GOA travel organiser app

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Problem Statement

While traveling can be an enjoyable and mind-expanding experience, keeping track of all the details that go into planning a trip can by tedious.

An itinerary can grow into an awkward flow of hotels, flights, budgets and site seeing.

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Project Goal

A collaborative travel app that simplifies the planning of group trips.

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Research Contextual behavior

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Competitor Analysis

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Key Features Forward hotel, airline, car rental, and restaurant confirmation emails to trip it to create an instant itinerary.Access itineraries anytime, on any device.Get directions, maps and weather for each destination.Sync trip plans with your Google Calendar or Outlook.Add or edit plans manuallyShare trip plans via email or social media.

Trip it Pro For frequent travelers, TripIt Pro ($49/year) features real-time flight alerts, seat tracker, flight finder, refund notifications, and point tracker.

Shares travel plans.Real-time flight status for flights.Pushed Flight alerts, reminders and searches.Access your entire past trips information from within the app. Mapping & Navigation Quickly view the next item on your trip right from the device’s home screen.Hotel and bookings“Price Alerts” and “Counter Offers” Reserve a rental car Airport pickup, make limo, town car and van reservations.Express Booking Weather forecast.Currency converter with daily updates.World clocks.

Add all your trip details (flight, dinner reservations, hotel, meetings, etc.)Send your trip confirmation emails to Trip Case or add the details manually on your computer or mobile device.Combine bookings from multiple sources into one itinerary.Edit and delete items.Access important messages and free flight alerts based on your trip details.Discover exactly how long your layover is within the flight details of your trip.Add notes to your itineraryShare with friends, family and colleagues.Easily locate weather, driving directions, seat maps, alternate flight options and phone numbers.View your past and current trips in two different tabs.

A collaborative travel marketplace with offers to stay, eat and do, simplifying the planning and reservation of group trips.The application facilitates social interaction among travelers and hosts, decision-making within the group, online group booking and individual payment among all trip-mates.Allows you to reserve everything from beds to bike tours in a handful of popular cities. You create your vacation starting with your travel dates and your city of choice. Many of the activities and accommodations are offered by small businesses or people looking to make a little extra money by sharing their homes. The activities are geared towards a young, adventurous crowd.

Online experience and overall aesthetics

Desktop and mobile.Lots of elements competing for attention.

Corporate looking.Lots of elements competing for attention.

Cleaner more basic landing page. Infinite scroll website Images and vector art are a dated

Login/sign up Sync emails to your account. Email signup or with Facebook or Google plus.

To start using TripCase, you’ll need to sign up for an account and then click a link inside the verification email. I didn’t like that I couldn’t start using it right away, but the registration process didn’t really take that long.

Email sign-up or through Facebook.Nice comment under Facebook sign-up that they wont post anything without your permission.

Pros Free. Trip It figures out what to do with info and can stick it to the side until you can review and type in the details manually.

Free. The app lets you search for local services (from Yelp) and hotels (from Hotels.com), and you can quickly view weather forecasts and currency conversions. You can also perform some simple edits of your itinerary from within the app and share your plans with others.

FreeCreates travel itineraries based on email confirmations you forward. Clean interface. Great features. Free.

The ability to coordinate and stay connected with your fellow trip-mates. The ‘host’ of the trip can add activities to an interactive itinerary, trip-mates can vote and comment on different ideas, and, best of all, the trip costs can be divided and paid online.

Cons Basic map function, no off-line option for local searching.

WorldMate didn’t recognize some of the travel documents we forwarded, even though they were from popular travel sites.

No app only mobile site.Only features certain cities.

Desktop only.Can only choose from nine cities around the world to create itineraries.

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Competitor Analysis Takeaway

Huge amount of features

Auto fill option from email bookings

Ability to book and search

through the app

Suggested itinerary for certain cities

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Interview questions and responses

Have you ever used a travel organiser app? If yes, what was it called and what was your experience using the app? If no, would you use one and what features would you find helpful as traveler?

