Re-designing “Travel Buddy” a social Travel app for Indian Travelers
Hey, so do you love to travel? Well, the answer is naturally yes. Who does not love the experience of going new places, consuming new cuisines, indulging in new cultures. We often Plan our travel with our friends and that's great but have you noticed what happens when they back out? You are left alone with your plans, in this situation which doors do you knock? Probably upload a Social media story saying ‘Heading Goa for the weekend anyone who wishes to join, hit me a DM”. Well, Travel Buddy is a social travel app solving this exact problem of finding travel buddies for users’, the app caters the desire of individuals to find new travel partners for shared trips together. Travel Buddy features allows users to post their itineraries on the feed to connect with other fellow travelers on the app.
The App addressed a great problem but the complexity in design has made the interface complex amid understanding the app flow which as caused obligation in functionality resulting in descending users. In this Case study we shall go through a long story short process of re-designing the Travel Buddy app in an honest attempt to make it visually more pleasing and super functional.
Travel Buddy App primarily allows users to:-
- Post your Travel Itineraries on the Application🔎
- Explore Itineraries posted by other users on the Application🧙♀️
- Post Social Media on the App 🙋♀️
- Connect with Locals, Travelers and Hosts via in app messaging🙋♀️
PART 1:- INDENTIFYING THE PROBLEMS🧐
What are the limitations of the current app?
User Reviews😵
Overall users did find the app concept interesting and helpful but were irritated by the interface as it complied their usage. Having gone through the reviews & design I came to a conclusion that users are confused with app functionality and mainly because of the UI. How? Find out yourself below⬇️
Design Audit🤯
Firstly, users aren’t used to see a video as soon as one onboards, one expects some information about the app or features before signing up. Secondly, the Login/Sign Up Page with a random picture at the background without any branding makes a user think twice before sharing their details mistaking it for a pirated application.
The entire layout of the product is complex and the UI acts as a catalyst by adding more complexity and confusion. These small problems directly impact the flow, resulting in confusion and they give up on completing any task on the app. The user are finding it difficult to interact with these screens spoiling their excitement for their trips and new buddy attention.
Breaking Down the Product🫠
Collecting User Perspective
Listing Problems 😗
🚩The App complex content categorization
🚩The App has complex IA resulting a complicated layout
🚩The App has irregular components
🚩The App has multiple un-standardized CTA’s
🚩The text is small and non-hierarchal
🚩The colour combination is heavy to consume
PART 2:- HOW CAN WE IMPROVISE? 🤔
Ideation 👁
First things first, let’s us get into the traveler's Shoe: User Personas
The travel requirement shall be more specific depending on what type of traveler is boarding on the app but we can identify the common aspects of a traveler for all types. Then we would standardize them as parameters and then re-structure the IA.
Restructuring Information Architecture🥶
The travel categorize were decreased to 9 making to easy for users to understand the travel genre. The home screen in prior design is removed and replaced by the Trips screen. Now the users get to see the trips first as soon as they board on the app. The top bar is made standard having buttons to access important or priority screens and keeping it for standard for all the sections. Overall the flow is made very simple and easy to use minimizing the complexity of the app.
Wireframing UX🧐
Once the ideation was done and the IA was ready it was time to get the sketching started, by trying multiple layouts for the type of content travel buddy has and prioritizing the info for card sizes and click flow.
I needed to ensure my UX was also based on the UI elements so I tried a lot of combined variations till I reached a definitive state of design
PART 3:- DESIGN EXECUTION🫡
Components😶🌫️
The CTA components were standardized with respect to size, background and icon stroke, making it simpler to identify on the scrolling screens. The brand color is used as a highlight to resonate the click action while pressing CTA’s.
The UI Cards for Trips were designed by listing the content in importance hierarchy first. The info elements which influenced the click decisions were prioritised and then multiple layouts were sketched to paly around with the card structure to balance space amongst images and labels, ratings, author and the pricing, making the user take quick tap decisions.
Designing Final Interface😎
Check out the Prototype before we compare Old & New Screens
PART 4:- COMPARISON 😜
Reviewing the listed problems 😎
🟩The App complex content categorization- Improvised Categorization
🟩The App has complex AI resulting complicated layout- Redesigned IA
🟩The App has irregular components- Enhanced UI Cards
🟩The App has multiple un-standardized CTA’s- Standardized CTA’s
🟩The text is small and non-hierarchal:- Text Styles in Hierarchy
🟩The colour combination is heavy to consume:- New Color Palate
Now that all the elements are combined the app is visually clean, less complex and super functional making it easy for users to explore and take decisions in finding new buddies and jaunting on voyages together. I hope your upcoming trips are as smooth as this re-design case study. Happy Travel’s ✈️ Happy Holidays🎄❄️😊
