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Creating The NOMAD
Travel App
Trainer Based Project
Overview
Travel is about going to new places, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and reconnecting with yourself. Nomad is a fictitious travel app that focused on creating safer travel itineraries for solo travelers looking to connect with other people. The ideation NOMAD was part of a Bootcamp Design Challenge where the goal was connecting a traveler (User A) with a service provider (User B).
The Process
MY ROLE
UX DESIGNER
UX RESEARCHER
(TEAM OF 4)
TOOLS
FIGMA
MIRO
PROJECT DURATION
SIX WEEKS
The Challenge
Part of our objective was to discover like-habits, behaviors and pain points surrounding solo traveling through an app. Our challenge was how could we actually create a sense of security from merely using an app? How could we gain user trust and was it logistically feasible to create such technology. What features would potetial users would be looking for and in what was ways could we deliver.
Who Is Our User?
Behavioral Archetype
Our team wanted to imagine who we were creating for. Leading with an empathy first approach we imagined what our thoughts fears and outside our own experiences what users may feel when planning a trip. Through collaboration we were able to create or Behavioral Archetype.
Research
Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Affinity Mapping
RESULTS
We received 35 response. On scale of 1-5 only 8.6% of people feel extremely safe traveling alone and 17.1% feeling somewhat safe; That suggests to us that most people, 74.3% feel either scared or uneasy traveling alone. More than half of the people we surveyed enjoy doing a combo of group and solo activities highlighting that there is an appeal to traveling alone or having alone time while traveling. 78.3% of people use recommendations from friends and online research to plan their vacation showing that they want a trusted source to assure themselves of a successful itinerary. 47.8% people enjoy a combination of different types of dining options illustrating that people really enjoy diversity in an itinerary. With these results we are able to prioritize possible features of the app based on what was most important to the majority.
Ideation
Lead with the user's need in mind, we were able to prioritize key features that were important to users based on surveys. For example, an extremely easy yet secure login process, this lead us to the idea of incorporating Face ID sign-in through an already created account such as Google, Apple, Social media etc.
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The team discovered the necessity for a 24/7 help line that could assistance solo travelers at anytime during the planning of the trip and the actual trip. Solo Travelers are more vulnerable and feel more vulnerable on their vacation and we want the app to help alleviate that feeling and provide a real service that could actually help users in a crisis.
WIRE FRAMES
Low-Fi
Hi-Fi
User Testing
User Insights
Both user tests expressed the desire to connect with other "Nomads" that are traveling in the same city.
Both user tests wanted the itinerary tab to be built out more and include more information. For example, they both wanted insights about timing. Chris wanted to know how long an activity or meal would take whereas Virginia would like to know how far away her activities are from one another. Both User tests were able to navigate the app ok. They both were able to complete the tasks of moving from homepage to other landing pages.
Final Thoughts
FÍN
Users seemed to be confused on next steps in regards to completing some tasks. Users would have preferred to see a more built out itinerary. Though we wanted “safety” to be the focus, it turns out building an efficient itinerary was a little more important. So the Sandlot Group’s next step will be to reiterate by changing the layout of the landing page, and add more tools within that section of the app in order to better meet the needs and expectations of our Nomads.
