What happens when the whole family collaborates prior to a family trip?
TakeOff
An app to plan and prepare for a trip with the whole family.
Facebook poll findings
Research
Children who travel are better equipped to understand and appreciate other cultures from an early age.
I took my research from a variety of areas.
Facebook Poll
In order to start understanding the potential user, a Facebook poll was performed within parents groups. 156 moms answered the poll and almost 70% of those who responded, responded positively to the question:
“In preparation for a family trip, do you investigate the country/city where you are going?
Problem
When preparing for a trip kids are often left out of the decision-making process, which can have a negative impact on their interest to learn and engage with new cultures, as well as the ways they can engage and learn about them. The biggest challenge was to combine an accessible cultural experience for kids while still providing parents with the ease in acquiring tickets and making reservations.
Solution
To create a product wherein parents and children alike can collaborate on their trip together, with options to plan, purchase and organize their trip together. From restaurants to museums, and everything in between.
Tools
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Miro
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Marvel
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Adobe Illustrator
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Adobe XD
My Role
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UX researcher
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Illustrator
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UI designer
Timeline
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Overall: 9 months
Design Process
User Interviews
After the poll results were gathered, a series of interviews were conducted with parents who travel on a regular basis. Insights were separated by Education, Current Screen Usage, Discovery Patterns and Needs. Many of the design solutions I developed were based on these findings.
Education
Findings:
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Parents use apps and general websites like "Kids Up Here", Google, or Airbnb to find local activities or experiences.
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As they prepare for the trip, families take reference from movies to discover destinations .
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Sometimes parents prefer to study negative reviews to avoid taking their families to locations that aren’t deemed less than stellar.
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Parents prefer their kids use educational apps to further their general knowledge.
Current Screen Usage
Findings:
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Kids use their screen time for learning through dynamic gaming.
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Kids use open apps to play while parents monitor the app.
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Kids play online games based on books they have read.
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To learn about new topics, kids enjoy getting their info through dynamic games.
Discovery Patterns
Findings:
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Deeper research: basic info. Kids are more inquisitive when on international trips, which inspires them to want to find more information about the destination.
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When traveling, they mostly inquire about the people and food.
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It's important for parents to research the destination prior to the trip.
Needs
Findings:
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Parents want to find digital resources where kids can investigate and be interested in other cultures.
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Researching prior to a trip is important. Discovering activities and experiences at the destination is preferred. Parents wish to inspire their child’s interest in the places and cultures they’re visiting.
Competitive Analysis
In a time where traveling is an essential part of the family nucleus, many apps and products have been created to facilitate the experience. However, in my research, I couldn't find an app that gathers all the essential collaborative points for a family trip.
Evaluated products: TripAdvisor, SmartNomad, Airbnb
TripAdvisor
Visibility of system status
The design is very clear when giving the information necessary to explore. As it is navigated, the user is informed of possible "next steps". Although it is not necessary to have an account, which, for informational purposes gives certain liberty to the user to navigate it.
★★★★★
Flexibility and efficiency of use
It provides shortcuts to next steps and instructions where they are needed for the user to continue with their journey successfully. Once an account is created the customization is on point.
★★★★★
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Even though it has a lot of information, it is organized and delivers the necessary results to get to the final stage of the journey. Although it has more content to explore, the platform is well designed, and it's not over saturated with information making the experiences enjoyable. Illustrations are fun and colorful. The sections are well organized and their position throughout the screen makes sense.
★★★★☆
AirBnb
Visibility of system status
From the moment you are in the menu screen, you get a sense of what you can expect. It is not necessary to input the destination, and instead you can explore options to travel.
★★★★★
Flexibility and efficiency of use
A map to explore destinations is not immediately available. However, when scrolling down, the map is open and very easy to navigate. Even though there are very positive aspects, when an account is created, the log out process is very complicated. It is not clear where a user can log out.
★★★☆☆
Aesthetic and minimalist design
In general terms, the app is easy to understand, the UI design is clean and sleek, and it offers all the possibilities the user could need to have a smooth journey while navigating the product.
★★★★☆
SmartNomad
Visibility of system status
From the first screen the directions are very limited. The user needs to know their destination and the desired transportation. It’s not great, since there are users that go into the product searching for inspiration.
★☆☆☆☆
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Even though the design is very sparse , simple gestures make navigation easy to use and guide the user. However, it is very limited with regards to destinations offered.
★★★☆☆
Aesthetic and minimalist design
It is very maximalist and has a lot of information visually. The juxtaposition of text and photography makes it feel busy and somewhat tiresome.
★☆☆☆☆
Let's find a solution!
I wanted to form a deeper understanding of the users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. These observations and ideas were based on the perspectives of parents that were interviewed and participated in the research process.
Empathy Map
In order to accurately understand my user, an empathy map was created wherein I could better visualize my potential persona.
Some of the pain points that were known are that children will spend extra screen time watching streaming services. Kids risk spending time in open apps talking with strangers. Children aren’t always particularly interested in learning about other cultures. Parents also don't always know how to help their kids find specific information about each culture.
The Gains, however, leaned towards the fact that kids will use their screen time to research and learn. When they’re engaged in these educational activities, parents tend to be more comfortable letting their kids use their screen. Children will have a better opportunity to grow up to be inclusive and sympathetic adults.
