Tripping
Jiaxin Hua
The Problem
Got some free time but don't know where to go?
For college students trapped on transportation and budget, it can be difficult to search an ideal location or activity to go with friends, especially when there are many unreal advertisements. But we all desire to go for a trip when we are heavy studying, and everyone has various things they want to do during the trip.
How might we make it easier for students and their friends group to plan their trip ahead?
User Research
After surveying several members of our target population (college students), we came to several key insights:
1. It will be a lot easier if friends can collaborate on making plans
2. The reviews on Yelp and GoogleMap are full of ads and not helpful
3. Focus more on the reviews with photos and bad reviews
4. Budget, Transportation and Safety are the three most important factors when planning
5. Lack incentives to write feedbacks and reviews
User Persona
Journey Map
Ideation
1. In daily life, many people hesitate when it comes to choosing a travel destination, but most everyday software fails to consider the indecisiveness of users. Can make a random choice function based on mood so it's like a survey that asks users to choose according to their mood, allowing even an indecisive person to plan a trip.
2. When traveling with friends, it's common for one person to take charge of all the planning, which can result in a lack of consultation and plans that don't meet everyone's requirements. If everyone can work together to create a plan, it can solve the above problem.
3. To make users have incentives to write reviews, can make a friends group that can see each others mood through emojis and colors instantly, and can also make votes such as 'Kiraku tonight?' so short trips or store visiting is easier. The app can also implement function to make pure text posts and set it only can be seen by some friends, and will set alert to everyone in the friends group when the post is out so that users will log on this app more and be more willing to share feedbacks because close friends can see.
Low Fidelity Prototype:
Insights From Usability Testing:
- What I Choose and Why:
I choose to elaborate the prototype on the friends group function and plan trip function. Because I think the friends group is really important to keep users using this app and it prompts their willing to share reviews after a trip or visiting a store, so I implement and advance the friends group function to let friends be able to chat and also share moments and status.
The moments allows users to submit mere text without photos posts (which I think is what Instagram lacks) and also posts with up to 9 photos (but putting less emphasis on the photos). Will show up in friends group page big square and can slide tp check.
The status allowing users to select a emoji from the given ones or from their own phone, and can have the freedom to choose the option to pick a photo and less than 20 words(can have merely emoji or emoji with a photo, can also add words if want to). This creates a really easy way to post things daily in less than a minute rather than Instagram you have to post something deliberately. Will show up in the friends group page circle next to each one’s photo.
I choose to elaborate the prototype on the friends group function and plan trip function. Because I think the friends group is really important to keep users using this app and it prompts their willing to share reviews after a trip or visiting a store, so I implement and advance the friends group function to let friends be able to chat and also share moments and status.
The moments allows users to submit mere text without photos posts (which I think is what Instagram lacks) and also posts with up to 9 photos (but putting less emphasis on the photos). Will show up in friends group page big square and can slide tp check.
The status allowing users to select a emoji from the given ones or from their own phone, and can have the freedom to choose the option to pick a photo and less than 20 words(can have merely emoji or emoji with a photo, can also add words if want to). This creates a really easy way to post things daily in less than a minute rather than Instagram you have to post something deliberately. Will show up in the friends group page circle next to each one’s photo.
The plan trip page will show the past plans and also past drafts, and have extensions so one don’t have to switch between different apps and open different devices or docs to record the plan. All in one app with real-time collaboration. Will also have contribution rank list so that everyone contributes to the plan and everyone can alter the plan to cater their taste.
Usability Testing Script
- Goals:
To find if the planning trip function works well, and the friends group posts can be easily found
Can you operate to start planning on a trip?
Can you operate to start chat with the friends group?
Can you quickly set a status of yours?
Can you find how are the members of the friend group doing today?
Can you see who contributes most to the plans?
Can you see the recent drafts of your plans?
User Feedback:
On the Friends Group Page, the circle perimeter originally shows everyone’s daily mood color and the click on the circle will just show the group chat name, but it’s not intuitive. So it is changed to that the click on the center will actually lead to the group chat name and click on each one’s picture will show there status.
Also the vote originally only exists in the Plan Trip Page, but the user feedback shows that users want to have the poll function also on the friends group page (so that it can be any topic not just about planning a trip), so the circle will show the latest poll that the member started.
And about the extension, I originally thought the 4 extensions(on the plan trip page bottom-right corner) can be about Map, Housing, Money Bag(show how much budget can be used), and Calculator, but the user recommends that instead of Calculator function, it is more useful and convenient to show how much each person owes another(because during trips the money are usually paid by one person) so he recommended the MoneySplit (that directly shows how much money is owe on which day) to replace the Calculator. This one is revoking and truly useful.
Also the vote originally only exists in the Plan Trip Page, but the user feedback shows that users want to have the poll function also on the friends group page (so that it can be any topic not just about planning a trip), so the circle will show the latest poll that the member started.
And about the extension, I originally thought the 4 extensions(on the plan trip page bottom-right corner) can be about Map, Housing, Money Bag(show how much budget can be used), and Calculator, but the user recommends that instead of Calculator function, it is more useful and convenient to show how much each person owes another(because during trips the money are usually paid by one person) so he recommended the MoneySplit (that directly shows how much money is owe on which day) to replace the Calculator. This one is revoking and truly useful.
