Travel Pro: Enjoy more, worry less about your trips with influencer's curated trip itineraries in Agoda
In this case study I will be explaining how I tried to increase the Conversion rate and Average order value of the Agoda activities section by introducing the Influencer's curated itineraries making it easy for users to plan and book their holiday's hassle free.
I have divided this case study into multiple parts
-Introduction
-The context
-Problem statement
-Research Insights & Assumptions
-Ideations & Iterations
-Solution
-Usability Testing
-Future scopes
-And, it is a wrap
Introduction
I recently participated in the 48-hour Product Design Challenge organised by my mentor Anudeep Ayyagari.
As part of this challenge, each of us was given a problem statement and asked to work on it.
I will be explaining how I understood the problem statement, and tried to come up with a solution that benefits both users and business.
The context
Agoda is an online travel booking platform that aims to provide users with a seamless and personalized travel experience.
Recently Agoda introduced a feature called Agoda Activities where users can book their holiday packages and activities.
To make this flow even more seamless for users and more impactful for business, we are exploring the idea of adding a new feature where users can view influencer-curated itineraries to help them plan their trips more efficiently and effectively.
Problem Statement
The problem statement I received for the Product Design challenge was 👇
Once I received the problem statement I wanted to first understand the business i.e. Agoda then I have to understand the users and the feature i.e. Influencer curated itineraries.
Business (Agoda)
To understand the business I did a small research on Agoda. I tried to understand a few things i.e.
- About the app
- USP
- Target audience
- Current services
- Current user’s journey
- What other competitors are doing
Users
- How users are currently booking trips?
- How do users plan their itinerary?
- What motivates users to go on holiday?
- Where do they take inspiration from?
- How do they research a particular destination?
- What kinds of videos do they watch?
- Who are their favourite influencers?
Feature
1. Who are the top travel influencers?
2. What kind of content do they post?
3. Who is their target audience?
4. What makes users watch their content?
I did deep research on understanding all of this. The attachment below is the link to my research file on Figma 👇
Research Insights & Assumptions-
🎯Users like travel bloggers because users can't possibly go to every place to experience the environment, learn about the culture, popular foods, ancient places etc.
🎯When they see travel vlogs they get deep knowledge about the place and that experience even without personally going to that place.
🎯40% of people don't travel often because they have busy schedules and no time for planning.
🎯60% of people find planning for a trip difficult because they do not have a good knowledge of destinations, travel modes, sights of interest and budgets. The online sites don’t have all of the answers and certainly cannot personalize the travel for them.
🎯Travelling involves lots of planning, research, budget analysis, and stay and travel bookings which involves lots of time and effort.
🎯50% of users trust travel blogs and travel vloggers to take inspiration and necessary information to plan their trip.
🎯Some travel booking apps offer holiday packages but mostly they are less customisable & non-trustworthy.
🎯There are a few itinerary planning apps, but they have poor usability and less data which makes it difficult for users to use them.
🎯Travel planning agencies are costly, users mostly look for budget trips.
Competitive research
🎯For competitive analysis, I chose two popular trip bookings apps Makemytrip & Pickmytrail
🎯Both apps stood strong in their marketing zone and also provided a good holiday experience to users.
🎯I found some gaps in their experience and also took insights into how our competitors are trying to solve a similar problem.
I created a User persona based on the collective knowledge of my research insights. So I could better understand my user's goals and needs.
As I had limited time I had to proceed to the solution phase with my research insights & assumptions🙂
Ideations & Iterations
After deep research and competitive analysis, I decided to proceed with the following idea:
- Users spend the most time on other websites and apps, so the influencer content I am introducing must contain some similarity with their previous experiences so users could easily adapt to it.
- Instead of introducing this feature as a new service of Agoda, incorporating it into the existing Agoda activities features could make more sense and also boost the conversion rates of the Activities section.
- The feature I am introducing might be really helpful to the users, they can have the control and freedom to choose what they want. They can worry less about planning and focus more on the experience.
