Let’s travel a bit
In this post, i will try to jump into the shoes of a world traveller to make our study. And because i can go anywhere, i chose that we will travel to Machu Picchu, in Peru, to visit one of the new seven wonders of the world.
In order to redesign our travelling app, we are going to :
- select a user type
- make some research about our destination
- benchmark the apps we are going to use
- ran some tests
- summarise for some insights
- and finally, what you all going to scroll directly to 🚀 😄: redesign wireframes
1. Let’s select our user type
Young couple — 20–40 y/o (2)
You and your partner decide to go to a special place next summer. You realize you have both saved enough for the tickets and are planning to save as much as possible for the next 6 months to do this trip. You want to be efficient and have everything you need organized to enjoy at 100% while there. Even if you’re young, you want to have special moments to celebrate being together.
2. Research
The nearest airport is Cusco. Two days and one night to visit seems ideal only for the location, although for a trip like this we might consider staying longer, let’s plan a 1 week trip. The Peruvian Sol will be the currency used by our travellers.
3. Benchmarking three apps to choose one
After applying the 10 Usability Heuristics Skyscanner, Kayak and Hooper, i found that hooper fits mostly the needs of our young couple. They are flexible and want to optimise within their budget. Hooper proposes an approach where you see all price ranges before zooming in on period you choose.
4. Testing
Helene, 30 years old
First screen is obvious, search is easy. But results are messy, it tooks some time before she realises the app was showing every date with a price range.
She would have liked to be able to save the trip.
She has nos restrictions on date, so she made back and fourth from prices screen to results.
She really didn’t like the experience and was begging to let her go back to her life…
Well we still had to time to learn a few things.
5. Insight
App is great for a overview of a trip, but misses a lot of points when you start selecting options and making decisions.
You always have all price indicated on the calendar, it’s good to start. Then you will want to eliminate options as you are planning more precisely your trip.
If you want to book a hotel, you have to quit your current search, you can’t save anything.
You like to see all options before narrowing down to your perfect trip. Going back and forth from flights to hotel is really not easy and completely separate. I would suggest to be able to create a fictional tab, only for information, that allows you to see the total amount with flights + hotel, including dates.
6. Redesign Wireframes
A. TEMPORARY CART
The idea is really simple. A temporary cart that carry the amount AND the date throughout the different screens.
When you have selected a trip, we want to add a third option to the two already there (“Price Freeze” and “View Flights”) : “Select this trip and look for a hotel”.
On the tap, you will be brought to the hotel search with your date already selected. Your “temporary cart” show you the amount with the flights and will add hotel price as soon as you select one.
Like we saw on our prework courses, there is no need to reinvent the app. I think this functionality transform the app from a simple price navigator to a real trip planner.
B. SLIDER
In the results, she was a bit overwhelmed with the possibilities. As a young couple, the budget is already set, so a simple slider on the results would permit to sort and empty the screen from what we don’t need.
Criticism is easy but art is difficult
It’s easy to spot what’s wrong but you need to really think through different solutions to come with something that will make the difference.
