QUA– Travel Planning Application

We conducted research through a variety of methods, starting with reverse assumptions. This is when we started to recognize the assumption and myth that “people always plan trips”. Following that direction, we used contextual inquiry, speed dating, direct storytelling, empathy maps, affinity diagramming, user journey mapping, and prototyping to further investigate how people felt about spontaneous travel and explore different solutions.

During our interviews, we focused on investigating how people view the inevitable and how they problem solve to minimize the cost. This made us realize that the problem space was related to the idea of young adults finding balance between comfort and stepping out of their comfort zone to learn in an unfamiliar environment.

Goal
avoid over planning, allow users to experience their travel in the moment, and come back with unique stories and experiences.

Target audience
young adults who are open to the idea of adding spontaneity into their travels in a playful matter.

Elements of Consideration
Scale — general to specific location
Time — efficiency and cost of time
Safety — sense of security

Looking at visual imagery from luggage tags, transportation tickets, stamps, and receipts, we wanted to play with quirky and playful receipt type and heavy weighted san serifs. These colorful elements would be used for the brand website, social media, and merchandise.

Since the product and brand website being a more colorful and playful with it’s visual design, we needed to make sure the tool itself wasn’t too overpowering in personality, because it can become too complex and distracting to use, which takes away from the functionality. While staying within the same color palette, the actual planning application's UI aims for a more minimal and clean work space with a touch of colorful options customizable to use for organization purposes.

By mapping out our user flow, we were able to identify key touchpoints in the desktop app, which was also implicated in the mobile version.

My role within the project was very wholistic as I had the opportunity to combine my research and design team together to execute higher fidelity prototypes based on dedicated research. We also took a unique perspective as a team to find a solution within juxtaposition –– to accept the uncontrollable with spontaneity and fight stress with a planner. We are currently in the process of refiing our mobile prototype as it includes on-the-go features that further present our research findings. So please wait patiently for the newest update!