My First UX Project
Day Tripper Travel App
Introduction
The project brief was to create a travel app focused on the UK. Initially I choose to focus on a concept I had being thinking about for a while, picking a travel destination based on travel time.
However, as the project progressed and the UX design process started to reveal potential limitations and issues with an app focused solely on travel time the direction of the app pivoted. This led to the “Day Tripper” MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
Day Tripper App Overview
A recommendation app that allows users to browse potential travel destinations that are only a day trip away from their current home base. Focusing on people’s three favourite travel activities.
- Eating & Drinking
- Sight Seeing
- Shopping
Target market
The potential target market for an app like this is quite wide. Anyone from active retirees, young families to couples could be users of the app. For the purpose of the MVP the target market was narrowed to focus on the time poor young professional. The general hypothesis being that users in this group have the following characteristics:
- Willing to try new things and are social by nature.
- Like to travel and have the means to.
- Lack the time to research and plan potential trips due to a high level of work and/or social commitments.
User Research
User Interviews:
Conducted three separate user interviews, asked a range of open questions relating to people’s day trip travel habits.
“Can you tell me about the last time you went on a day trip?”
“Can you describe the timeframe for making the decision to take a day trip?”
“What is considered too long in terms of travel time for a day trip?”
The general themes of the interviews were mapped out in an affinity diagram.
The key user interview themes that emerged were:
- Two hours is the maximum amount of travel time people are willing to spend on traveling to a destination for a day trip.
- Little time to plan trips. Often leads to trips been organised last minute which can be quite stressful for the day tripper.
- Trip Advisor is a key source of information and is well regarded by the interviewees.
- Customer reviews are important particularly when it comes to eating.
User Survey:
User surveys were conducted using Typeform.com. By the time the project was completed 45 people had responded to the survey. You can take the survey using this link.
User Persona:
The conclusion of the user interviews and user surveys resulted in the creation of the following user persona.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Feature List
Using the user research as a guide a list of key features for the MVP was compiled.
Must Have:
- Curated list of activities based on a theme
- Ability for people to browse suggestions and save them to an itinerary
- Show events that are out of town
- The ability to invite friends on a day trip
Should Have:
- Links to google maps to show how to get to a destination
- Links to get transport opinions
Could Have:
- People sign in and build a profile of their interests
- The ability to pick multiple cities in the UK
Want to Have:
- In built map to direct people, highlighting a root based on their itinerary
- Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn users likes and dislikes to make better recommendations
User flow & wireframes
With a defined feature list and the user research completed the actual design of the MVP could begin with the initial user flow and wireframes.
User Flow
Wireframes
Initial wireframes created using SketchApp that cover the user flow above.
Prototype & Usability testing
The initial wireframes were used to make a clickable prototype which you can view at the link below.
The usability testing revealed the following:
- MVP was too limited. Users would like to be able add multiple items to their itinerary. I.E: Multiple sights to see and places to eat.
- Affordance not clear. Users did not understand if they were meant to click or swipe.
- Missing navigation I.E: Back buttons
Based on the learnings of the usability testing I revisited some of the initial wireframes in attempt to address some of the issues.
Conclusion
It is difficult to known if the Day Tripper App would be a success or not if it were to be created for real. However, as a project it was worthwhile exploring the UX design process. It is good to know that there are methodologies out there to help validate ideas and initial design concepts and that successful digital products are not dependent on the work of a lone creative genius. It makes the overall journey less daunting.
