Project

The Travel Planner

This is my final capstone project and I wanted to pick something that I was interested in. Starting last year, I had the opportunity to travel more. During the pandemic, I would just take small trips such as short road trips. These required minimal planning. But as I took longer and farther trips, this reminded me of how stressful it was to plan a trip. I used Google Excel to plan out everything for those trips, but it didn’t have the aesthetic appeal, which lead to me not being motivated to sit down and do a thorough planning. Hence, all of the last minute planning that I had to do. I wanted to design an app that combines all of the important travel information such as accommodations info, car rental, flight info, budget tracker, and itinerary all in one. When you’re traveling, it can be stressful and you might not have the time to pull out different apps to pull up information. I wanted this “app” to eliminate that problem.

We were given the task to create a minimum viable product (MVP). I chose to create a travel planning app that combines all of the important information all in one application. We had total of 2 weeks to complete out this project.

My Role

UX Researcher

Branding

UX/UI Designer

Problem Statement

There are different types of people when it comes to planning for a trip. Those who just wing it and those who plan everything out. Most people use an excel sheet and plan things out. But this process can be daunting and a little boring. The travel planner app will let you have all of the key information all in one place. It will also get you excited for your upcoming trip with its aesthetics. 

Research Goals

• Understand the purpose of a travel planning app

• See common features and themes

• Discover each apps MVP

• See what makes each app unique

Methodology

• Competitive Analysis

Results

• These apps provides and easy way to plan for trips

• They all have an itinerary and ability to collaborate with friends

• Only 1 of the competitor has a spending tracker

Research Goals

• Understand why users use an app to plan out their trips

• Uncover any pain points when using a travel planning app

• Discover what features users are looking for in an app

Methodology

• User Interviews

  • I interviewed those who travel on a regular basis and also those who only travel sometimes

Results

• All users expressed that they mainly use an app to help lessen the amount of apps they need to pull up when they’re traveling - It also helps decrease the stress in planning

• All users expressed that they want an app to have a built in google function where they can look up recommendations for food and activities

• Most users expressed that they want the app to hold their flight/hotel/and car information

Creating the framework

I started off by creating an app map to give myself a general sense of the layout of the app. I wanted to keep the navigation minimal so Stephanie can easily navigate whenever she’s on the go.

Now that I have the app map planned out, I started sketching out some 2 variations of the homepage. I went with the one on the right. I wanted the homepage to be something that gives travelers inspiration for their next trip.

In order to identify the Travel Planner’s brand identify, I started off by defining the core characteristics which is: easy, travel, and fast. With this in mind, I was able to design the logo, typography, color palette, and what type of pictures will be used throughout the app.

Wireframes

With the initial framework down, I went into Figma to create the wireframes. I created: homepage, start a trip, trip itinerary, COVID information, explore page, and explore details

Designing a travel planning app

With the initial wireframes done, I was able to move onto the designing stage. I started off by creating what I had for the wireframes and created more screens when needed. These additional screens will be used when I get to the usability testing phase

01/04

Add Expenses

Users are able to track their spendings on trips through this easy to use budget tracker. They’re able to set a budget for a trip and for each expenses logged, users are able to visually see how close they are to their budget

Prototype

For the prototype, I asked 4 users to complete out the 4 different tasks that I created

• Start a trip - This was divided between

  • Users haven’t started a trip yet

  • Users start a trip first and then start planning

  • Users have multiple trips started

• Add expenses to your budget tracker

Usability Testing

At the end of the usability test, I asked each user about their thoughts regarding the designs and if they experienced any difficulties. All of the users were able to complete out the 3 tasks easily. With this feedback, it tells me that I didn’t need to iterate anything with the current designs

Next Steps

Due to the time constraint, I was limited on what I could create. Originally, I also wanted to add the ability to collaborate with friends on trips as well, but I quickly realized that this would have lengthen the project and that I wouldn’t finish it within the 2 week timeframe. If this was a real project, then I would add this feature during the next design launch. I would also add a social feature as well. You’re able to see other traveler’s curated trips and either like/comment on it.