In the travel world the number of competitors continues to grow, but what about Lonely Planet’s main competitors including, TripAdvisor, Mapify and TripIt? A Competitive and Comparative Analysis was completed against these competitor brands, as well as comparative brands Mint and Splitwise, to gauge various industry solutions. These were our 6 main takeaways:

• 5 out of 7 of the reviewed app resources (travel and budget) included onboarding and sign up screens as a way to introduce users to the platform

• All of the travel resources below, as well as the budget apps, include bottom navigation

• 5 out of 7 resources (travel and budget) integrated a search bar feature

• 4 out of 5 travel resources had the ability for users to save and view their favorite trips/activities

• Mapify has the most robust feature offerings of all the travel resources — including quiz screens, journaling ability and a integrated social media feed

• Splitwise is the most robust resource when it comes to budget planning — offering the ability to add friends, create groups, divide expenses, transfer money in app and an activity feed to stay up to date

With the current offerings and competition narrowed down it was time to gain critical insight on the user’s current experience, likes and pain points with Lonely Planet and its competitors, as well as their needs and wants. Following the C&C, an initial Google survey was sent out across various UX channels on Slack, UX groups on Linkedin and across social media.

Our initial survey allowed us to empathize with what Lonely Planet’s users are currently experiencing when they search for travel ideas and/or try to plan trips. We were able to identify their likes and goals with the inspiration process, along with their frustrations and pain points when it comes to planning trips and the ability to follow through. This first round survey resulted in 19 responses. 

We then identified 8 users from the survey responses who were willing to chat more about their experiences, giving us more insight into the emotions they experience while travel planning and the frustrations and obstacles they face that are holding them back from taking the leap to make their dream trips a reality.

• Users do not travel because they feel like they don’t have the time or money

• Half of users prefer to have a trip planned, while the other half like to go with the flow

• Users who like to go on planned trips plan them around specific excursions and from their wishlists

• And users typically go to social media to find travel inspiration/ideas, because it’s user-friendly and accessible

Following our initial research we began to synthesize all of the data into an affinity map to pull out key findings and trends and identify our primary and secondary user.

Defining the likes and pain points many users are experiencing with Lonely Planet’s current offerings, as well as their needs and wants largely stemming from what they are experiencing with competitors products and what they feel is missing in the industry. we put ourselves in the shoes of Lonely Planet’s two main personas (which have been slightly adjusted in the iteration phase) to address the two biggest trending problem statements. 

In the first round of research we bypassed the opportunity to write “How Might We…” Statements in order to further empathize with Markus and Kelsey. I believe this lead to our design failing in our first round of usability testing. In order to rectify this, prior to beginning the iteration phase of the design I went back and identified key problems we could solve for Markus and Kelsey, helping define the direction of the new wireframes.

Markus and Kelsey share the same frustration that time and money are holding them back from living their best travel lives currently, but they want to have distinctly different experiences. 

Markus wants to figure out how to go on more global adventures so that he can get that much closer to becoming a digital nomad, and Kelsey wants to be able to share group trips with her friends so they can plan a budget that can be split evenly. They both need help figuring out how to set and achieve budget and vacation allotment goals.

This insight, gleaned from our survey results and user interviews — that users felt that they need more time, money and accessible inspiration for travel planning — were the backbone to the three pathways we chose for our home screen design: a flow to enter the staycation portion of the app to view and plan trips/activities close to home, a vacation flow to view and plan trips that require travel (via plan, train, car, boat, etc.), and a bucketlist flow (to help users budget their time and money for their saved trips and activities. Each of these pathways informing our subsequent user flows for Markus and Kelsey.

But…

These flows were part of the reason our design was not successful in our first round of usability testing.

During the iteration phase where I redesigned the wireframes of Bucketlist after defining the “How Might We…” Statements I rethought the user flow in order to design the most optimal path Markus and Kelsey would take to solve their problem statements.

The only way we would know if our sketches were headed in the right direction was to test them. 

In order to test we needed a working prototype, so we took the sketches produced by the group in our Design Studio and built a series of mid-fidelity wireframes (created and prototyped using Figma) for each of the three user flows (staycation, vacation and bucketlist) we identified as paths for Markus and Kelsey. A sample of the wireframes – built in black and white with image placeholders – are shown below.

Vacation User Flow

Bucketlist User Flow

 Once our sketches were recreated as working mid-fidelity wireframes it was time to test on our users. But then…

DUN DUN DUUUUN!

Our design failed. 

• 3 out of 6 users were unable to successfully complete the vacation user flow.

• 100% of users stated they did not understand the purpose of the app -- the ability to plan trips and create goals -- based on the home screen design alone.

• 3 out of 6 users stated they liked the “quiz screens” but wanted to see them in an onboarding flow rather than a part of the main flow to enter the vacation and staycation user flows.

• 4 out of 6 users stated there were too many clicks to get to the final results to see a listing of suggested staycation activities or vacation itineraries.

It was time to take a step back, re-read the brief and reiterate the solution.

So how did I solve those business and user problems?

Usability testing currently in progress

Currently a second round of usability testing is being conducted to see the viability of these user influenced modifications. By integrating these user additions the goals of these tests being conducted include:

• Determine which feature best optimizes connectivity for users

• Learn what content is the most important for users on a progress page home screen

• And, determine the best point within the user flow (when searching for travel/activity inspiration) for users to “add friends” to their wishlist and plans

• Learn how users prefer to track their goals when it comes to monetary saving and saving vacation days (if employed)

Coming soon!