Lazy Travelers

Prototype

Role

User Research, UX/UI Design, Branding, Prototyping, Usability Testing

TYPE

Mobile App

TIME

2023 Sep-Nov

Overview

Focusing on user experience, Lazy Travelers is a mobile app offering travel inspiration, efficient trip planning, and collaboration with fellow travelers.
Designed for both meticulous planners and spontaneous adventurers, Lazy Travelers simplifies your journey with all-in-one features, including a community, travel inspiration, planning tools, and an intuitive travel map.

Challenge

In the post-pandemic world, travelers are eager to resume exploration, prioritizing authentic local experiences and recommendations from locals and well-traveled friends. Flexibility in trip planning, with a focus on spontaneity and exploration, is paramount.
However, challenges arise when organizing transportation and optimizing itineraries amidst the myriad of travel platforms. Popular apps like Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and Airbnb are essential, but avoiding touristy spots in favor of authenticity remains a key goal. Despite this, travelers desire to craft their own itineraries and actively contribute to the travel community, fostering a spirit of independent exploration.

Secondary Research Findings

Demographics and Trends:
Backpacking and solo traveling have been on the rise, the average age is 24 years old, with a notable increase in backpackers over 30 years old since 2002. Language learning and immersing in local experiences are significant aspects of modern modern backpacking and solo travel.
- Dream Big Travel FarSafety and Concerns:
Concerns about getting lost are prominent, with safety being a priority for travelers.
Accommodation Trends:
Budapest is highlighted as a budget-friendly European destination for hostel accommodation. Around 21% of backpackers/solo travelers use Airbnb as their accommodation choice, and the majority of travelers stay in hotels or hostels.
- Dream Big Travel Far

User Interview - Affinity Map

Based on in-depth interviews with 10 travelers, a clear trend emerged.
Today's travelers prioritize authentic local experiences and rely on recommendations from both locals and well-traveled friends.
Flexibility in trip planning is a common theme, with a focus on spontaneity and exploration. However, challenges arise when organizing transportation and optimizing itineraries. While popular travel apps like Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and Airbnb play a role, the emphasis remains on avoiding touristy spots in favor of authentic experiences. What sets these travelers apart is their desire to craft their own itineraries and actively contribute to the travel community, emphasizing a spirit of independent exploration.

Interview guide

Affinity Map

Personas- Who Are Our Users?

I crafted 2 distinct personas based on our research findings - The Local Experience Seeker and The Spontaneous Explorer.

POVs

How can I discover genuine local experiences effortlessly and receive personalized recommendations that align with my preferences?
How can I maintain the joy of spontaneous exploration but not missing my train to the next location?
How I can do to make other travelers in the group feel easy to plan the trip together?

HMWs

How might we enhance backpackers’ access to authentic local experiences and recommendations?
How might we facilitate spontaneous exploration while ensuring efficient use of time and resources?
How might we help backpackers to have a better way to schedule a trip with other travel partners?

Business Canvas

By delving into the Business Canvas model, we dissect the key elements that drive the app's functionality and pave the way for its success. From strategic partnerships to revenue streams, we provide insights into how Lazy Travelers aims to create a harmonious blend of user experience and business sustainability.

Key Partners:
Establish strategic alliances with travel companies, influencers, and restaurants for exclusive deals and content sharing.
Key Activities:
Maintain the app, curate travel content, engage with users, and facilitate seamless plan sharing and interaction.
Key Resources:
Leverage a team of developers, content curators, and customer support to ensure the app's performance and user satisfaction.
Value Propositions:
Offer users easy travel planning, access to travel insights, and a social platform for sharing and gaining inspiration for trips, all in one app.
Customer Relationships:
Foster interactions between users, promote user engagement with content, and facilitate interactions with sponsored content and special offers.
Channels:
Utilize app stores for distribution and leverage digital marketing channels for user acquisition and retention.
Customer Segments:
Target a diverse user base, including casual travelers, backpackers, and travel enthusiasts, providing tailored content and features to each segment.
Cost Structure:
Manage expenses related to app development, maintenance, content creation, and marketing, aiming to keep costs efficient.
Revenue Streams:
Generate income through advertising, sponsored content, special deals, booking fees, and potentially through influencer partnerships to enhance the app's offerings and drive revenue.

