Lonely Traveler
An app for travelers who want to be in know.
Overview
My team and I designed an app for travelers seeking advice from locals and other travelers. We were looking to fill a need in the broader space of travel
Roles: Scrum Master, UX Researcher, UX Designer
Methods: User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Journey Mapping, Competitive Analysis, MoSCoW Maps, Wireframing, Usability Testing, Prototyping
Tools: Figma, Miro
Team: 4 UX Designers
Type of Project: Passion Project
User Interviews
who: 10 users who had traveled more than once in the past 2 years.
how: 20-30 minute interviews done in person and over the phone.
topics: packing, planning, documentation and memorable experiences.
User Quotes
“Traveling never goes as planned but that’s the fun part”
“Places were closed on certain days- only the locals seemed to know that stuff”
“I want perspective from real people not influencers.”
Finding Commonalities
With all this data we needed to synthesize it using affinity mapping to find commonalities. We can use this to better understand our users’ pain points and draw a clearer picture of what problem our product should address.
What our Users Want
I want to hear other traveler’s experiences.
I don’t know enough before I go
I plan ahead but remain flexible when something comes up.
I want to minimize the likelihood of something going wrong.
Mapping the Journey
Using our user research we’ve created our persona Avery. We know about her goals, needs and pain points but how do they all fit in together? By creating a user journey map we can give context to and better define our problem space.
Important Questions
When are Avery’s pain points occurring?
Why are they occurring?
What is her lowest point? (unaddressed issue in travel space)
How can we help? (opportunities)
Problem
Statement
Though travelers try to plan ahead, plans often go awry while at their destinations.
Avery needs to find something else to do when her initial plans are canceled on short notice.
How might we help Avery access relevant resources so that she can troubleshoot unforeseen circumstances at her destination?
What are users missing?
We’ve learned through our research that even though users utilize existing travel resources such as Lonely Planet and Tripadvisor they are mainly used in the planning phase. From our journey map we know that the user’s lowest point happens when they are at the destination.
Users Need
Travel resources accessible while traveling (mobile friendly)
Destination and situation specific travel advice
Advice from people that know the destination well (locals & other travelers)
Community they feel comfortable seeking help from
Competitive Matrix
We mapped out our competitors and comparators in the following categories:
Personal & Impersonal :
Personal referring to resources that provided user insights such as review sites (ie. Tripadvisor)
Impersonal referring to sites that provided factual information like required vaccines, visa requirements (ie. Lonely Planet.)
Specialized & General:
General which meant resources that provided overall travel info (ie. Lonely Planet )
Specialized meaning sites that provided info on a specific topic(ie. Migrationology )
Lonely Traveler will fill the need for a travel resource that is both personal (forum) and specialized (destination specific advice from locals & traveler)
Competitive Matrix
Must Have Features
Forum
Locals’ Advice & Travelers’ Advice
Geo-location
Search
Feature Prioritization
Keeping our users’ needs in mind we created a MoSCow map to prioritize the features in our app.
