Every year, a staggering 1.4 billion people embark on journeys as travelers. As someone who has personally experienced the challenges of trip planning, I understand firsthand how stressful it can be. Despite the inherent joys of travel, the process of coordinating all the necessary details can be overwhelming. From scouring the internet for information to juggling various reservations and documents, the task of organizing a trip can be daunting. That is where Travage comes in - a singular platform that streamlines all of these pain points, providing a seamless and stress-free travel experience.
UX Research
UI Design
User research
Empathy map & persona
User journey map
IA and Wireframes
Visual Design
Prototype
Usability Studies
Accounting for accessibility
Following project inception, I established my research strategy and objectives with the primary goal of understanding the target audience and their challenges. To gather insights, I distributed an online survey to various relevant communities, receiving 18 submissions. From these responses, I selected participants who traveled at least once per year and took the lead in planning their itineraries, conducting in-depth interviews with these individuals.
During the ideation phase, I conducted user interviews to develop new personas and inform the design process. Utilizing an interview script containing 11 open-ended questions, I explored the values, motivations, and routines of our target audience. Over the course of four days, I conducted remote interviews with six users, ultimately identifying three common pain points and two distinct types of travelers.
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To better understand the goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors of my users, I created an empathy map, visually organizing insights, observations, and quotes from user interviews.
Additionally, I developed four personas for each user segment, continuously updating them as I gathered more data throughout the project. These personas provided a valuable reference point, allowing me to view my ideas from the perspective of my target audience.
I began the design phase with low-fidelity sketches and wireframes to swiftly visualize and make decisions without sacrificing time. These sketches were based on initial user interviews, project goals, and heuristic evaluations, with regular revisitation to ensure alignment with my primary objectives.
Following feedback from guerrilla usability testing on the low-fidelity sketches, I progressed to creating mid-fidelity wireframes. Through my research, I determined that users desired ease of use, organization, and understanding, informing my focus on clear information hierarchy, the ability to edit and customize, and presenting the most relevant content first.
In terms of aesthetics, I aimed to create a UI that conveyed excitement, lightheartedness, and effortlessness. To highlight key actions, I incorporated "Tiffany Blue," a color symbolic of calmness, serenity, and strength. "Orange Peel" was incorporated as a secondary color, representing joy, sunshine, enthusiasm, and happiness. "Lavender," "Bittersweet," and "Sea Green" were utilized to color code various itinerary activities, while variations of dark and light gray were employed for easy reading of text. For typography, I selected Aller for titles and subtitles and Lato for body text, both of which are easily legible and facilitate content processing.
Conducting two rounds of user testing with my high-fidelity prototypes, I identified areas of confusion that users experienced while interacting with the prototype. To address these issues, I designed variations and tested them again to determine if the initial issues were resolved. For example, I split the text fields for creating a new trip into separate screens and added a toggle button for users to easily add additional destinations if necessary. Additionally, I included confirmation pages after each successful task completion to ensure that users were not left wondering if their input had been received. Following the second round of usability testing with these revised designs, users were able to easily add additional destinations to their trip without issue.
As I moved towards the final prototype, I considered all user feedback received during both rounds of testing, ensuring that information presented to the user at each screen was clear and easy to understand.
Designing an app from start to finish was a challenging but highly rewarding experience. I learned that there must be a clear purpose and meaning behind every design decision, and user research is crucial to creating a product that meets the needs of its intended audience. Through my work on this project, I was able to hone my UX design skills and develop a deeper appreciation for the user-centered design process.