Key Partners:
Establish strategic alliances with travel companies, influencers, and restaurants for exclusive deals and content sharing.
Key Activities:
Maintain the app, curate travel content, engage with users, and facilitate seamless plan sharing and interaction.
Key Resources:
Leverage a team of developers, content curators, and customer support to ensure the app's performance and user satisfaction.
Value Propositions:
Offer users easy travel planning, access to travel insights, and a social platform for sharing and gaining inspiration for trips, all in one app.
Customer Relationships:
Foster interactions between users, promote user engagement with content, and facilitate interactions with sponsored content and special offers.
Channels:
Utilize app stores for distribution and leverage digital marketing channels for user acquisition and retention.
Customer Segments:
Target a diverse user base, including casual travelers, backpackers, and travel enthusiasts, providing tailored content and features to each segment.
Cost Structure:
Manage expenses related to app development, maintenance, content creation, and marketing, aiming to keep costs efficient.
Revenue Streams:
Generate income through advertising, sponsored content, special deals, booking fees, and potentially through influencer partnerships to enhance the app's offerings and drive revenue.

User Objectives & Solution

Inspiration and Exploration:
Design features that inspire users with travel ideas and make it easy for them to explore destinations, activities, and local experiences.
Efficient Trip Planning:
Create a design that streamlines the travel planning process, including itinerary organization and collaboration with fellow travelers.
Community Engagement:
Foster a sense of community and interaction among users through the design, allowing them to share experiences, plans, and insights.

Wireframes with User Flows

Scenario 1: Sarah, a spontaneous traveler, tends to avoid detailed trip planning and prefers to explore on the go. With her flight to Taiwan just a day away, she's looking to gain some last-minute inspiration from fellow travelers to make the most of her upcoming adventure.

Scenario 2: Alex and his friend Bob are on a journey together. They jointly oversee their travel plan but aren't fond of a strict daily schedule. They appreciate having the flexibility to include activities spontaneously as they explore the city. They also value some solo time within their plan.

Low/Mid-Fi Wireframe

High-Fi Wireframes

After a series of valuable group critiques, aimed at refining the user experience, functionality, and visual appeal of Lazy Travelers, we moved into the high-fidelity wireframing phase.

PICK UP QUICK INSPIRATION
On the Home/Feed page, users can explore events and locations shared by travelers worldwide. They have the flexibility to choose entire plans or customize their own by blending elements from various travelers' plans. The system personalizes the feed based on users' onboard selected interests, even before they connect with friends or fellow travelers. In addition to user-generated content, the feed also includes ads and special deals.

EASY NAVIGATION ON THE GO
In addition to bookmarking events and locations from the Home section, users can perform specific searches for cities, travelers, or activities. Without requiring the user to input a location, the system will automatically display activities and restaurants near the user's current location on Search page. While users are on their trip, they can access all their bookmarks and planned spots on the Explore/Map page. Furthermore, they can utilize filters to meet their specific requirements. This feature addresses the challenge travelers face when dealing with an excessive number of bookmarks on Google Maps, which lacks the ability to categorize and provide detailed information for each bookmark.

COLLABORATION AND organization
Within the Explore/Map Page, users have the capability to track their travel buddy's location and visualize their planned activities and locations in chronological order on the map. On the Plan Page, users can collaboratively edit their travel itinerary. This includes rescheduling the sequence of activities, altering transportation options, removing items from the plan, and adding new ones.

Hi-Fi Wireframe V.1

USABILITY TEST PLAN

Product Under test
"Lazy Travelers" Travel mobile App
‍
Business Case
"Lazy Travelers" aims to provide backpackers and travelers with a comprehensive platform for planning, exploring, and sharing their travel experiences. The business case revolves around enhancing user engagement, enabling seamless travel planning, and fostering a vibrant travel community.
‍
Test Objectives:

Evaluate if users can effectively add activities from other users' shared plans to create their own plans.
Assess the usability and functionality of the explore map feature in real-time travel planning.
Measure the ease of rescheduling activities within a user's plan.
Determine if the virtual branding aligns effectively with the brand values.