- With these expert-curated itineraries, users could just book trips to their favourite destination within minutes.
- Users get information about the destination, stay, travel, activities, food, shopping, insider tips etc in a visual format curated by our expert travellers.
To conceptualise the journey more effectively before proceeding with wireframes I tried creating an information architecture for my solution.
Iterations
I had to go through multiple iterations of planning to bring my solutions into the interface. I started with creating rough wireframes. I tried creating multiple versions of how my solution would help users, how users would identify it, access it, use it and benefit from it.
Final wireframe
Comparing existing user journey with my idea:
Solution
You can view my entire solution prototype here.
I will be explaining in detail my solution below.
Travel Pro: You enjoy, we plan
Travel Pro is a feature offered by Agoda that provides curated travel itineraries, insider tips, travel tips and personalized travel recommendations to users.
It helps users to plan their trips efficiently by suggesting popular tourist attractions and activities to visit in the destination of their choice.
It also allows users to book flights, accommodations, and other travel-related services directly through the platform. The primary goal of Travel Pro is to provide a seamless and enjoyable travel planning experience to users, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Overall benefits
For User:
- Saves time and effort by offering pre-planned and personalized itineraries.
- Offers unique and authentic travel experiences.
- Provides access to insider tips and recommendations from influencers.
- Ensures hassle-free travel by taking care of all the planning and bookings.
- Provides a platform to discover new destinations and activities.
- Users can customise the trip according to their needs.
For Business:
- Increases user engagement overall for Agoda and also the Activities section.
- The increased conversion rate for trip packages and also for other services of Agoda through cross-selling.
- Increases revenue through hotel and flight bookings.
- Provides opportunities for upselling travel packages, tours, and activities. Which increases the average order value
- Increases the session length of the app, because users spend more time engaging with the content. Rather than juggling between multiple apps users are finding everything in a single app.
- Increases the daily active users of the app.
- Enhances brand reputation by offering personalized and curated travel experiences.
- Helps to build customer loyalty and retain existing customers.
- Provides valuable data on customer preferences and behaviour.
For Influencers:
- Provides a platform to showcase their travel experiences and expertise.
- Increases their visibility and reach among a relevant audience.
- Offers opportunities for collaborations with hotels and travel brands.
- Provides a new revenue stream through sponsored trips and partnerships.
The Travel Pro flow starts on the home page
- I have introduced the Travel Pro feature on the home screen below the activities section for good visibility.
- I have added a few famous tourist destination images to indicate that it is related to travel.
- I have also added popular travel influencer’s images in the banner for better identification of what this feature is about. This way users could easily connect what we are conveying through this feature.
When users click on the banner they will be directed to the Travel Pro screen
- Users could search for any city or activity they are looking for.
- Pro travellers curated Trips: These are travel packages curated by real-time travel experts. It has a complete itinerary of the trip. Users can also customise them based on their needs.
- Where to go: Even when users do not have a plan, travel pro could show them travellers made videos of beautiful destinations. Each special element of the destination is in videos and shorts, so users could easily find inspiration and plan their trip.
- Travel tips by our travellers: This is a feature where users would have made short videos on useful travel tips eg. How to travel light, Tips for travelling with parents, and how to stay safe while travelling as women. This would help users be more prepared for their trip.
Next, when users click the Four days trip to Goa card they would be directed to a detailed travel itinerary page
Fold 1
- There is a video of the travel expert explaining the entire tour itinerary in person by going to that destination and exploring things by himself.
How it helps users: Users could see what their trips are going to look like and what things they are going to experience in the four-day trip
Users could also get insider tips from the expert.
How it helps business: Instead of users going to various platforms for researching the destination, plan for the trip and watch media related to them. We are holding the users to one app. There is very less chance of users getting distracted. Being able to visually see what we are offering also builds a strong trust in us.
2. Booked 8 times in the last 24 hours: This creates a sense of social proofing of similar users purchasing this trip package to the users who are viewing this package for the first time.