“No have never used a travel organiser app/didn’t know there was such a thing…guess that’s my age/generation.”

“In my opinion it should have a location based feature, budget tracking, ability to have a hierarchy of information ..., like must do, maybes etc. Ability to have as much info in the one place with key contact information, budget...Reminders/calendar feature do it can tell you why you’re doing each day or that you need to book a certain pass at a certain time” “A good travel app should have the functionality of a good to-do list organiser app in my opinion. It should allow you to plan at a high level and then move onto the detail once you’ve got a basic plan.” “I think it would be amazing to have an app that connects with all the others to track your bookings. It would have to be really simple to link in otherwise you wouldn’t bother.”

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Survey questions

1. Are you male or female?• Male• Female

2. How old are you?• under 18• 18-24• 25-34• 35-44• 45-54• 55-64• 65 or older

3. On average do you travel;• Alone• With your partner• With friends• With family

4. What is your main purpose for traveling?• Business• Pleasure• Both

5. Have you ever used a mobile travel app?• Yes• No

6. How often do you use a travel agent when making vacation plans?

• Always• Most of the time• About half of the time• Once in a while• Never

7. What parts of the travel planning process do you conduct on your mobile?

Select one or more from the below:• Read traveler reviews• Booked and or researched flights• Researched restaurants• Researched activities• Researched destinations• Other (please specify)

8. Do you share your travel plans through social media?• Yes• No

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4. What is your main purpose for traveling?

5. Have you ever used a mobile travel app?

6. How often do you use a travel agent when making vacation plans?

1. Are you male or female?

3. On average do you travel;

2. How old are you?

7. What parts of the travel planning process do you conduct on your mobile?

8. Do you share your travel plans through social media?

accommodation

flights

Survey results 35 respondents

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Survey TakeawayOut of the 35 respondents

only one person said on average they travel with friends, but 18 out of the

35 said they travel with their partner

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Project Goal

A travel organiser app that helps sort all your important details into an easy to

navigate visual design while on the move.

New

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Survey questions (Take two)1. Do you classify yourself as an organised person? • Yes• No

2. What kind of organised are you? • I’d leave my head behind if it wasn’t screwed on!• I go as far as grocery lists• I write lists for my lists• Someone else organises for me• Other:

3. What kind of traveler are you? • I just wing it• I pack my bag the night before• I organise most things at least a

couple of months before• Other:

4. How do you find planning a trip? • Fun and easy• Stressful and hard to decide on what to do and where to go• I don’t plan at all, I just go!

5. Before you visit a new destination, do you conduct research and make a list of things to see and do, so that your time on holiday is well spent?

• Yes• No

6. Out of the following what do you research and pre-book before leaving to travel?

• Accommodation• Site-seeing and Activities• Transport• Budget

7. I’m interested in how do you plan your trips, could you describe your process in a few sentences? - Comments

8. Have you ever forgotten to check or do something before traveling which has turned into a problem? - Comments

9. What does your itinerary look like before traveling?• Jumble of booking emails in no specific order• Spreadsheet with days mapped out• I don’t use an itinerary its all in my head 10. What do you wish you were more organised with before

leaving to travel? - Comments

11. How would you prefer to view your itinerary while traveling?• A calendar broken down to day by day• An overview of your whole trip with drop-down selections• Both of the options above 12. What details of your itinerary would you like to see while traveling? 13. Would it be helpful to see budget updates while you are traveling?• Yes• No 14. Is following a budget during traveling important to you?• Yes• No 15. What devices do you take with you while traveling?• Smart Phone• Tablet• Laptop 16. Do you have any must have apps while traveling? - Comments

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Combined Findings - Surveys

Most users travel with their partner or alone.

People use multiple apps while traveling.

Most users say following a budget is important.

I would like to see my itinerary broken down both day by day and an overview.

