App Review: ULYSS

Find your dream holiday the right way!

With summer just around the corner and with an unlimited choice of destinations to visit — the challenge may be finding the perfect destination.

The old method of choosing a holiday is based on two options:

1. Visit your local travel agent and agree to pay extortionate prices for their lacklustre service.

or ….

2. Browse online via sites such as Kayak, and attempt to navigate through their extensive network of pages.

Both avenues have been the standard for backpackers for many years. However, as mentioned in the bullet points, both lack an innovative and creative process to capture the excitement that many travellers desire when searching for their next holiday destination.

…… If this is something you can relate to then I would suggest throwing away the million brochures you received whilst at the travel agents and closing down your browser (after reading this obviously).

ULYSS is a game-changing app designed to alleviate the decision-making process of choosing a destination with the help of an algorithm that can pinpoint precisely where you would like to go using a series of questions provided by a well thought out design.

Concept

The idea of innovating the travel industry is far from being a brand new discovery.

There are other similar apps designed to condense the search process of finding a holiday such as SnapTravel (FB Chatbot), which helps users find hotel deals. The question is whether or not these new innovative ideas can genuinely disrupt the ageing travel industry.

The answer is simple …. yes!

Well… it’s not that simple.

Many stipulations can affect the success of any tool or software that plans on disrupting an industry, especially one the size of the travel industry.One thing that UYLSS has above anything else is the user experience. Essentially ULYSS is a search tool packaged into an app. The idea to renovate the search process from using blocky filters to using images and animations is a stroke of genius.

With ULYSS, the user can navigate through the multiple facets that come with booking a holiday, ie budget, scenery, weather. This is cleverly done in the style of a story, and by doing so, it can resonate with the concept of a holiday, which essentially is a story in itself.

Design

User Experience (UX) has become an integral element of app design; without it, an app may not be able to distinguish itself.

“The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable.” — Blake Ross, Co-creator of Mozilla Firefox

One of the most striking aspects of ULYSS is the design. The choice of a light colour palette works well with the tone of the app. The animations are nicely put together and compliment the overall design. The nature of the app is very much consistent with actions a user will perform if they were to plan a holiday via a travel site. Therefore, it lacks the need to educate users on their user journey process.

Simplicity is key……

The copy on the app is very simple, with the use of only one or two sentences for each screen. This aids in the development of the end goal of the user, which is to find the perfect destination as quickly and seamlessly as possible. The choice of words is very much in the light-hearted tone which is prevalent throughout the app.

Technology

The basis of the inception of ULYSS was to be able to determine precisely where you want to go without you knowing exactly where a user wanted to go.

The robust algorithm can make recommendations based on the options the user has chosen. To determine whether or not the AI was up to the task, I decided to test out the algorithm on a friend. First, I asked him to write down a destination that he had always wanted to visit as well as the region.

After, going through the process, the app recommendations were as follows:

To my mate’s astonishment, the app’s algorithm managed to predict the region (Central/South America) as well as recommending the country that he had in mind (Panama) as the second closet to the answers.

The results are shown on a graph with a comparison of your answers along with the values of the destination to highlight the similarities. This is a nice little touch designed to elaborate on their AI technology.

Once the app has recommended the destination, the user can read more information regarding the place. After that, you are then able to check flights and hotels through the app which has links to both booking.com and tripadvisor.com.

Improvements

Like with most things in life, there is always room for improvement — ULYSS is no exception.

1. Firstly, I would suggest creating an Android version of the app as by only having an iOS edition you only leverage a small community of users.
2. Having only 14 questions doesn’t seem enough to create a well-rounded experience. Adding a few more questions could improve the results. However, this may deter from the streamlined approach of the app.
3. Once your results are in, to make changes, you can only do so one question at a time which can prove to be quite frustrating since after making a change, the app needs to recalculate.
4. Improve the ‘Travel Length’ so that you can be more precise about the area you would like to visit.
5. For those who are truly spontaneous, an option to truly randomise all questions could be an excellent feature to add.

Conclusion

A breathtaking approach to travel planning.

ULYSS has been able to bridge the gap between user journey and travel tech, something which many firms have been unable to do. With its credible algorithm that’s able to match users with their ideal holidays to its ability to incorporate the user’s thought process — ULYSS is a definite must-have app for any would-be traveller hoping to find their next dream holiday.

Why not see for yourself… download and have a go.