User Personas
After performing the poll, survey and interviews, I wanted to get a better understanding of my user's goals, and experiences. Based on this, I created user personas to understand who my potential user will be.
"HOW MIGHT WE" Questions
After conducting the interviews, the insights gave me the necessary information to draw the HMW questions that later would give me the tools to create the red routes for my user flows.
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How might we support parents so that their kids have access to cultural education?
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Who are we helping to get information in preparation for a trip?
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How might we impart the information so that families may immerse themselves into new cultures?
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How might we give kids apps that help them learn about new cultures?
Information Architecture
In order to establish an organized and effective structure to my product, I created sitemaps, user flows, and sketches that would help users to complete the specific tasks.
User Flow
Sketches
My priority here was to think about the needs of parents and children planning a family trip. The challenge was to capture their needs when purchasing tickets.
Wireframes
Using Adobe XD, I translated my first sketches into low-fidelity wireframes to understand and communicate the general idea of the product.
With these wireframes, I could make decisions and understand what works and what doesn’t from the user point of view.
Parent user - Low fidelity wireframes
Findings
•When asked to buy a ticket, users said that there was some confusion when buying. She expressed that it’d be more helpful to have a micro copy that reads “buy tickets to the best attractions”
•When asked to share the calendar with their child, the user didn’t really know which login to use. He mentioned it’d be better to put the child’s email, rather than a login name.
Usability Testing
Initially, I created the sketches thinking of the kid user, however, as I kept developing the idea, I thought it would also be interesting to explore the product from the parent point of view, because they’re the ones who are able to purchase and make the big decisions.
Style Guide
Inspiration and UI Elements
For the visual inspiration I chose images that gave a sense of adventure and color. I wanted it to reflect the feeling one gets when traveling to their favorite destinations. For the UI inspiration I wanted something simple and playful. Because TakeOff is an app for families, it had to be polished and kid-friendly . I fleshed this out with illustrations, because they inspire kids to delve deeper.
UI Design
For the UI inspiration I wanted something simple and playful. Because TakeOff is an app for families, I wanted it to be clean but kid-friendly .
I fleshed out this direction with illustrations because they inspire kids to explore it.
High Fidelity Wireframes
From the wireframes and the wireflow, some changes were made to elevate the TakeOff experience.
Usability Testing
I created a fully-functional, high-fidelity prototype of the flows using Adobe XD. For the TakeOff User Testing sessions I interviewed five candidates that fit into the target demographic (parents who travel for leisure with their families.) The interviews were conducted in person and remotely.
Each interview lasted about 30 minutes. I did two usability tests in the first round and two after iterating the issues that were identified
Objective
To provide the user tester with an easy, understandable platform to navigate from point a to point b.
The main goals of the testing will be: -To plan a trip to Paris, France. And get a three day ticket to Disney Paris, The specific red routes I designed are placed to be tested by users in the “parent mode”.
Testing includes: Enter the parent mode section, as a parent and “plan a trip” to Paris, France. Buying tickets to Disney Paris, and creating an itinerary for the day in the park.
Methodology
Moderated Usability testing
For the TakeOff User Testing sessions interviewed five candidates that fit into the target demographic (parents who travel for leisure with their families) The interviews were conducted in person and remotely. Each interview lasted about 30 minutes.
Tasks
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Enter as a parent (born in 1986)
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You are going to Paris, France from June 5-17
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You’ll buy a three day ticket for your family to Disney Paris
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Create an itinerary of your day in Disney Paris, exploring each experience in the park
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Explore the calendar
Feedback
Based on the tasks provided to the users, some common feedback included:
Calendar: “I wish I could drag my thumb over the days”, “I’m lacking the highlighted days in the calendar”
Selecting and buying tickets: “I'd like to see a filter for parents and kids' activities. I feel everything is mixed”
Payment experience: “When paying, the user should have the option to pay with credit or debit.” “ When choosing the cards, I was a little confused as to which one to select”
Create an itinerary: "When organizing the experiences, it doesn’t make sense having to slide the bar. I think it’s missing a CTA.” “I want to check the experiences first before I add them to the itinerary.”
Actions taken from the itinerary screen: “I need an error message that indicates that the day has been filled with activities, and attractions for the day.” “I need a time restriction for the different attractions.”
Calendar and itinerary: “Where can I reorganize my itinerary?” “I need to see where my selections are going.”
Improvements
Based on the results from the user testing, all the changes were applied into the prototype. Some of the iterations included comments about the itinerary access and selection.
Next Steps
I’d love to keep developing TakeOff. Being a collaborative app for families, I’d like to do develop user testing with kids. As a second phase of the product, I’d like to focus on the children’s journeys and develop those screens further.
Learnings
This experience, as my first approach to UX/UI design, gave me the tools and necessary knowledge to succeed in the field. With my experience in illustration, I know I can design products that are fun, functional and attractive, and it's very interesting seeing the ways my illustrations work can be applied and utilized.
I might have done another round of guerrilla usability testing in specific sections. During the course of the interview process, I took note of what was working and what wasn't.
Thank you for reading my case study!
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