EXP with

user experience/user interface design

EXP with is the prototype of a mobile app to help you find, organize and share your best travel experiences. 

My role 

User Experience/User Interface Designer

Date

May–June 2016

Advisors

Danny Setiawan and Alison Bunce

 
 

PROBLEM

Travelers waste a lot of time looking for things to do and planning an itinerary.

They also have a problem trusting reviews and recommendations from unknown sources. 

 
 

User research

Based on my problem I performed a survey and interviews to find out: who was my audience, the travel apps they use, where and/or whom they get travel tips from, and what’s their travel and social media habits. I got survey responses from 45 people and interviewed 4 regular travelers. 

 

Survey key findings

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Quotes from interviews

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Interviews key findings

  • Most of the interviewees waste a lot of time looking for things to do when traveling and when they have last minute change of plans in their hometown.

  • Even though interviewees look for travel tips from apps like Yelp and TripAdvisor, they prefer to trust people they know or influential travel and food bloggers than reviews from strangers.

  • Interviewees enjoy using social media to discover new places to go and to share places they have been.

  • Check-in feature is valuable for users and help them keep track of places they have been to either come back or recommend to others.

 
 

Personas

Based on my user research I created two personas.

 
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Competitive analysis

I developed a competitive analysis with my main competitors: Foursquare, Yelp, Time Out, TripIt and Instagram. 

 
competitors.png
 

Solution

Based on user and competitors' research I decided to include these key features in the EXP with app: 

  • Search screen, where users can discover places to go based on recommendations from people they trust.

  • Home screen that shows the feed of the places users’ friends have been. Allow users to share posts and upload images, videos and audios of places they have been.

  • Profile screen, in which users can see their saved places and posts, and organize places into different categories to help them planning a trip.

  • Check-in into places and follow place or people features to measure the app’s success.

 
 

Build & Design

Before I started sketching and designing the prototype of the app, I created 2 main user flows and the site map.

 

User flows

user_flow.png

Site map

site_map.png
 

Prototype

After deciding what was important to include in the app, I started sketching and created a low fidelity prototype with POP app to test the user flows I created. Click here to see it. 

 
sketches.png
 

The next step was to create annotated wireframes and UI design. I designed the screens using Sketch, created animations on Keynote and used Invision to create the prototype. Click here to see the prototype

 

Wireframes

wireframes.png

Visual Design

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Usability testing

I tested my prototype with 5 different users.  

Key findings

  1. When I asked users to create a new post they were confused between the “camera” and “messages & notifications” icons on the bottom navigation menu. I will redesign the icons and implement tutorial on onboarding screens. 

  2. On search page, users expected to see highest ratings first. I will add this feature.

  3. On place page, users were confused and didn’t find the “Check-in” button right away. Some users tap the number of check-ins below the place’s image or the “Follow” icon. The solution is to move the “Check-in” button above “Follow” and “Save” buttons and create an icon for it. Also, I will redesign the “Follow” icon so “Follow” and Check-in" icons are distinct.

 
 
user_testing.png
 
 

Next steps

  • Design interface for business account

  • Design onboarding screens

  • Fix issues found during user testings

  • Marketing

  • Funding

  • Additional features