Case study: Tourist app
Team members: Areej Almarri Murtada BinGhanim Rawan Alshehri Lina Alrabiah Barah Molla
Our Client
Ad Diriyah is a town in Saudi Arabia located on the north-western outskirts of the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Diriyah was the original home of the Saudi royal family, and served as the capital of the Emirate of Diriyah under the first Saudi dynasty from 1744 to 1818. Diriyah was a hub for trade and pilgrimage routes to different regions and a vital link between Asia, Europe, and Africa. For this reason, it quickly grew into a thriving economic, political and military center. The most famous landmarks are Salwa Palace and the Mosque of Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab.
We found out there’s two main districts in Ad Diriyah, which are At-Turaif and Al-Bujairi.
1- At-Turaif lies at the cultural heart of Diriyah. Built in 1766 and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010, it was here that Diriyah’s ruling family lived under the leadership of Imam Mohammad bin Saud. Salwa Palace was the most important landmark in Central Arabia. Standing magnificently in the front side of At-Turaif, it was the seat of government in the First Saudi State and it reflects the power and greatness of that state. The construction of the palace was started during the reign of Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammad and extended by his successors. The palace was strongly fortified and consisted of seven architectural units connected to one another. In the palace, the imam used to receive state guests, tribal leaders, regional governors, and commoners.
2- Al-Bujairi district has a unique architectural style inspired by the surrounding natural environment and vast palm plantations. It overlooks the eastern edge of Wadi Hanifah, opposite the historic Al-Turaif neighborhood. The central theme of the Al Bujairi Quarter is its heritage as a great Arabian center for religious scholarship.
Business analysis
In order to create a digital product, we need to understand our competitors first. So we created a C&C analysis, SWOT analysis and Heuristic Evaluation.
C&C analysis
Key insights:
- balboa park app has a detailed list of all attractions and facilities available and shows how to get to them through the park’s map.
- Has a “Tour and Trail” functionality, where the application lists a number of different Tour plans that a user can choose from and the app would guide them through the different attractions in the selected tour plan, while providing text and audio explanations to each attraction.
SWOT
Key insights:
1- Ad Diriyah has a great potential to be one of the most visited historical sites in Saudi especially with locals.
2- The renovation period and publicity neglect affected the place more than expected, to the point that locals are slowly forgetting about ad Diriyah.
Heuristic Evaluation
Key insights:
In the local apps the booking button takes you to another website to book, which makes the booking process takes longer time than it should. For the errors most of them didn’t include a clear descriptions of the problem.
Research Goal
In this phase we are trying to figure out our target users, We wrote a survey and interview questions to find out about their previous visits and their pain points, behavior and the experience in general.
Screener:
After our goals were clear, we were able to survey 61 people.
these are the main insights we got:
- 46.8% Riyadh residence
- 51% of the participants haven’t visited Ad diriyah before
- 56.8% are interested in visiting historical Ad Diriyah
- 88% visited Al-Bujairi before
Interviews:
Out of the 61 survey participants, 12 agreed for an interview
Interview Goal:
Users’s Experience in historical Diriyah Ease of Navigation. Difficulties Faced. Favored Activities. Availability of facilities Tools Used to plan the trip. Users knowledge of Ad Diriyah History.
Affinity Map
Key insights:
- Users go with family and friends.
- Users dont plan for the trip, and settle for looking up the location.
- Majority of users value scenery and views rather available activities.
- Users have problems navigating the site.
- The status of the site is not clear.
- Information regarding historic ad diriyah is not unified on different sources.
- Users expressed that Using a virtual guide app would be useful.
Feature prioritization
Features List :
- Saved list
- Reviews
- Trip plan
- Recommendations
- Interactive map
- Information about the place
- High quality photos and videos
- Search bar
- Navigation bar
- CTA
Problem statement
“Saudi locals who are interested in historical sites are frustrated due to the lack of important information regarding Navigation and history of Historical Ad Diriyah. Our solution should communicate unified and interactive information while enhancing their visit”
Persona
Storyboard
User Journey
Business needs VS User needs
Solution statement
- Our Solution will be an application that should enhance users experience by: Facilitating navigation to and inside Ad Diriyah by showing and guiding users to the different available attractions and facilities on the site through a coherent and interactive map.
- Providing essential information such as site status and parking information in an up-to- date and timely manner.
- Furnish visitors with detailed descriptions and stories of the various historical attractions and points of interest.
- Act as a guide for visitors as it takes them on a journey around different attractions and provides text and audio stories and explanations about the attractions.
User flow
Card sorting
Sitemap
Annotated wireframes
Maze usability testing
“Home page images can be covered with the navigation bar to indicate it’s a scroll-able page”
“Trip Plan image should be clear to the users that it is clickable”
Video prototype
What I learned?
In this case study I learned about how important contextual inquiry is, unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to it because the site was closed but this made us realize how easy it could’ve been if we just went to the site and did the research. this was a really fun project for me I hope you enjoy it as well.
Thank you
