The Problem

Traveling with others can be challenging because it requires communication, planning, and compromise.

Did you know?

People are willing to travel alone.

But do they want to?

Many are drawn to group tours.

Here's the story

I wanted to learn how people travel with others so I could help them connect with other travelers without them having to plan alone.

I began to ask questions

I interviewed participants from all different professional backgrounds and asked them to share their experiences with planning a trip and traveling with others.‍

The interviewees all had different levels of travel experience. Their common ground was that they had each been on a trip within the last 12 months, and were open to and interested in traveling.

I started analyzing the data

Themes I discovered

Tours

Tours provide a way to travel without planning. You travel with other people on tours.

Compromise

Travelers feel they have to compromise in some way to travel with others.

Companionship

Travelers would prefer to travel with other people. However, they are picky about who they travel with.

Planning

Most travelers prefer not to over-plan their trip. It is challenging to get others involved in planning.

People enjoy traveling, but don’t want to plan their own trips. They also prefer traveling with others but don’t want to have to compromise their dream trips.

What I learned

Who would benefit?

I thought about different ways to solve this problem. I thought about how I could connect those who don’t like the planning aspect of travel with those who do.

So I did some thinking

There was a need for a digital product that provides users with a way to create trips of their own, join trips that have already been planned, and generally connect with other travelers.

I Identified

This is how Touro was created

I identified the 4 primary features that would be the most vital to the product’s purpose and put all my energy into developing these four actions.

The primary features

Create account

Create trip

Browse trips

Join
trip

I analyzed how users would interact with the product and created three primary task flows: creating an account, creating a trip, and joining a trip.

User task flows

Create an account

Create a trip

Join a trip

Referencing the user task flows I had created, I began to sketch designs for the primary features.

It was time to take out the sketch pad

Mobile first

The product was developed with the mobile first approach to guarantee the core features were functional on any device.

CRUD design

The trip creation process was designed in a way that allowed users to create, read, update, and delete their itineraries.

Account creation

Trip creation

After multiple crumpled up pieces of paper, I had a concept and sketches of what I wanted to do.

So I got to work, creating mid-fidelity wireframes and bringing my sketches to life.

Account creation & trips wireframes

The wireframes below showcase the original account creation process as well as some key screens for trips.

Trip creation wireframes

These are my original wireframes for the trip creation process. However, iterations were needed to properly incorporate the CRUD method.

After creating the original wireframes, I identified some areas that could be improved. The changes made were focused around user actions and ensuring the trip creation process was familiar and easy to use.

Finalized wireframes

Account creation iterations

I decided to separate each step of the account creation process to make it easier for users to follow along. Additionally, I revised the progress bar making it simple yet effective in indicating the steps that remain.

Trip creation iterations

I altered my original wireframes to better apply the CRUD method, ensuring that the users who want to interact with the product can create trips, edit them, and delete them. Using a more simplistic approach to the creation process, users interact with one action at a time in the process.

After making my edits and completing the high-fidelity wireframes, I was ready to turn it into a prototype and head back to collecting user insight and data.

It was time to test the prototype

Goals

I wanted to know if the trip creation process was user-friendly and intuitively designed. Additionally, I wanted to identify the friction points between users finding and joining a trip.

Overview

I asked participants to complete three tasks:
‍
1. Sign up & create an account
2. Create a trip
3. Find & join a trip

It took users an average of 13 minutes to complete the three tasks. I collected all the user feedback and identified that users were having a hard time understanding how to locate the create a trip feature.

There's always room for improvement

Feedback

Prioritization

Homepage

Originally, the only way to access the create a trip feature was to select it from the trips section within the menu.

I received a lot of feedback about it being challenging to find, so I added a button to the homepage.

Profile creation

After creating their accounts, the first prototype offered users the option of going to either the homepage or their profiles.

I changed this to offer users the ability to instantly begin creating a trip after they make an account.

What I took away from this case study

Research

Keep an open mind during the research phase and be open to having to change your hypothesis and product based on your findings.

Be unique, but familiar

Although you want to stand out, it’s important to focus on a UX/UI design that people are familiar with using.

Feedback & iterations

Be open to iterating and receiving user feedback at every phase of the process.

Features

Focus on the core features and make sure they work correctly before beginning to work on adding additional features.

Traveling with others can be complicated.