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Sojourn
Travel Planning Mobile and Smartwatch Linked Application
Intro
00. Intro
Just some background information...
Role: Lead Product Designer
Duration: August 2023 - October 2023 (10 weeks)
Scope: Course project
Tools: Figma, Miro, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Google Forms
Skills: UI/UX design, ideation, competitor analysis, wireframing, prototyping, user research, user scenario, journey maps, usability testing
01. Problem
Identifying a longstanding issue faced by many
In one of my courses, my fellow group mates and I were exchanging ideas for a potential app design. With winter break right around the corner, we each expressed how frustrating it was to develop a vacation itinerary as well as access it all in one go.
With this problem in mind, we developed Sojourn, a travel-assistant mobile and smartwatch application that allows users to have complete control and clarity over their travel planning choices. With a design emphasis on seamless user interaction, it allows traveling on vacation to become what it should be...
Restful.
We wanted a product that combines the required services into an all-in-one application.
02. Solution
Addressing the issue by accommodating for users
To address the traveling users' pain points, we designed a personalized smartwatch and mobile device linked application that allows users to see potential and upcoming travel destination attractions and visits in real-time.
Users can develop their travel itineraries in the mobile application and sync/download it to their smartwatch device to view when most convenient and/or they do not have access to internet.
Designing your dream vacation
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The Sojourn app allows users to directly explore new destinations and create and manage their itineraries.
Just add the events you like to an itinerary, set the location, trip duration, and travelers, and sync to your smartwatch!
03. Research
Gaining information to inform design decisions
Target demographic: Travelers (beginners and experienced) who currently experience difficulty planning trips
Design challenge: Users want a travel service/application in order to plan and monitor their travel itineraries in one place.
Recognizing our target demographic and design challenge, each team member recruited classmates, friends, and family members to participate in interviews (through in-person, Zoom, and Google Form questionnaires) to gain a better understanding of what aspects of travel-assistant applications allow for seamless and efficient travel planning.
04. User scenarios
Emphasizing with the users
To better understand the experiences, pain points, wants, and needs of various consumer segments within our target demographic, we developed John Kim and Karen Wallace.
John Park | 21 year old college student
John Park is 21 year old student at Cornell University. Although academically driven, he procrastinates often and finds it difficult to plan trips back home in between classes due to time constraints such as extracurricular commitments and studying for upcoming exams. For the upcoming winter break, John wants to find a nice place to travel to hang out with friends he met through his club involvements before returning home to visit family. As John has not traveled much out of the country before, he has trouble learning about what places to visit and what to do. Attempting to plan out his trip itinerary, he wants to plan out the cost and itinerary but feels overwhelmed due to the mass amount of planning he is faced with.
Karen Wallace | 54 year old doctor
Karen Wallace is 54 year old doctor and mother of two kids. As almost all of her time is devoted to her work, she is not familiar with current digital applications and devices. She wants to efficiently plan out a trip with her family during her vacation days but is experiencing difficulty doing so due to the various applications and services she must go through to logistically and financially develop the best itinerary. The current applications/services each have arbitrary design elements that are confusing to use and navigate. She feels forced to manually write down specific logistics and costs and develop her travel plan in this method. She feels that this could all be simplified if there was an all-in-one application/service.
Central points to address:
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inexperience with traveling services
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lack of financial planning services
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required to utilize multiple planning services
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extraneous aesthetically diverse designs in existing services
05. Ideation
Developing low-fidelity wireframes and iterations
Our team utilized the findings from our research to discuss the feasibility of various app design iterations and developed the following mid-fidelity iterations and low-fidelity interface wireframe designs:
Smartphone screen iterations
01.
Functionally overwhelming
Not functionally appealing to new travelers who want to explore places with no pre-determined destination and topic cards have no central theme which leads to unclear user navigation.
02.
Unclear criteria and information
Activity search criteria is redundant as most travelers choose events based on destination and not single activities such as biking/hiking. Cards should include information for new travelers.
03.
Meets users needs
Search criteria and itinerary management functions are clear. Topic cards display information for novice travelers. Clear function and information hierarchy.
Smartphone flowchart
Individual section screens
Flow 1: Searching for desired destination location
Flow 2: Creating a travel itinerary
06. Usability testing
Testing with users and developing improved iterations
Based on various feedback from user testing conducted with the interview participants, the course professor, and fellow classmates, we repeatedly designed several iterations over the span of several weeks.
Filter category sorting
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Feedback stated that travelers who are new to traveling to a specific destination are unsure of what attractions to search for or visit, so simply searching through keywords alone is not optimal.
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Integrating functions that enable users to sort through filters (restaurants, events, nightlife, types of locations, etc.) is more intuitive and user-friendly to developing your intended travel plan.
Special package offerings
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A few interviewees suggested that to further simplify travel planning, we include pre-planned travel packages to act as an additional option for travelers.
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Based on information submitted in the profile section, this feature provides tailored travel options with lowered costs and time spent planning your travel plan by recommending plans related to your personal interests.
07. Final designs
The moment everyone has been waiting for...
Stress-free planning
Simply create a personalized account for your one-stop destination and start designing your dream vacation plan!
All-in-one design
Save time by easily exploring new destinations. Add events to an itinerary to directly manage costs and logistics!
Sync across devices
Cross-device compatibility allows you to sync your plans to your smartwatch for easy access while traveling!
08. Reflection
Looking back and future steps
Developing a heightened understanding of teamwork
Working alongside my team over the course of this semester project has both been a challenging, yet fulfilling experience. Spending countless nights from the ideation phase all the way through to the final prototyping stages of the product design process, we encountered countless roadblocks (technical and interpersonal) that we had to address before moving forward. As a collective, we learned the significance and potential behind clear and constructive communication and its effects on team productivity and optimism. Similar to creating user scenarios and interviews to better understand the user, gaining a better understanding of each individual team member, their respective roles, and past experiences that affect their capabilities of fulfilling their roles, is a quintessential part of the team product design experience. To address these issues, we had to take a step back and get to better know one another as individuals. From taking breaks to get lunch and hang out outside of a working environment context, we better each gained a better understanding of who each member was as a person and what positions they are in that may affect their productivity in the project development space.
First steps amongst many in my design journey...
As my third completed UI/UX and product design project, developing Sojourn was the perfect way for me to assess my product design skills, interpersonal communication capabilities, and leadership proficiencies. As the lead product designer of a product that exists on multiple digital mediums (smartphone and smartwatch), I had the pleasure of working amongst other driven designers and engineers in the creation of the mobile and smartwatch linked application. Due to the complexity of the application, I learned how to better keep an open-mind regarding design feedback to best accomodate for the wants and needs of the users that the app is designed for.
Moving forward, I feel much better equipped (technically and interpersonally) in developing products in a team environment context. One of the greatest things I learned while designing Sojourn was to not get frustrated when an iteration (or several) are unsuccessful. They may have not been the optimal design, but they serve as a model for the future of what went wrong. I now recognize that in doing so that I did not fail, but instead identified ways that did not work.
Thanks for stopping by.
Check out my other projects!
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