Users would like to see accommodation, flights and site-seeing as top line information

Opportunities

“I’m afraid of not having a place to stay”

“I depend on my partner to much to organise things, I should take more responsibility”

“Missed my flight”

“Running out of money”

A large amount of users found planning a trip hard and stressful

Pain Points

Users do not travel in groups in the 25-34 age group.

Users travel for pleasure rather than business.

Most users classify themselves as organised.

Most users pre-book their accommodation before traveling.

Surprises and additional considerations

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InsightsInterpret and understand

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Target Audience

Tech savvy

Multi-taskers

Organised

Work/life balance

Travels often for pleasure

Gen Y

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User Descriptions/Personas

John

Key characteristics:Age: 27 Gender: MaleMarital Status: Single

Background:John is a 27 year old Melbournite, he works as a draftsman on large apartment projects in Melbourne CBD. He is planning on traveling through Asia and Europe for six months by himself and will meet friends along the way.John has done a few trips in Australia and over to New Zealand but nothing broader internationally and is not sure what to plan for a such a long trip and wants to keep a track of his budget.He owns multiple devices and only wants to take his smart phone traveling as he doesn’t want to carry around other bulky devices.

Habits and behaviors:Shares travel plans with friends on Facebook and while on holiday shares photos on Instagram.

Likes:Social media

Dislikes:Tedious nature of pre-planning trips.Push notifications and emails from apps.

User goals:Keeping track of what his daily expenses are while traveling.

“Because I’m traveling for six months I want to keep a close track on my day to

day budget and spend overall“

Tech savvyTravel frequency

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User Descriptions/Personas

JessicaKey characteristics:Age: 32 Gender: FemaleMarital Status: De-facto relationship

Background:Jessica is a 32 year old Account Manager, based in South Melbourne. She has lived overseas and is well traveled.She likes to take time off work for overseas trips with her partner at least twice a year and also travels internationally for work.She has a smart phone and carries it in her pocket or purse while traveling, when traveling for work she will also bring a laptop or tablet.

Habits and behaviors:Wants to see what her itinerary looks like at a glance.

Likes:Experiencing different cultures and seeing new sites.

Dislikes: Keeping track of the details that go into planning a trip.

User goals:To create a detailed itinerary before her trip with everything she has booked, so when traveling she can keep track.

“I always pre-plan all my personal over-seas trips as much as I can.“

Tech savvyTravel frequency

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Feature prioritisation and MVP

Low effort High effort

Essential

Nice to have

Flight reminders

Flight tracker

Mobile flight check-in

Flight refunds

Seat preferences

Locate alternate flightsTrack reward points

Share on social media

Online and off-line maps

Packing list

Calendar

Notes

Weather Printable PDFs

Group login

Document upload

Accommodation booking

Locate alternate accommodation

Car hire booking

Activity booking

Travel confirmation emails

Suggested customisable itineraries

Nearby recommendations for activities

Expense trackingFlight infoAccommodation info

Site-seeing info

Currency converter

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ConceptsIdeate and iterate

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Navigation - User flow

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Paper prototyping - User flow

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User testing

User task:

You have just booked flights overseas with your partner and you want somewhere to collaborate all your details.

You just downloaded the ‘Go’ travel organiser app to create a travel itinerary.

1. Create a login.

2. Enter your destination name and dates.

3. Add your flight details to the app.

4. View day one of your itinerary.

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Design The experience

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Visual Process

AxurePOPPaper Photoshop

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Visual Design

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Persona User Flow

Jessica opens the app

She clicks on create a new trip

She then fills in her travel

destination and dates

She arrives at the dashboard where

the dates are pre-populated

“I’ve booked a flight to Japan I want to add this to my itinerary”

She then clicks add plans

to show the dropdown menu

She clicks the arrow to select the type and fills in details

She clicks flight Once saved her flight is now

under her day 1

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Happy travels