Times Travel
iOS Mobile App
DURATION MY ROLE
2.5 Week User Research, UX Design, UI Design
Method
User Interviews, Open Card Sorting, Affinity Mapping, Competitive and Comparative Analysis, Task Flow, User Flow, Prototype Design, and Usability Testing
Tools
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, InVision
View Process Documentation
Overview
My team and I were interested in and passionate about travel. We identified an opportunity related to the research behavior of travelers who spend most of their time looking at things to do and do not learn practical local information while on their trips.
We believe an app that provides basic information about cultural norms and practices will be useful for travelers in foreign countries as it will help them feel knowledgeable and secure during their travels.
Problem
When a traveler is on an amazing trip across the world, but s/he wishes had access to location-specific information that would help his/her avoid some sticky situations. How might we give traveler access to the information s/he needs to navigate a new place and make the most of her trip?
Design Process
User Interview
We sent out the screener and got 29 responses. We conducted 6 user interviews and they were in between 20s to 40s. We chose 6 users who identified them as" I am a Global Traveler" and "I plan my own travel" from screener. All of them are located in New York.
Affinity Mapping
After the user interviews we did affinity mapping to find out what is the real problem.
Insights
5/6 I am a conscientious traveler
4/6 I like getting recommendations from friends or locals
6/6 I wish I'd known more about... (Categories came from user interviews.)
4/6 Currency & Money
3/6 Current Events
3/6 Public Transportation
4/6 Food Service Industry
4/6 Laws & Safety
4/6 Language & Greeting
Users do not have problems planning their trips. They source recommendations from friends and existing travel resources.
Users don’t typically research “cultural” information as part of trip preparations. Yet they all shared anecdotes about disrupted plans due to unexpected, location-specific issues which could have been anticipated or prevented.
The market has enough itinerary-planning resources. We identified an opportunity to help travelers access important, location-specific information to make the most of their travels.
Meet Kiera (Persona)
Kiera's Journey Map
This is current Kiera's journey map without Times Travel. Kiera is starving and doesn't know why museum is closed on regular day(because it closes on local festival).
We identified the opportunity to help Kiera. When she lands on Palermo, Italy, if she uses Times Travel to access to in order to navigate a new place and make the most of her trip.
Problem Statement
When travelers go abroad, they are often faced with a lot of cultural norms and local practices that are different from their own.
Kiera is on an amazing trip across the world, but she wishes she had access to location-specific information that would help her avoid some sticky situations. How might we give her access to the information she needs to navigate a new place and make the most of her trip?
Platform
Before we start design, we decided which platform we should use.
Partnership
We chose New York Times as our brand partner because
● Our shared missions makes the NYTimes a great strategic partner for our app.
● The NYTimes has the key location-specific and cultural information we need to build out the app for cities all over the world.
● The NYTimes reaches an audience that represents our ideal user - people who are curious, adventurous, interested and open-minded.
● Finally, our users agree that when it comes to travel, trust is the most important thing. The NYTimes is a brand that people trust and that will lend credibility to our app.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM?
● 1/6 users sited the NYTimes as a source they went used when researching travel options and itineraries.
We believe that this partnership could create a new, exciting platform for NYTimes’ travel content and increase traffic to the NYTimes website.
Design Studio
Once we decided to do iOS Mobile app and a potential partner as New York Times, we started design studio. We shared our design idea in order to conceptualize and sketch out possible solutions to our users’ pain points and conducted initial feature prioritization by using the MoSCoW map method.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
We conducted 5 usability tests. We found what was working and what was not working out.
Based on our report, we updated our High-fidelity wireframes.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Getting location specific information
Trip tips are fun facts based on location.
Quick access to tool such as currency converter
High Fidelity Full Video of Demonstrating
We conducted 4 usability tests. We found what was working and what was not working out.
Based on our report, we updated our High(er)-fidelity wireframes.
Style Guide
Next Step
Testing the functionality of other buttons: bookmark, share, translate, news.
Building out a push-notification feature for Tips; consider including tips generated and submitted by users.
Tree testing and/or do additional card sorting to organize the content even better and with user-generated hierarchies.
Consider how the app might be used as a planning tool before and after traveling.
