A mobile application that uniquely streamlines the trip planning process for both solo and group adventures.
Keeping track of all the logistics to trip planning can be a confusing and frustrating process to both inexperienced and experienced travelers.
We wanted to create a mobile application that centralizes these processes while also simplifying the hassle.
Since two people were working on this, I was active in all the stages of our project by working collaboratively with my partner, Serena (from conducting research to our final solution).
Notably, during the research and planning stage, I determined a significant amount of input in our research methods and approaches to exploring our problem space.
Simplify the decision-making process of trip planning by voting on suggestions.
An intuitive flow where users can book, save, plan, and budget within their trips.
Feel secure knowing all possible options and weigh between each one.
Browse and reach out for help from other travelers.
Over the summer, we noticed that a lot of our peers were traveling (including ourselves). We realized that we kept running into the same issue of keeping track of everything in the trip planning process--leading to us often feeling overwhelmed. We decided to delve deeper into this problem and develop a solution that hopes to leverage this concern.
Gathering 22 responses, we conducted a survey that asked about people’s experiences, priorities, processes, and opinions surrounding trip planning.
To gain more understanding, I searched online for data that correlated with what people prioritized when traveling and what they hope to gain from the experience. With this, we can keep in mind on what to emphasize and simplify for our solution.
Overall, we noticed that there was some intuitive steps missing in the booking, planning, or search process.
We also conducted a competitive analysis to see how other apps functioned and what features they employ for their users.
To test our low-fidelity prototypes, we conducted 5 semi-structured interviews and speed dated our low fidelity wireframes.
1. Iconography is very essential in guiding the user through the functionality of a feature (Some people were confused with certain icons like the “vote” one)
2. Minimizing steps decreases the redundancy of a task
3.. Organizing and filtering information makes layout uniform and consistent -> Decreases confusion/learning curve
With our overall branding, we decided to use colors that bring serenity and simplicity to our app’s UI. We decided to keep the UI more minimalistic so the readability isn’t compromised and the user isn’t overwhelmed when browsing or looking through their plans.
Developing Wend helped me flex both my UI and systems design thinking as we progressed through the project. What seemed like a straightforward, direct solution evolved into something more complex as we incorporated functions like group voting and booking.
As for next steps, we can definitely delve deeper into fleshing out the main functions of our application along with exploring more modes to ensure stability in case of travel pitfalls or emergencies. Definitely exciting to see if we can evolve this project further and how it influences my designs later on