Good day, busy people!!!
My name is Venkat, and I’ve come up with an interesting case study. We will plan the vacation to get away from work or to have fun with friends, colleagues, or family. Many individuals struggle with trip planning issues such as deciding where to go, when to go, how much to spend, and so on. So I worked on it recently and came up with some answers!
Problem Statement
A trip planning app is required to customize and plan the trip effectively. Most people will feel that trip planning is difficult because they need to have clear information about many things like dates, budget, choosing places, etc., but with an app, you can easily get started.
Research Problem Statement
A trip planning app found that many people feel difficulty in planning the trip effectively as they will think about budget, dates, choosing people, etc. As a UX designer, you want to understand the difficulties people may face in planning their trip to enhance the trip planning process effectively. Research needs to be planned to understand the business factors.
Understanding Problem Statement
For better understanding, I created 5W’s questions about the problem statement.
Who?
Who are we solving the problem for?
Travelers who are aspiring to travel and who are planning a trip to various places.
What
What is the ultimate goal or impact?
To effectively plan the trip and eliminate difficulties in selecting dates, budgets, various places to travel, etc. a lack of clarity among travel dates, locations, and the number of people planning to travel, etc.
Where?
Where do we need to focus most?
1. We must concentrate on the types of destinations that travellers prefer.
2. We must plan a budget-friendly trip and consider the dates so that travel can be well-planned.
When?
When is the problem occurring?
1. When travellers are considering numerous options, such as locations, dates, and travel budgets,.
2. Travelers consider how much money they are spending on food, lodging, other expenses, etc.
Why?
Why is it important to solve the problem?
Because a lot of individuals will plan their vacation to enjoy it with their family, friends, and colleagues and to get away from the stress and tensions brought on by a busy life, work, etc. They are also cancelling or delaying their excursions as a result of the challenges they have in efficiently organising a trip.
Research
I strongly believe that Me ≠ User
We don’t know the user’s context because we don’t know what is going on in their head. As a result, we cannot conclude right away. We create solutions for ourselves if we consider ourselves to be users. It might not meet the needs of actual users.
Why is research important while solving the problem?
Because
Firstly, we start with secondary or desk research
More statistical and behavioural insights are helpful. Before going into user interviews and drawing conclusions, it pays to gather much more information. I’ve looked through various blogs, applications, and websites. These are the conclusions I reached while conducting my desk research.
Inferences from Desk Research
The travel app can include a list of essential items that a group should bring on the trip based on the weather, location, other needs, and so on.
The travel app needs to include a tool that estimates the cost of the journey.
The travel app should have a customized option for planning trips based on age group.
The travel app should schedule transportation from the starting point to the destination location using any form of transportation.
The travel app does organize a stay based on the requirements of the traveller.
We limited down all desk research findings to those that validate or invalidate our hypothesis statements and made a note of those that could not be supported via desk research.
Competitor Analysis
I’ve chosen three popular apps and written down their pros and cons.
This helped me understand the applications and their features prior to starting our primary research.
Here are a few results obtained from competitive analysis.
Primary Research
At this point, I had gathered information about the users as well as their behaviour. Understanding the user’s behaviour and mentality is critical to assist me in solving the problem for them since it allows me to provide a seamless experience by thoroughly understanding how consumers interact with the relevant products. I did a few user interviews to acquire information and tackle this problem. These interviews lasted between 50 minutes and two hours.
Why is it significant?
Only then will we be able to determine exactly what the issue is and what constraints the users are dealing with. Only after that can we offer a user-centered solution.
One of the major advantages of adding research to the design process is that it enables us to better understand user behaviour and make more sensible choices.
Do you prefer travelling alone, with friends, or with family?
What kinds of locations do you enjoy visiting on vacation?
How many people participate in trip planning on average?
How do you choose the locations for the trip?
Do you think about the budget when making travel plans?
Do you prefer a website or app to organise your trip?
How do you choose what to do while travelling?
Do you often have a destination in mind, or do you choose it while exploring?
Do you face difficulty making travel plans?
Inferences from primary research:
Answers from user interviews:
“While interviewing people, I received unique responses to my queries (I interviewed several people from various regions, including Anantapur, Bengaluru, and Nellore).
The majority of participants stated that they were seeking the locations that their friends and coworkers had recommended.
Many users choose to use the app rather than a website to plan their vacation.
Many people stated that they need to adjust their travel plans as needed to get all of the information and organise their trip efficiently.
Some people are also inspired by travel vlogs and packages because they can plan their trips easily.
Everyone remarked that they can go on budget-friendly trips to save money and avoid stress.
They require the split option to properly split costs so that there is no question about how much each participant spent on the trip.
Based on the primary research, I separated the interviewees into three groups and created empathy mapping for them.
Building an Empathy Map
User Personas
User Flow
Wireframing: Ideate for solutions
These rough wireframes were created in response to user frustrations and needs. I’ve tested and re-tested these wireframes with my research colleagues.
I removed a few screens because they are unnecessary and a few do not meet the users’ needs.
Usability testing
The usability testing was checked with a few users who are inclusive of the target audience.
I made some minor changes to the Home, Plan trip and trip details to improve their precision.
Visual design
Home screen
Details Screen
Planned trip with a Details screen
Future Scope
Extension of Chat Rooms
We couldn’t dive into the detailed design of our chat rooms because it was a bonus feature (and, well, time!). In the future, we can create a dedicated detailed design of social-media-like chat boards to plan the trip effectively.
