personalize

The one-in-all trip planning app aimed to enhance the solo & group travel planning experience.

Travelling with friends and loved ones can be fun, relaxing, and adventurous. Regardless of what kind of trip it is, there's the common goal of having an enjoyable trip. While planning a trip looks different for each traveller, it is often where the first point of conflict occurs.

As part of my UX research course, I dived deep into the travel space, learn about existing pain points and developed a solution. This was the first time where I started from a vague problem space, to identifying needs, crafting designs, and iterating (aka. overseeing the entire product creation process).

Role

UX Researcher

Product Designer

Timeline

May - July 2022

Tools

Figma

Miro

Google Suite

Overview

Problem

How might we help groups plan trips that satisfy both collective and individual desires?

Outcome

I designed an all-in-one travel app optimized for group trip planning.

End Result

Final Deliverables

After 2 months of research and design iterations, I worked on creating a customized experience for trip planning, including building research models and designing mobile app. The project aim to allow better collaboration through the use of "personas".

Why mobile app?

People have better access to mobile devices than laptop/tablet. As a result, it allows users to plan anytime, anywhere, which makes the planning process much more flexible and casual.

Personas

The first thing users will do is to create a "persona", aka a detailed travel profile that will be used to customize in-app experience.

Since most people aren't familiar with "personas", descriptions & the usage are provided.

Discover

Discover new places to visit and activities to do.

Be inspired by featured experiences & others’ journeys.

Recommendations based on the user's upcoming trips and their persona.

Trip Creation

Enter quick information to start planning.

Auto-generated Plan: a plan is generated baesd on user input & the person(s) of the user and trip buddies.

Planning space

A space for research & decision making.

Lounge: Group trip decisions are first automatically made based on everyone's priorities and preferences. Once the decisions are made, items get added to the detailed plan with the most optimized route

Individual Room: Perform individual research and rankings/priorities

Setting Expectation

What to expect for this project?

01

Extended Course Project

This is a course project where we learned about user centered research. All designs were done outside of the course independently.

Extended Course Project

This is a course project where we learned about user centered research. All designs were done outside of the course independently.

Extended Course Project

This is a course project where we learned about user centered research. All designs were done outside of the course independently.

02

Practicing Design Thinking

I applied the Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model to guide me throughout the project, from research to ideating solutions.

Practicing Design Thinking

I applied the Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model to guide me throughout the project, from research to ideating solutions.

Practicing Design Thinking

I applied the Analysis-Synthesis Bridge Model to guide me throughout the project, from research to ideating solutions.

03

Learning UX Research

One of my goals and achievements for the project is to understand how research models can inform design decisions.

Learning UX Research

One of my goals and achievements for the project is to understand how research models can inform design decisions.

Learning UX Research

One of my goals and achievements for the project is to understand how research models can inform design decisions.

Initial Discovery

With background research & survey studies, we found out that

Group trip planners typically struggle to stay motivated through the travel process due to a lack of communication regarding their personal preferences and boundaries.

Research Findings

Contextual inquiry (where we simulated group trip planning process) was conducted to understand user pain points & status quo.

01

Indecisiveness

Participants expressed strong preferences when planning independently. But when planning together, over 60% didn't state their preferences explicitly because they wanted to avoid conflicts.

Indecisiveness

Participants expressed strong preferences when planning independently. But when planning together, over 60% didn't state their preferences explicitly because they wanted to avoid conflicts.

Indecisiveness

Participants expressed strong preferences when planning independently. But when planning together, over 60% didn't state their preferences explicitly because they wanted to avoid conflicts.

"We are both pretty indecisive...but since we are both that way [her and her travel partner], we often have trouble choosing what to do."

02

Pressure to Agree

When ideas diverged, arguments tend to arise, resulting in one side feeling pressured to agree in order to lower the tension. Interestingly, in most cases, this side was younger and/or female.

Pressure to Agree

When ideas diverged, arguments tend to arise, resulting in one side feeling pressured to agree in order to lower the tension. Interestingly, in most cases, this side was younger and/or female.

Pressure to Agree

When ideas diverged, arguments tend to arise, resulting in one side feeling pressured to agree in order to lower the tension. Interestingly, in most cases, this side was younger and/or female.

"All we do is argue and I felt pressured to just agree with my brother."

03

Compromises

As a last resort, participants made compromises in order to avoid conflicts and move on with the planning process.

Compromises

As a last resort, participants made compromises in order to avoid conflicts and move on with the planning process.

Compromises

As a last resort, participants made compromises in order to avoid conflicts and move on with the planning process.

"I feel like I compromised because NYC wasn't where I wanted to go; I would rather have gone to Canada - I compromised with myself."

Modeling of Research Data

Affinity diagramming & empathy maps helped solidify new understanding of users and the entry points for a solution.