The answers will provide insights into the effectiveness of these features and help identify any areas that may require improvement to enhance the overall user experience.
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Participants
5-10 travel enthusiasts in age group 27-40
‍
Equipments
Laptops and phones.
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Test Tasks:

Sign Up and OnboardingExplore shared plans from other users, select an interesting activity, and add it to their own plan.
Add a ticket confirmation to a planned activity and view the details.
Access saved restaurant options and add a preferred one to their plan.
Navigate the map feature to view their planned activities in chronological order.
Edit an activity and make changes to the transportation method. Then, they will delete an activity from their plan.

Responsibility
Test facilitator/observer- Pei
‍
Dates
All the tests will be finished before Nov 3rd.
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Procedure:

Welcome/Introduction(5 minutes)
Pre-Test Questionnaire(5 minutes)
Carry out the Test Tasks(20-30 minutes)
Post-Test Interview(10-15 minutes)
Debrief and Closing(5 minutes)

Feedback Capture Grid

Following a comprehensive usability test with feedback from 7 users, we have compiled valuable insights and suggestions in our Feedback Capture Grid. This grid serves as a roadmap to address user concerns and enhance the user experience for Lazy Travelers.

Feedback Capture Grid

Findings

The "Lazy Travelers" app has resonated with users who appreciate its organizational features, especially the map functionality that keeps travel plans in check.
The map's ability to showcase bookmarks and must-do activities along the plan, as well as display friends' locations, has garnered praise. And for users who don’t like to plan, they enjoy “stealing” the quick travel inspiration from other travelers’ experience with one click.
‍While users commend the app's strengths, they also provide valuable insights for improvement. Suggestions include enhancing the visibility of key CTA “Add to My Plan”, simplifying buttons and icons, and considering feature adjustments to streamline the app's interface.

What’s next?

Enhancing Visibility and Accessibility:
In response to user feedback, our key objective is to enhance the placement and design of essential call-to-action buttons, with a specific focus on the 'Add to My Plan' feature. We are also in the process of reevaluating the 'Add A Ticket' functionality to ensure it delivers a valuable user experience or, if necessary, considering its removal. Additionally, we plan to include labels under navigation bar icons to provide further clarity, especially with regard to the 'plan' icon.
Introduce a Map Legend:
Enhance the user's understanding of the distinction between 'bookmarked' and 'planned' pins.

Iteration From User Findings

Leveraging the insightful feedback from our users, we embarked on a series of iterative refinements. These adjustments included optimizing the 'add to the plan' call-to-action button, ensuring alignment across all buttons, and establishing a consistent logic where the 'x' serves as a dismiss action, and the 'v' signifies confirmation etc.

Introduce a Map Legend
We've enhanced the Map page by introducing a visual legend with color-coded pins for clear location indications. Additionally, we've added a route path to assist users with navigation.

Enhancing Accessibility
We've improved user guidance by adding small text beneath the navigation bar icons. For the 'add to the plan' call-to-action, we've maintained the circular button design while introducing text to assist users in taking action.
For the next slide, we also rearrange a couple component in order to enhance the visibility and accessibility.

Confirmation before deleting
Beside changing the wording from "Reschedule Activity Times" to "Edit Schedule" on the Plan page, we added the confirmation step to avoid user deleting events/locations by accident.

Insights

Throughout the development of Lazy Travelers, I learned there are diverse needs for different travelers. For instance, spontaneous users may not extensively utilize the "Plan" feature but find immense value in the map's bookmark display and filtering options. The app's versatility allows last-minute planners to craft their unique itineraries by leveraging shared plans from the community.
Despite the app's rich feature set, the key takeaway revolves around adhering to the essence of "Lazy Travelers." The brand aims to be inclusive, offering assistance to users regardless of their planning proficiency. By fostering a community where users willingly share their travel "recipes" and insights, Lazy Travelers becomes a welcoming space for those seeking collaborative travel experiences.
Additionally, user feedback underlines the importance of considering existing user habits. Some users may prefer their established methods, highlighting the need to incorporate incentives, promotions, or special offers to attract users towards adopting new practices. This insight prompts future considerations for integrating features that align with users' habits and preferences, ensuring the app remains engaging and valuable.
In essence, Lazy Travelers has evolved not just as a travel planning app but as a dynamic platform that embraces diverse travel styles while staying true to its ethos of simplicity and community collaboration.

Lazy Travelers

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