Project Overview
This case study seeks to address the challenges families face when planning their travels. The team proposed a solution for a streamlined travel planning, with improved flexibility in finding family-activities, flexibility in rescheduling, and encourages peer reviews of destinations.
Background
This case study is grounded in a studio-based user research project facilitated by Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) at Carnegie Mellon University. Our project team is a testament to the collaborative efforts, comprising members with diverse background in user research, product design, and development.
My Role
As the product designer of the team, my role is focused on distilling user experiences into actionable design objectives, steering the development from concept through to final deliverables. My responsibility extends to facilitating user research and analyzing the resulting data, following a collaborative process with lead researcher in the team.
Timeline
09.2023 - 12.2022 (6 weeks)
04.2024 - 05.2024 (4 weeks)
Project Team
Dongtao Bi, Aradhana Venkat,
Pat Vaidos, Nancy Xing, Manvi Gupta
My Role
Lead Product Designer, UX Researcher
Jump to final prototype
->
Travel planning constantaly presents with mundane experiences and labrious process, especially when it comes to traveling with a family with children. In this case study, we challeged ourselves to define and resolve the following problem.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
"How might we simplify and ease travel planning experiences for families with children?"
INTRODUCTION
Design Process
Problem Definition
Research Objectives
To gain a foundational understanding of the problem space, our team developed a series of research questions to gather firsthand insights and capture diverse opinions within a limited timeframe.
uSER STORIES
Let’s take a look at what family travelers have said about their experiences
Many travelers find it challenging to plan family trips and seek diverse solutions to ease the process. This presents an opportunity space for a streamlined solution, prompting us to create a survey for further investigation.
User Survey Insights
61%
of respondents finds it difficult to source trust-worthy information from readily available sources.
80%
of survey respondents expressed the need for more transportation options for travel planning for their families.
18/25
of survey respondents have had a hard time finding suitable activities for their children during travel planning.
All
of survey respondents found it difficult to navigate distributed methods of managing itineraries.
User Research
User Interview
The research phase of our project focused on discovering user behavior and patterns to get a full context of the problem space while identifying critical user challenges, factors affecting travel planning for families, and their intermediate solution to these problems. Children bring a lot of dynamism into traveling and the planning process, and immersing ourselves in the domain brings numerous insights, limitations, and opportunities.
During the research process, we recognized that varying age groups among family members could potentially impact experiences with travel planning. To capture this diversity, we conducted 5 interviews with parents of children below the age of 12 years using semi-structured interviews and two contextual inquiry models.
Inteview Objectives
(1) Understanding family travel panning processes
(2) Tools and resources for family travel planning
(3) Challenges families face during travel planning
Activity 01
directed storytelling
During interview, sharing a story with a photo helps participants recall experiences from memory and motivates personal reflection.
In this interview activity, we requested the particuipant to share a picture from their last family travel, with the goal being seeking to provoke their lastest memory in the past. Followed by a pre-selected questions formulated from research objectives to drive the conversation.
Activity 02
user Timeline Mapping
Collaboratively mapping the user journey during travel planning for families.
User timeline mapping in this research involves working with the participant to identify key stages of their travel planning process in their experience. Through mapping user actions, challenges, and decisions at each stage, this step uncovers pain points, prioritize user needs, and explore how families interact with reviews, accommodations, and activities during their travel planning journey.
Exhaustive reasearch from various sources leads to frustrating experiences during planning phase of the trip.
Confirming itinerary details can be an extensive and overwhelming task before a trip, often leading families to seek validated information from friends.
The challenge of travel planning extends beyond the pre-departure phase, as families often need to adjust their plans on the go.
Activity 03
affinity mapping
Key Interview Findings
While each participant had unique experiences and planning methods, our interviews focused on uncovering psychological and behavioral patterns in commonly faced situations. The responses provided insights into topics such as 'how planning a trip with children differs from traveling alone,' 'the unplanned challenges of traveling,' and 'the tools they currently use.' My team then organized the research findings from various methods into clearly defined categories.
Summary
Research Insights Summary
Finding activities that include the entire family is a rigorous and time-consuming process.
Providing flexibility for travel itineraries and schedules is essential for travelers with a family.
Families often seek travel destination recommendations from trusted sources, such as friends and family.
Distributed methods to manage travel itineraries adds complexities to trip planning.
