Viati: Trip Planning Simplified

Design Process

01. Empathize

User Surveys

Following a five-stage design process, I began with the emphasizing phase. I conducted a user research survey on travel planning habits via a Qualtrics questionnaire, which resulted in 20 responses. The questions included rating Likert scale questions on different aspects of travel and multiple-choice questions on people's behaviors when traveling, e.g., budgeting or booking accommodations, as well as habits and resources for trip planning.

"How often do you travel on a yearly basis?"

"Rate how important each of the following aspects of traveling is for you."

All of the survey data was analyzed, culminating in a list of insights into users' habits, which allowed for a deeper understanding of their needs, wants, and frustrations. A few examples of insights that stood out are the following:

• The degree to which people find finding accommodations difficult is higher than other aspects of travel planning, followed by finding places to eat and budgeting for the trip.
• The largest proportion of people, 50%, spend 3-6 hours planning for a trip, but 40% of people spend 9-12 hours planning for a trip. Viati could make the process much more efficient and organized.
• Ways people currently use to learn about their trip destinations include word of mouth, Google, social media (Reddit, Facebook, and TikTok) and review websites (Yelp or Tripadvisor). It is important to have integrations if possible.
• 75% of people have not used a travel planning app before. This is a relatively niche genre of mobile app that people may be open to trying.
• In terms of detail, 65% of people plan their trips by having an outline or checklist of things to see and do — 20% of people plan their itinerary down to the day level. People have different preferences, the app should accommodate for this variation.
• 45% of people are either moderately spontaneous, or very spontaneous when traveling. 40% of people are somewhat spontaneous. The majority of people would be open to recommendations.
• When traveling, the degree to which people find food to be important is much higher than other aspects, followed by culture (e.g., museums, live music, etc.) and accommodations.
• 60% of people reported on average traveling to two or more destinations in one trip. Multi-city planning is necessary.

02. Define

Personas

Based on the insights generated from the survey data, I created three personas to best represent different archetypes of users with different travel experiences, goals, and budgets. I decided to include the following sections for each persona: some general background information, three key traits, a short biography, needs, and frustrations. The personas helped conceptualize potential target users of the app.

Competitive Analysis

As a final step before moving onto ideation, I needed to evaluate existing travel and trip-planning applications to discover what is already being done vs. opportunities to improve.

Below are some findings from the competitive analysis:

• Most competitors lack budget-tracking, offline-accessible, preset city guides, and personalized recommendations functions.
• Multi-city itinerary planning is exceedingly poor
• Wanderlog is the strongest competitor, so I performed an additional app-specific assessment and found the following problems: the app feels clunky and overwhelming, there is a lack of organic user-submitted reviews (poor integration with Google maps or Yelp), and most importantly, it is not possible to plan multi-city trips, which accounts for 60% of trips according to the previous survey.

Synthesizing the findings from the user research survey, crafted personas, and competitive analysis allowed me to define the following design requirements and constraints.

03.Ideate

Sketches

The first sketches I did were very rudimentary, mostly to ideate and roughly think about the content of each screen, the overall organization, and general information hierarchy. These sketches were heavily modified later on, as I iterated upon them to create the mid-fidelity prototype.

04. Prototyping

Mid-Fidelity Prototype

Using Figma and the sketches I had created, I continued on to build out a mid-fidelity prototype to flesh out more of the design elements to outline the mobile app's features. The images below from left to right, top row to bottom row: home screen, my trips, create a new trip, trip details, budget tracker, search results, suggestion details, itinerary.

05. Usability Testing

Usability Study Protocol

Since I did not prototype the interactions, I used the Wizard of Oz method to conduct usability tests with three participants, by moving between the screens depending on what they verbally say which elements on the screen they want to interact with. Several tasks were scripted, such as how to add a new trip to Rome, and find how much you've spent on accommodations for the Portugal trip. In addition, the usability study included questions on what participants think of each feature, and if they had any comments or suggestions.

Analysis & Findings

The usability test found that overall, the participants were able to complete the tasks with ease. The information was generally clear and easy to find and understand, and the participants expressed satisfaction with the trip planning capabilities. The following highlights came from the usability test:

• The budget tracker was found to be particularly useful by two out of three participants. However, it lacked a feature to enter individual expenses beyond a set budget.
• The itinerary needed a way to be edited by the user, e.g., add items and delete items.
• There needs an option to edit the trip details, including customization of the header image, which participants wanted to do.
• The layout of the home page and search results felt a bit overwhelming because of the lack of spacing.
• When asked about visual design, participants recommended a warm color scheme and generally friendly, rounded look, as the mid- fidelity prototype seemed "sharp."

