Project background, users and reserch findings

Trips and tips is a trip finding application whose target customer is adventurous and eager to go on a trip. Trips and tips app strive to deliver all information they can about possible trips and tips. Their target customers are tourists, usually young people who find themselves adventurous, curious. Their main problem is there are too many options to choose from or people simply don’t know where to go especially those from foreign countries. That’s why we came up with this trip app.  

“Trips and tips” is able to offer a concrete spectrum of suited trips and tips for a particular person.

The problem

The target customers of Trips and tips are typically adventurous people who don’t know where to go on a trip, because there are too many options or they simply don’t know very well the place they are located in. 

The goal

My goal was to design a trip app that is simple to use for literally everyone during travelling and moving from one place to another.

My role

My name is Matyas. I grew up in Prague, on the outskirts of town. Incidentally, my first hobby was drawing. I’ve always loved drawing but I wasn’t good at it. I didn’t have the graphic design side which could improve the overall look of anything I did on paper. 

I plan to continue discovering new things in my career as a UX designer and a website developer. As a designer, my goal is to meet users’ needs with engaging, simple designs; that’s what I like.. My dream is to make design so simple and easy to understand for every user of all types and backgrounds and still make it engaging.

My role in this project as a UX designer was to take ownership of the app’s design, from concept to delivery. My responsibilities included: foundational planning and research, user research, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, iteration, and the creation of a final high-fidelity prototype.

Challenges

The biggest challenge for me was to see the final app before actually doing something. I had some troubles choosing the right colors and making text legible.

Project duration

March 2021 to April 2021

Research

I conducted interviews with target users, then distilled what I learned into actionable steps. Then I used the insights I discovered to identify the biggest pain points my users were experiencing. I entered my research with a set of assumptions, but those assumptions changed as I spoke to real people who deal with the topic I was researching.

The most important pain points I uncovered were: 

• Most users struggle to tap on small-sized buttons
• Users want the option to search trips directly on map and at the same time they want to see details of the place
• Most users find reading long passages difficult and text illegible
• Users want the  option to share their trips with friends on facebook or instagram
• Most users want to rate trips and see recommendations of other users
• When planning a trip users want the option to set accommodation
• The app needs to do more to engage users

The information I uncovered helped me realize I needed to do more to make app more engaging and easier to use for anyone. Once I realized this, I had a much clearer idea of how to move forward.

Usability study

Study type: Unmoderated usability study

Location: Europe, remote (each participant went through the usability study in their own home)

Participants: Seven participants, each completing the study individually

Length: Each session was 5-15 minutes, based on a list of prompts

Results: Users had difficulty planning trips and directly interacting with maps. Older participants or participants with visual disabilities had difficulty reading the text and label text in the app. Users were also unsure of the reliability of trips because there were no ratings from other users. 

Initial design using 8 one-minute sketches

Accessibility considerations

For the Trips and tips app, the text on each page uses bigger text’s size, more ligble fonts and higher contrast for users with reading problems; also there would be and option for screen readers and voice assistant

What I learned

While designing Trips and tips app I met wonderful people during research. I’m grateful for every experience.

I learned that the first idease for the app are only the beginning of the whole process. I was amazed how hard it can be to come up with a good idea.

I was influenced especially by teachers from Google from UX/UI Design. I hope feedback and usability tests will help to improve the app so the app will become easier to use for every user.

I’m also thankful to peers who reviewed my assignments to improve app. I appreciate their feedback and their time.

I’m looking forward to more challenges.