Xplore

Xplore is a new travel app designed specifically for the experienced adventure seeker. Users are able to browse adventure packages, book travel, get recommendations and reviews, and connect with other adventure seekers across the globe.

View Prototype

1 Research

Research Plan

Research enables me to develop a greater understanding of not only my user’s immediate pain points but also their hopes, limitations, reasoning and goals. User-focused research creates the foundation for problem solving and creative solutions throughout the design process.

To help better structure my research and keep the project moving forward, I constructed a plan consisting of my research goals, assumptions, and methodology.

Research Goals

Gain an understanding of the mobile travel app market
Learn about top travel apps, what their strengths and weaknesses are as well as what makes them competitive.
Identify the target audience for travel apps
Better understand what people’s needs are when it comes to the why, when, and how of travel.

Assumptions

Travel apps/mobile devices are the preferred choice of users.
Travel app users want a one-stop format to simplify browsing, booking, and reviewing.
In a highly saturated markets, users are looking for something that stands out and is unique.
Travel app users want to spend less time getting to their destination and more time enjoying their destinations.
Those who travel frequently want to streamline their booking process.

Methodologies

Secondary Research - Market Research, Competitive Analysis
Primary Research - User interviews

Secondary Research

Market Research

The first step in the research process is framing the big picture - gaining perspective through the understanding of what I know and do not know about the current travel market, who the users are, and what the current trends might suggest. The insights I gather will help me ask meaningful questions during my user interviews.

As I am designing a travel app, I took a look at market research for travel apps specifically. I looked at the market from the perspective of both the industry as well as the users. I then took a deeper dive into the demographics of who the primary users are for travel apps.

Travel App Market Insights

Overall: Travel-based mobile apps are the seventh most-downloaded app category and almost 60% of Smartphone users regularly use travel apps while planning trips.
Globally, the mobile travel booking market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 12.2% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2029, starting from US$ 1,067.3 Mn in 2020.
85% of leisure travelers make use of their Smartphone while traveling abroad.
Mobile travel apps can be linked to geo location-enabled services like Google maps and GPS to provide maps, directions and even last-minute route diversions to unfamiliar locations.
Apps are the ideal choices for all last-minute plans and impulsive travel decisions.
The top three most important features identified in their travel apps are real-time flight alerts throughout their journey (65%), being able to see an entire trip itinerary in one place (64%) and the ability to search & book flights (63%).

User Insights

Approximately 1 out of every 3 travelers will use a specific mobile app in order to do research on an upcoming trip.
48% of US smartphone users will use their phones exclusively when planning and researching their trip.
Statistics show that over 90% of travelers want personalized online experiences.
82% of all travel bookings in 2019 were made online via a mobile app or website, without human interaction.
Younger generations make up nearly 70% of mobile app travel booking.

Competitor Analysis

It is equally important to spend time understanding the competition as their strengths, weaknesses, and competitive advantages will not only help identify elements that I want to maintain but also identify opportunities to improve or new elements to introduce into the design.

Primary Research

Quantitative Data - Google Survey

Having built a better understanding of the market, I created a brief google survey and posted it on social media. The intent of this survey was to generate data on travel that would contribute some insight into who my target users are.

Qualitative Data - User Interviews

I created an Interview Guide to facilitate the user interview process, with 12 open-ended questions to invite participants to lend their experiences in booking travel. The process consisted of 10 user interviews completed over 1.5 weeks.

Some of the things I wanted to understand through my research were: how do people feel about current access to booking travel, what they liked or disliked about the current app/websites that are most frequently used, what elements they felt were missing, and what possible opportunities existed for something new.

Affinity Diagram

To synthesize the qualitative data father from my user interviews, I created an affinity diagram to identify patterns across users, uncover insights, and generate needs & pain points.

User Personas

Understanding your user is one of the best possible paths toward successful design. Creating my user personas was a key element to further define and represent my target audience. It helps me focus on tackling the most important problems - to address the major needs of the most important user groups. It is both fictional and realistic. Every I time I make a design decision, I think about how it would satisfy the needs of the personas I created.

So let’s meet Leslie and Colby. Leslie is a biomedical engineer living and working in the Twin Cities who would like to build her social media presence through her travels and explorations. Colby is a sports physical therapist living in Minneapolis who strives to spend as much time traveling, adventuring, and experiencing as much as the world can offer in his free time. Both of my personas are always on the lookout for their next great adventure and want an app that will facilitate these desires.

2 Strategy

How Might We…

In order to better define the problem I set out to solve, I needed a clear path to brainstorm solutions. To accomplish this, I utilized insights and needs gathered during my interviews to generate Point-of-View Statements and How-Might-We Questions.

Brainstorming

Through my research and personas, I identified who my user is. The POV statements and HMW questions framed their needs. The synthesis of these elements would then allow me to ideate solutions to implement into my design.

Product Goals

Before making any decisions on what solutions could be implemented I used my HMW statements to better align the business goals with the user goals. I identified the mutual goals and used them as a guide to ensure the product I was developing would be both useable and sustainable. I found this to be a critical defining element moving forward to make sure I was meeting the needs of not only the market but my users as well.

3 Design

Application Map

Having defined the product goals and settled on which solutions were the most important to implement, I created the layout of the app. The visualization was critical in allowing me to address the relationship between the content and hierarchy.

Task Flow

I created a specified task flow to see the preliminary function of the app. This flow directed the user to find a ‘Rainforest Adventure’ and complete the steps to on-board and book travel.

WireFrames

Having put together the layout and flow I put pen to paper and created some early sketches for the direction I wanted to take with the design. This allowed to quickly visualize some of my ideas before inputting them into Figma and digitizing them.

I then took my sketches and and brought them to life by creating my Lo-Fidelity wireframes in Figma.

Style Tile

The final stage of design was putting together the style tile to define the brand representation while serving as a synthesizing document of the logos, color palette, typography, and imagery.

4 Prototype & Test

Through both remote and in-person testing sessions, I was able to watch my app in action. Through a simple guided task - search for a Mountain hiking tour and book the travel - I could see first hand how users interacted with my early designs. It was equal parts exciting and fascinating to watch and analyze. These results would provide key insights for the final design.

Final Design

After nearly 4 weeks of work, I was able to tie together all of my research, ideation, and design to create the final prototype. I brought together simple functionality with elements and imagery with high visual appeal.