It is a full-fledged booking system for users, to make the travel planning of a social
group convenient and organised.
Product Objectives
A platform where anyone can plan their travel and itinerary while discussing with their friends. Users can create a group and start exploring where they want to tour, discuss, plan and then book at the same time.
Core of the product - planning, collaboration, chatting(social) and fun
Book multiple options - Flights, Hotels, Rentals, Cafe's etc
Real-time discussions with friends about the bookings
Brainstorming Problems
Gave us an upper hand on analyzing our understanding of the product and kept us on the same page while formulating solutions for the problems.
How might the user want to plan a road trip with friends?
How might we let us user chat and book about the ticket at the same time?
How might a user want to plan a trip by train from Paris to Nice?
How might we automate the data so that user don’t have to fill it again & again?
How might we make sure every feature is within the reach of the user and is detailed?
How might a user rent a car or an RV?
How each of the members will make reservation or payments?
Understanding The User
Without wasting much time, we dove into the thought process of the user. We researched our target audience and gathered enough data-points which guided our design direction.
Since everyone travels, It was easy to find the candidates. After surveying different peoples with variable age groups and occupation, We found out that -
70%
Users found it annoying to make bookings individually from different sites.
53%
Users traveled in groups and have experience lack of clear communication about the itinerary
93%
Users have to search and check their booking reservations over mail, again and again.
43%
Users couldn’t plan in advance how they are going to enjoy their time.
User Flow & Persona
With the collected data in mind, I moved on to creating an ideal user and formulated how it is going to interact with the real world and with the product.
Information Architect
The job of an information architect is to maintain a competitive advantage by making sure things are where they should be.
Style Guide
It kept multiple teams on the same page which resulted in consistent designs throughout the app.
Wireframing
Allowed us to map out the functionality of the pages, catch problems early, and save time on revisions later.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Hi-fi prototype and it was reviewed by 10 people. While all the aspects of the app were okay. These are some major aspects which needed a tune-up.
Lack of Communication
Created a separate room for the individual ticket within the chats where interested members can discuss and gives a thumbs up.
Users couldn’t pinpoint the exact ticket for discussing and showing interest in the group
Higher Cognitive Load
Added a Single timeline for the whole trip, where every booking made is automatically saved and arranged in a timely order.
Users couldn’t remember the dates & times of their bookings. They got confused when bookings were multiple.
Unorganised Amenities
Organised amenities in different categories and previewed them while scrolling.
Previously I only kept the list of amenities. Users had hard time searching and finding for the right amenities.
Readibility Issues
Increased the text size and kept informatory text in some places
Users can’t read some of the text. It was looking small on smaller screen size phones
Congested Data
Added contrast between the textfields and increased the spacing. Made the headers bold.
The user felt the data is congested on the hotel details screen and other booking options
The Result
80% of the user found it very easy to book from the app. People loved the feature where they can discuss with their friends and finalize the bookings. Most of the users found it very helpful that the itinerary is automatically created and is shown beforehand. There was plenty of handful stuff which the user loved, like the weather conditions of the cities they are travelling to.