06. Final Product

Home / Explore

The home / explore page is the first screen upon opening the app. It shows various recommendations for destinations and experiences, depending on the algorithm based on the user's habits and behaviors, e.g., past searches. It also takes into consideration the season, e.g., suggesting warm weather travel destinations in the middle of the winter. There is a button at the top to quickly create a new trip.

Search

The search page returns several different kinds of results, including city guides, accommodations, and things to do as activities, culture, or experiences. This screen allows the user to discover a variety of information about their search. The accommodations also has the option of showing current discounts and offers, to give the best value possible.

My Trips

The "My Trips" screen gathers the current trip(s) and past trips. The current trip(s) are displayed as an information card with a photo, the name of the trip, the destination(s), the highlights of the trip, e.g., nature, and the dates of travel. There is a button to create a new trip directly below it. Past trips are archived, and show as square panels with limited information, but can be clicked on to view more details.

Trip Details

The trip details page for a current trip shows a header with the same basic travel information as is summarized on the information card on the "My Trips" page. This allows the user to see the most important information at a glance. Details can be edited here as well. There are buttons to manage itinerary, track budget, and view reservation details. Based on the trip highlights inputted by the user, the smart recommendations focus on different aspects of travel, e.g., dining or nature.

Itinerary

The itinerary page for a current trip shows the itinerary at a glance at the top, as a checklist of activities to do or places to see. This decision was due to the user research, which reflected most people do not plan trips day by day, but merely follow a general checklist that outlines what they want to check out during a trip. The list can be checked off, so that the user sees what is left to do. New items can be added, and to delete, the user simply swipes left on any itinerary item.

Activity Details

This is the details screen for an experience, e.g., one suggested on the home / explore page. The details include ratings, location, best time to visit, website, highlights, reviews from trusted travel websites or magazines, photos of the experience, and user-submitted reviews that are synced with Google reviews.

Create a New Trip

The "Create a New Trip" screen asks for a few bits of information to set up a new trip. The user is asked to input the travel origin, the destination (with the option of adding multiple), the dates of travel, a custom trip name, and select highlights. The fields for the travel origin and destination prevent typos by opening a drop down list of places to select from as the user starts to type.

New Trip

A new trip is created! The header image is auto-generated, but can be customized by the user if they choose to change it. Similarly, the trip details can be edited as needed. The smart recommendations notice if there is a lack of accommodation, for example, and can provide suggestions. Same as the other trip details page, the generated recommendations are based on the preferences expressed by the user.

Budget Tracker

The budget tracker feature allows the user to view their spending habits throughout a trip. The booked transportation and accommodation expenses are automatically synced with existing trip details. The user can set custom budgets for different spending categories, e.g., food, activities, or miscellaneous expenses. During the trip, expenses can be kept track of as the user spends, by clicking on the add new expense button. For each category, the expenses are totaled. A pie chart representing the proportion of spending categories is auto- generated as the expenses change.The overall trip total is displayed at the top

07. Reflection

At first, I felt that this project was challenging due to the scope of the mobile app, and the features that I wanted to include. I quickly realized that due to space and time constraints, there were a few features and functions I could not implement in the current prototype in its first iteration.

If I had more time, I would extend the mobile app to include much more. There is potential in a social aspect or building a social profile for the user, considering how many people often travel with friends and family in contrast to traveling solo. It would be engaging to invite people to trips or share places that you've visited. A planning-related feature is a save feature for experiences or destinations that a user is potentially interested in, which is not as binding as making a new trip, but allows the user to think about where they might go next and do a sort of draft plan for the trip. A previously mentioned feature I didn't include is the offline mode, which would ideally allow the itinerary to be viewed when there is no internet access. For the search results, it would be helpful to have a robust filtering system, which could specify what the user is search for, e.g., accommodations only. More location-based features can be incorporated, such as affordable flights based on the user's current location, or for recommendation nearby, would would allow more spontaneous travel. Lastly, the reservation details page can be developed to integrate bookings.