Inaccurate and incomplete information on travel booking sites lead to risky travel experiences.
With the insights learned from user research in mind, we reframed the problem definition into the following statement - providing a guide towards the next steps in concept development.
REFRAMED PROBLEM
"How might we improve family travel planning by providing flexible itineraries, tailored recommendations, and validated information for a seamless experience?"
User Research
User Persona
Based on the research findings and insights, I drafted a series of personas to guide the design development phase, emphasizing the diverse needs of families during travel planning.
Design Prototype
User Storyboarding
Based on the research insights, we identified various potential user needs and potential solutions to solve the problem. To validate these directions, I collaborated with my team to create storyboards for validation with prospective users.
View complete storyboard sequence
User Feedback for Proposed Features
While users recognize the convenience of AI-generated itineraries, they need the flexibility of managing them manually.
Participants prefer managing their own planning process rather than relying on fully-automated processes, preferring to make final decisions based on their personal preferences.
AI-Recommendations for destinations and attractions are appreciated, but families seek validation from similar travelers.
Families heavily rely on word-of-mouth recommendations but still seek additional sources of validation to feel confident in their travel planning decisions.
Dedicated family-friendly travel destinations are not always preferred, as they can limit the experiences travelers are looking for.
Users find family-centered activities too restrictive and prefer mixed environments that offer a wider range of activities for a more diverse travel experience.
Design prototype
Design Principles
Design prototype
Medium-Fidelity Prototype
I collaborated with my team to create a series of medium-fidelity prototypes, guided by the information architecture and designed to align with key user experience principles. These prototypes incorporated features aimed at fulfilling the designated design objectives and enhancing overall usability.
Design prototype
Usability Testing
Usability testing process for the prototype was divided into three main groups to gather user feedback. This effort aimed to clarify ambiguous features and streamline steps where necessary.
Group 01
"Creating a travel plan"
The first prototype set aimed to validate the onboarding process, focusing on gathering users' destination preferences and guiding them in setting up a family trip.
Group 02
"Explore travel destinations"
While we adopted a speed-dating approach for exploring destinations in this step, it remains unclear how users prefer to interact with the 'like vs. dislike' feature. Therefore, we created two options for A/B testing.
Group 03
"Add / manage interaries"
In the user flow, managing and modifying activities within a travel plan introduces added complexity. As a starting point, we developed a basic interaction flow to guide further simplification.
Feedback 01
Our testing revealed that some users were confused when the travel schedule was combined with the 'add participants' feature.
Solution 01
As a result, a progress bar is added at the top of the interface to help users navigate the process. The 'add group member' step is separated as its own step since it is optional.
Feedback 02
Some participants found the 'like history' banner distracting, as the images were not legible at that scale. It would be more helpful to include essential destination details when users are exploring options.
Solution 02
An overview of the destination helps users quickly understand the travel location, while allowing them to adjust preferences using the input at the top of the screen when they are browsing.
Feedback 03
The initial design placed the preference input in the onboarding sequence, but testing participants found this less helpful, as their preferences may change based on each specific travel plan.
Solution 03
A separate step in the trip planning process allows users to specify destination preferences, where they can select activities by category through icon-based options.
Feedback 04
Testining participants indicated the planned trips sections can potentially include more details to help with navigating logisitical plannings, such as budgets and transportation.
Solution 04
The activity cards in the 'planned trips' section is updated to display anticipated travel time, estimated expenses, and user reviews, with the option to adjust plans on the go.
Final Prototype
With Famtrips, uncover a stress-free travel planning experience for your family.
Make travel planning your new passion with Famitrips. Explore personalized destinations worldwide with recommendations tailored just for you.
Famtrips provides a speed-dating style browsing experience, tailored to your preferences and family needs, allowing users to explore destination details with logistical support and user reviews.
Personalize your trip experience while keeping your family members engaged in every part of the planning process.
While Famtrips provides automated activities based on selected destination and preferences, it allows users to add family members into the planning process and make decisions collaboratively.
Review or edit your itineraries with your family members anytime and anywhere.
Editing itineraries enables users to adjust their plans based on changing preferences. Recognizing that unexpected events can arise, families can flexibly modify plans and explore alternative destinations during their travels.
next case study
IKEATE
->
bidesignworks.com
Designed by Dongtao Bi © 2024