The Covid-19 pandemic has changed drastically in every aspect of peoples' lives. And yet, the tech industry is lagging behind to respond to the challenges. Take the travel industry as an example, people are forced to turn to destinations that are a car-ride away. However, the current tools available in the market for trip planning are missing this opportunity. In this case study, we take a look at how one might innovate for this new trend and adapt to the new norm of the pandemic.
The market is not accommodating to the new trends from the pandemic.
Travel planning tools are difficult to use if planning for a day trip.
Tools are not considering people's changed habits from the pandemic.
- Completed a day-trip recently
- Use apps or websites to research the trip itinerary
Understand what kinds of tools they use, how they use them before and during the trips, what are the pain points, what functions do they wish to have, and the reasons, and what has been changed in their process due to the pandemic.
Identify users pain points, goals, and motivations through the interviews, and understand what's been changed to accommodate to the pandemic.
The Affinity Map is the ideal tool to help the synthesis process - as similar notes are grouped together, the insightful pattern emerges.
100% of users express that they hope to spend less time in planning.
Some spent 2-3 hours in planning ahead.
" Planning takes longer than it should."
100% of users use two or more apps to plan a trip.
" I don't like to dig for information but they hide deep. Like I need to open a map to find the exact location of a picnic shelter. "
" I wish to have an App that understands personality and makes recommendations."
The unexpected closures or schedule changes due to the pandemic could disrupt the well-planned trip.
" Places are closed or schedules are changed due to pandemic."
" I look up for three options before the trip"
" Sometimes I start late for the day and the plan does not work anymore."
83% of the users express their positive feelings about going out for a trip.
" I enjoy the process and I try to absorb everything."
It turns out spending less time and energy on trip planning is only the surface problem to cure. The ultimate goal users are seeking is a sense of control.
Too many uncertainties arise during the pandemic era. An unexpected event or an ad-hoc adventure can easily obsolete the carefully planned itinerary. Therefore, the itinerary needs to be both intuitive and flexible to best suit the users' needs.
Coco and Liam are the primary users that whom the product will be tailored for.
Distilling from the research and synthesis, many problems are uncovered. Writing up an effective problem statement would help the team to focus on solving users’ most relevant problems and meeting their expectations. The problems could be summarized as:
- How might we provide the users with a streamlined planning process?
- How might we strengthen users’ sense of control?
- How might we help plan for the unexpected?
1. The smart search to provide recommendation
The App opens up with a click to see the destinations nearby, which greatly reduces users' effort for searching one. It provides destination recommendations based on the geographic location, and the users can further refine the search with the destination types, activities, driving time and etc.
2. Recommendation along the search to build up itinerary
The App provides smart recommendations based on the destinations to build up the itinerary efficiently. Users can easily add restaurants, galleries, and attractions along with the search without switching between apps.
3. Tracking the time and itinerary during the trip
As a trip assistant, DeJour is designed to accommodate the ever-changing schedule of real life. The app would track the time and location during the trip and send reminders and recommendations if the user is off from the itinerary.
It is fun to move on to the brainstorming process and start to sketch ideas that could solve the problems. There are many divergent thoughts from this exercise, but eventually, 1&2 is the solution to move forward with since they are most relevant to meet users' needs.
The user stories are created based on an understanding of users' problems and priorities. The priorities are :
- Help users to generate an itinerary efficiently
- Help users to cope with changes during the trip.
Now it is time to put down the ideas into tangible sketches for the screens that the user would interact with. This is the process I enjoy and I take several iterations before putting down the final version of the sketches for the two main red routes.
The rough sketch screens represent the initial ideas for the app and the task flows. I reached out to (5) people to conduct a Guerilla test through a Marvel prototype.
The feedback include:
01 Provide more exit points for user to feel in control.
02 Add more instruction points for users to understand the steps.
03 Add in time-tracking reminder.
The earlier screen design, translated directly from the wireframe, does not communicate well the design intent and feels cumbersome. After spending much time researching on styles and sketches through ideas, I did the following adjustments to achieve a better screen design:
1. Utilized shadows for button instead of an outline to convey the light weight design principles.
2. Only use primary and secondary colors to direct users attention, while use mostly neutral colors.
3. Adjust the propotion of images and let them speak for themselves.
4. Let the UI design to convey a clickable direction, instead of adding another button.
5. Create visual consistency.
With a better screen design that represents the brand identity, I move onto completing prototyping the two red routes for the App:
1) Set up an itinerary for an upcoming trip;
2) Use the App as an assistant during the trip.
With the prototype set up, I have recruited (5) users to conduct usability testing, to study if the users could complete the two red routes, and what are the frictions they would experience.
‘ Like the home page image and it has a vibe of outdoorsy app’
‘ Would like to see an overview of all trips first instead of a specific one ’
‘ Looking for a filter to start the search’
‘ Feel discourage to lon in during the trip creation process’
‘ Look for more recommendation for the destination’
De Jour /də ʒuʁ/ - Variation of du jour, from French du jour, "of the day" (French de jour means "for daytime" or "during daytime").
The core mission of DeJour is to encourage people to go outdoors and explore, therefore the design inspirations are drawn from nature, such as the earthy tone colors palette, and large images of natural scenery. The design strives to be passionate, easy-going, and effortless.
Always look deeper beyond what users want - there is the root of the problem.
A good UX design needs a good UI to support the holistic story.
Make incremental progress, test, and improvement.
Empathy with the users, but not trying to be the user.