Note: Models built based on 8 interviews, ~150 data ponits, and 6 overarching themes.

8 interviews

Models built based on 8 interviews, ~150 data ponits, and 6 overarching themes.

~150 data ponits

6 overarching themes

Themes & Insights

Themes & User Needs

3 themes from Affinity Diagram Model were prioritized and further analyzed to identify user needs.

01

Conflict Resolution

When too much emotion is involved, planning gets inefficient and exhausting.

Most of the time, individuals resolve issues by making compromises or sacrifices of their own wants.

Individuals resolve conflicts faster when there is a rational third party that helps with decision process.

User Need

A fair strategy for determining a hierarchy of needs/wants across trip planners

02

Individual Perspective

Individuals prefer novelty in destination.

Researching can be either an exciting or boring part of traveling, depending on the person.

Browsing many websites & collecting all that information are very time consuming.

User Need

A centralized place for research & planning

03

Group Planning Dynamics

Significant delays in communication lead to frustration.

Some have more primary role in trip planning because of availability & experience.

User Need

Accommodation for both synchronous and asynchronous planning

Brainstorming Solutions

Using user insights and needs, we brainstormed with crazy 8s and created storyboard to conduct speed dating for idea validation & design direction.

Key Design Goals

Creates flexibility within the app so that it allows different user needs

Focus on building a safe, casual environment with customized trip planning assistance

Allows both synchronous collaboration and asynchronous work

Sketches

Ideation Flows & Low fidelity Sketches

Now that I have identified the user needs to tackle and key design goals, I mapped out simple app flows and sketched some key frames.

Connecting the Dots

Themes & User Needs

How research informs design.

When choosing a color scheme and designing each element of the pages, I referred to research insights so that every decision made had the intention to address user pain points & needs.

Learnings

Reflecting on the Project

This was a relatively quick turnaround time project, which challenged me to learn how to balance the amount of research needed to move on and how to design with intention.

01

Assumptions

I noticed that throughout the research phase, even though we tried to be as neutral as possible with our interview questions / summaries of insights, assumptions still feed into some of our decisions. Hence, practicing reverse assumption helped as identify misunderstandings & gaps of knowledge.

Assumptions

02

Intentional Design

In my past projects, many design decisions were made based on assumptions and user feedback. However, this time, most decisions were motivated by concrete user needs and research insights. This made me recognize the importance of and the relationship between research & design even more.

Intentional Design

03

If I had more time…

I would perform usability testing on the prototypes and iterate. I would also map out the user flows and app features in more detail. Lastly, I would work on developing responsive design for all devices and creating a comprehensive design system.

If I had more time…

I would perform usability testing on prototypes & iterate. I would also work on developing responsive design for applicable devices and creating a comprehensive design system.

nicole xiang

nicole xiang

nicole xiang

nicole xiang

personalize

personalize

The one-in-all trip planning app aimed to enhance the solo & group travel planning experience.

The one-in-all trip planning app aimed to enhance the solo & group travel planning experience.

Role

Timeline

Timeline

Tools

Tools

Overview

Problem

Outcome

End Result

Final Deliverables

Setting Expectation

What to expect for this project?

01

01

01

02

02

02

03

03

03

Initial Discovery

Group trip planners typically struggle to stay motivated through the travel process due to a lack of communication regarding their personal preferences and boundaries.

Group trip planners typically struggle to stay motivated through the travel process due to a lack of communication regarding their personal preferences and boundaries.

Group trip planners typically struggle to stay motivated through the travel process due to a lack of communication regarding their personal preferences and boundaries.

Research Findings

01

01

01

02

02

02

03

03

03

Modeling of Research Data

Affinity diagramming & empathy maps helped solidify new understanding of users and the entry points for a solution.

Affinity diagramming & empathy maps helped solidify new understanding of users and the entry points for a solution.

Affinity diagramming & empathy maps helped solidify new understanding of users and the entry points for a solution.

Note: Models built based on 8 interviews, ~150 data ponits, and 6 overarching themes.

8 interviews

Models built based on 8 interviews, ~150 data ponits, and 6 overarching themes.

~150 data ponits

6 overarching themes

Themes & Insights

Themes & User Needs

01

02

02

03

03

Brainstorming Solutions

Using user insights and needs, we brainstormed with crazy 8s and created storyboard to conduct speed dating for idea validation & design direction.

Using user insights and needs, we brainstormed with crazy 8s and created storyboard to conduct speed dating for idea validation & design direction.

Using user insights and needs, we brainstormed with crazy 8s and created storyboard to conduct speed dating for idea validation & design direction.

Sketches

Ideation Flows & Low fidelity Sketches

Connecting the Dots

Themes & User Needs

How research informs design.

Learnings

Reflecting on the Project

01

01

01

02

02

02

03

03

03

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