About the Project

Group travel is often a double-edged sword for folks. On the one hand, people enjoy traveling and experiencing new things thogether. On the other hand, individuals often have a hard time balancing their needs with the groups needs. These discrepancies can lead to a diminished group experience. It was within this scenario that we were able to define our opportunity space. How might help the individual travelers balance their needs with the group?

My Role

Research, visual design, wireframes, mockups, functional prototyping and usability testing

Tools Used

Sketch, InVision, user research, affinity mapping, persona, journey mapping

Research Overview

To begin the recruitment process, we designed a Screener Survey to identify users who travelled recently (within the past 3 months) and frequently (4+ times this year) via airplane.
After collecting our responses from the screener survey we identified our target participants. The participants identified had all travelled via airplane within the last 3 months for a variety of different reasons (i.e. International, Domestic, Business, Leisure etc.).
We sought out participants with a diversity of experiences since this was a generative research project. We interviewed a mix of men and women ranging from age 22 - 34. Most of the respondents were from the Greater New York City Area.

Research
Insights & Persona

Users enjoy traveling alone so they can be flexible, adapt on-the-go, and manage their budget regardless of others’ opinions
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However, users often travel with others to save on costs and to celebrate important life events (weddings, family reunions, bachelor parties etc.)
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Users value the company of others during group trips, but can get overwhelmed by constant company
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Users mention “alone time” or “mental breaks” as the highlight of their group trip
Users don’t want to “over-plan” a trip, but they struggle to navigate group preferences when they arrive at their destination
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Users struggle to speak up about their preferences because they don’t want to “rock the boat” or cause conflict among group mates
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Users feel like the group ends up doing whatever the most “vocal” people want to do

"Group travel is like herding cats"

Meet Hayley

ABOUT:
Hayley is a free spirit, to say the least. She likes the wind at her back and the unexplored horizons in front of her. Spontaneity is a virtue in Hayley's world. This can often run counter to her lack of assertiveness and desire to please everyone in her everyday life. Hayley appreciates art in it's many forms and aimlessly wandering.

‍SCENARIO:
Hayley is attending a bachelorette party in Barcelona with 10 friends. Her group has varying interests and cannot agree on the details of the trip. There is an underlying sense of tension about what to do and when to do it. Everyone is hesitant to take the initiative, further adding to the group’s anxiety.
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BEHAVIORS
Goes on group dinners and splits the bill evenly
Commiserates with others when something goes wrong
Takes pictures to document moments

PAIN POINTS
Feels drained spending to much time in groups
Doesn't want to plan or become the team leader
Struggles to speak up about what she wants to do
Has trouble managing different budgets among group mates
Attendees want to do different things

NEEDS
To take mental breaks from the group to stay sane
Flexibility to do fun activities but take breaks when needed

Journey Mapping

A journey map is a tool used to visualize the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal.
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We used this tool to further understand Hayley’s process and determine her pain points and possibilities for improvement.

Mid-Fidelity & User Flows

DASHBOARD
Add or suggest an activity from either the top navigation bar or a clickable button at the bottom of the group activities list.

Activities you have not voted on yet; quickly find more information or vote using the checkmark or ‘X’ buttons.

List of activities the group has voted on; includes activities you have not voted on yet as well (greyed out heart/x).

Quickly manage your group; at a glance, see who and what your group is interested in.

ADD ACTIVITY
See more information about an activity or add the activity to your group docket to be voted on.

Quickly add and search for activities for your group to vote on.

Based on location, recommendations from other groups that have gone on a similar

VOTE ON ACTIVITIES
Vote and see more information about the activities.

Confirmation box appears to show you’ve successfully voted.

Updated dashboard with newly voted on activity.

Usability Test Findings

FINDINGS
5 out of 5 users were successfully able to complete the “Voting” task. The users completed this task in an average of 20 seconds.

5 out of 5 users were able to complete the “Add Activity” task. The users completed this task in an average of 20 seconds.

ANALYSIS
Users found the “Voting” task both easy to use (Average Score: 5/5) & pleasant (Average Score: 4/5).

Users found the “Add Activity” task both easy to use (Average Score: 4/5) & pleasant (Average Score: 4/5).

RECOMMENDATIONS
Users wanted clarification on what the pricing button meant on the voting task. We recommend adding “Activity Price” to make user know what they would pay for the activity.

We recommend moving the “Add New Activity” button to the top of the list (instead of the bottom) for easier navigation.

We recommend adding a pop up showing they have completed add activity task and a page introducing the steps required for the app.

Reflections

This was a fun and challenging project to work on as travel is such a broad topic and deciding where to focus our energy was one of the more difficult parts. Sourcing users was the easy part but distilling what they had to say into actionable data that could be used to solve a real world problem was exciting and invigorating.

In the end I'm very pleased with how our team was able to work together and empathically design a solution for the modern group travelers pain points.

Travelbugs