for a multitasking platform.
User Interviews
User interviews were conducted to helped gain knowledge on stress and pain points that people can experience while planning a group trip. These were the main takeways:
Group trips are only fun when well organized
All 5 participants used multiple apps and websites in their process
5 out of 5 emphasized the importance of a good communication in planning
All 5 of them start the planning process with booking flights first, everything else comes later.
Based on the trend in my affinity map, I divided the collected
insights into the following groups :
Tools used to plan a trip
Research and planning process
Planning pain points
Group trip preferences
End of trip process
This gave me a better understanding of the struggle involved in
group trip planning and helped me create my persona, Allison.
Design
I started with deciding on which flow I wanted to test then moved on to sketching low fidelity ideas to later create a mid fidelity wireframe on Figma.
It was then time to decide on the branding before finally working on the high fidelity wireframe and prototype ready for testing.
Task Flow
Sketches
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Usability Testing & Iterations
5 major improvements in my design
The goal of the usability tests were to assess if the product was easy to use, to understand how the users navigated the product and to gain insight on the overall feel of the product. These were the main takeaways:
All 5 participants responded well to the visual design and said that the website was organized and easy to use
Both task flows were well received and all 5 users had no real issues completing the tasks
All 5 testers loved the quiz idea to receive targeted suggestions
4 out of 5 all mentioned that if the product was real they would definitely use it
1 user mentioned she expected a filter on the results page
1 user would have preferred to be able to click the text in the drop down to select
2 out of 5 mentioned a review section would make it more interactive between travelers
1 user was expecting a “share with friends” button
1 user mentioned some alignments issues needing to be corrected in the “trip vibes” page
1 user was confused in the results page as to which title belonged to which picture
Based on various feedback from usability testing participants as well as my mentor, I continually iterated my design over the span of 4 weeks resulting in 5 main improvements:
Clearer Result Cards
I spaced out the results cards to make it easier to understand which text belongs to which image after noticing that one tester got confused
Filter
Based on user feedback, I designed and added a filter icon to the result page
Selection Straight from Drop Down Menu
I made it possible to click on a suggestion in the drop down menu to select it and move on to the next input box
CTA Button
I added the share with friends CTA button (that was originally intended but eventually forgotten) after one user commented that they were expecting to see it as it was a collaborative platform
Rating System
A couple of testers mentioned a review section would make it more interactive between travelers so I added a star system to the latest iteration
The Final Product
The Style Guide
Conclusion & Lessons Learned
This was my first-ever UX design project! 🎉 I’m very grateful to have been through an entire UX process from start to finish and I now have a better understanding on what it takes.
On that note, here are a few things I’ve learned along the way :
We have a lot assumptions when starting a project so it’s important to do the proper research to understand the user needs and pain points before we start designing
Iterate as much as you can. Our designs always have room for improvement and it takes multiple testings and iterations to get to a final product that is usable, useful, and desirable
Everyone is different and has different needs and opinions so it’s important to learn to prioritize as to not get overwhelmed by unnecessary details and iterations
You didn’t fail, you just found a way that didn’t work! I’m thankful to have had feedback from my peers and my mentor all through my project to help me realize that failure is part of the learning process. In the end, I pushed to create the best platform I could, and that is definitely something to be proud of.
Next Steps
Develop partnerships with vendors to offer deals directly through the app to generate revenue and facilitate even more our user’s journeys.
Continue testing to see if the user’s needs evolve and if iterations or additions are needed.
✨ For work inquiries (or for a little chat), do email me at: m.mabounda@gmail.com ✨
Thank you for reading !
〰️
Thank you for reading ! 〰️