WanderPod Case Study

Product: iOS app & Website

Duration: 1 month

Role: UX Designer

Product Overview: WanderPod is travel tool that enables travelers to store all the details of their upcoming travels, update friends on the the details of their trips, while allowing them to collaborate on their planning effort.

Key Focus Areas:

  • User Research

  • UI Design

View the full prototype here.

Background

As the effects of the pandemic started to dissolve, I started to notice more and more people begin traveling again through casual conversations, social media, and my own experiences. With travel on the rise and expected to grow around 32% (reported by the US Travel Association) I wanted to a better understanding of how people traveled and some of their challenges when traveling.

Goal: To understand pain points of trip planning for travelers in their 20-30s and to design a solution to resolve their to issues when planning a trip.

Research

To conduct my research, I conducted primary and secondary research to understand my potential users currently used to plan their trips.

  • Primary Research: In-person Interviews (5 interviewees)

  • Secondary Research: Competitive Analysis (4 vendors)

Key Takeaways

5/5

Interviewees mentioned they used multiple platforms to store the details of their trip

5/5

Interviewees mentioned they weren’t sure if all of their attendees were aware of new updates to the trip

4/5

Interviewees mentioned they wanted some way to monitor their budget

Define

After conducting my research I decided to focus on a single type of traveler, Lindsey, the work-hard-play-hard millennial who loves traveling with her friends.

Lindsey - Type A Traveler

"I love seeing the world with my friend and making sure we have the best time”

Age: 29

Goals: Making quality memories with her friends around the world

Pains: Keep the details in an organized manner and making sure her friends read her updates.

With my persona in mind, I created initial task flows to depict a product that would allows users to enter and collaborate on the trip planning details with their friends.

After validating the initial user flows with potential users, I built out the larger user flow for the application I was looking to create.

Final Scope: An application that will allows users to store details of an upcoming trip, enable collaborative planning, and allow users to find experiences they can book for their upcoming trip.

Design

After defining scope of the project, I conducted multiple rounds of design starting from low to high fidelity with rounds of user testing in between iterations.

Low Fidelity

My design phase started with low-fidelity sketches of screens and features I wanted to include into my final product, I was able to quickly layout potential screen ideas and play with the placement of features on each screen.

Mid Fidelity

I began to refine my designs and gathered feedback on how I could improve the UX/UI designs from my mentors, peers, and potential users and start evolving them to their high-fidelity state.

High Fidelity

After additional mid fidelity iterations and developing the branding of my solution, I began started pulling together the high fidelity wireframes that I would be using for additional user testing.

Branding

Before building out the high fidelity wireframes, I wanted to create the brand identity. The brand is intended to be gender neutral and invoke a sense of nature and outdoors.

  • Behind the Name: The solution name “WanderPod” is a play on the word wanderlust and the concept of whales and dolphins traveling in groups called pods together.

  • Understanding Color Choices: The colors were intended to convey adventure, inclusion, hard-working, but also fun.

Testing

After completing my high-fidelity designs, I was able to develop a prototype to test certain user flows that I believed were key to users. I conducted user testing with the flows below to validate if the flows and UI of WanderPod were easily usable.

Feedback & Results:

  • 100% of testers completed the user testing flows successfully

  • 100% of testers mentioned the user flows were super intuitive and that the app was easy to use

  • 1/5 testers wants to be able to use the tool without creating a full profile right away. Though only one user mentioned this change, I agree with the tester’s desire to begin exploring the applications feature sooner rather than later. The screens below reflect the changes user flow and minor change to the UI.

Challenges

  • Feature Scope: Determining which pain points in the travel planning process I would address in my solution

  • Branding: Developing the branding and color palette for the UI that convey the meaning and aesthetic I envisioned

  • Consistent UI: Ensuring the spacing and styling were consisten across buttons and screens

Lessons Learned

  • User Feedback: Leveraging feedback from user consistently is key to helping understand what they they are looking in a solution

  • Revisions: Developing multiple options and reiterating on the color palette and logo help me get to my final branding

  • Symbols & Style Guides: Creating style guides prior to design high-fidelity wireframes and creating symbols in Figma help designs stay consistent and clean

Key Takeaways

  • Additional Iterations: Being open to new versions and iterations for each phase of the design process helped me narrow the scope of WanderPod and deliver a product that will address our users needs.

  • Potential Growth: The current state of this product represents a subset of features, but there are still many more that could be added in the future

Final Product

For the final product, WanderPod evolved from an event planning application to a travel planning coordinating application that allows user to store their travel details, coordinate trips with friends, and the find new experiences. The full prototype can be found here.