3. Cashback Rewards: I have incorporated Agoda’s reward program here (usually when users book hotels through this app they get rewarded) this motivates users that they are being rewarded for their purchase.
4. Tags: I have provided some tags of key factors of the package, users could view what are the primary offerings of this feature at first glance itself.
5. Overview: There is a summary of the destination given.
6. Curated by: Users could see who curated this trip, they could also click the card to know more about their travel expert.
7. Explore Goa: There are small reels like videos highlighting different aspects of Goa. For eg. Top beaches in Goa, Must visit places in Goa, Goa markets etc. Users could get more information about the destination and get more interested in the destination and their journey.
Fold 2
- Users could change the date of their stays.
- Travel
How it helps users: User has control and freedom to choose what they want. If they want to book flights, Agoda shows them the available flights with affordable rates.
How it helps business: Here we are cross-selling one of the primary services of Agoda i.e. flight bookings. Since it is kept on the trip page users who are booking the trip and looking for travel options can book their flights through Agoda. - Expert suggested stays
How it helps users: The user's burden of browsing through the list of hotels to find the best one that fits their expectations and budget has been eliminated here.
With experts suggested stays, our travel experts have been there to the hotels, experienced it and recommends it to the users. Users still have the freedom to change their preferred hotels from what is being suggested.
How it helps business: It could increase the conversion rate of Agoda’s hotel service here.
Fold 3
- Itinerary: The trip itinerary has been given in a detailed form, also images of the respective places have been provided for better identification.
Fold 4
- Expert-suggested activities: There are expert-suggested activities which users can add as part of their itinerary, they can click view all to see other activities too.
The final price of the package would be updated simultaneously when users add any customisation to the package. - Cabs: We are integrating Agoda’s car rentals here. If users do not have a private vehicle they can book Agoda’s car rentals. They can choose the vehicle they prefer.
- Secure your trip to Agoda: Users can secure their trip at a minimum price with Agoda’s insurance packages. Travel insurance typically covers baggage loss, medical expenses, emergency evacuation and loss of passport. So users could be saved from losses and can have safe travel.
Usability Testing
Now that we have built the solution it is time for us to test this solution with real users.
Initially, I did user testing with two users:
Insights from the first two usability testing:
🎯Users found this feature really helpful, they could also identify their favourite influencers.
🎯Users were able to understand and use the interface without my guidance.
🎯They found this could be very time-consuming.
🎯Keeping the itinerary screen with less text and more visually appealing helps users consume information easily.
🎯Having explanatory videos and images keep it more engaging.
🎯The tour guide video on the home page helps users understand how their trip is going to look and make better decisions.
🎯Users were not able to distinguish between expert-curated trips and where-to-go sections. Since both sections contained similar details they found it confusing.
💡Receiving this feedback to confirm again about the “where to go feature”. I planned to do an A/B testing with the next two users.
🎯User A will interact with a prototype with a “where to go” column and User B would interact without the respective column.
Insights from A/B testing:
User A:
🎯User was not able to understand from the home page what this feature is about.
🎯From the Travel Pro page User was able to walk through the design and understand the concept.
🎯 User was able to understand that even without any destinations fixed prior in his mind. He is able to decide on a destination for a holiday from this discovering place through this app.
User B:
🎯User was able to identify her favourite travel influencers from the app.
🎯User conveyed her concern about what she will do if she didn't have destinations planned in her mind.
🎯User liked the travel tips option.
Based on the insights from A/B testing I decided to proceed with the “Where to go” column.
Future Scopes:
🎯In future, there could be more influencers bagged into this feature
🎯 There can be a solution where existing users who are travel enthusiasts themselves can be a part of Travel Pro.
🎯Users could share their travel experience with Travel Pro.
🎯Users can upload video reviews about a place.
🎯Create a community for travellers to share their experiences.
🎯Creating a more personalised trip experience.
And It is a wrap:
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