Goals.

Primary and Secondary Research methods were used to learn what the user goals, needs, motivations, and frustrations include. The following goals were created to accomplish this:

• Understand the features that would be necessary for this website.

• Gain a better understanding of the decision-making process of the customer when booking trips.

• Understand if this service is needed or even wanted by the public.

• Learn who the true target audience is.

• Identify and understand problems AND good features of direct/indirect competition.

• Discover and analyze user behaviors while using travel sites.

Market Research.

Market Research was conducted to collect qualitative data from various travel websites and statistical data from various sources about travel. This helped to develop an understanding of user expectations for travel products. The following information was uncovered during my market research:

• 91% of travelers say it is important to take “ethical trips”.

• 86% of travelers agree that it is important that the travel company reinvests into the community being visited.

• 78% of travelers are more likely to book with a travel company which reinvests into the communities being traveled to.

• 51% of U.S. travelers typically spend less than a week researching trips before booking.

• 80% of trips booked by Generation X is done by mom.

• The majority of people booking travel seek to have some type of new or unique experience.

• 93% of Generation Z will seek out the best deal while booking travel.

• The millennial generation is a bit less thrifty while booking trips and is not afraid to go into debt for a great travel experience.

1-on-1 Interviews.

Interviews were conducted to weed out any assumptions and answer any hypotheses that were created. General questions of travel and activities created a good baseline of user expectations when booking travel. Also, this process helped teach about any pain points, frustrations, or positive points the interviewees had while booking travel and while traveling. To see the full interview transcripts please click here.

Empathy Map.

Following the 1-1 Interviews, I created an empathy map by referring to the transcripts and notes taken during the interviews. The main points I was able to pull from the maps were:

• Users seek new experiences.

• Users are influenced by peers.

• Users prefer to share experiences with others.

• Users do most research online.

Feature Roadmap.

Referring back to the completed research and the project brief, this set of features was created. This Feature Roadmap includes features listed in order of priority with a brief description and why it is listed.

Open Card Sort.

An open card sort was a valuable way to begin developing the Information Architecture. This was done by observing the participants sorting each card to how they thought these should be organized. Following the individual card sorting exercise, I had the group sort the cards as a team to gain insight into how they worked together to create the new groupings.

Product Requirements.

After completing the Sitemap, a fluid document was created outlining the different UI Requirements. This document will serve as a checklist for the various required pages, features, and elements. This document will also play a key role in team alignment to help ensure that no elements are forgotten about.

Task Flow.

Based off of the tasks done in the storyboard and the IA created in the Site Map, a Task Flow was created to show the different actions and pages involved to complete the tasks. Creating this task flow helped define the main pages and hierarchy of actions which will be necessary in the site design.

Responsive Mid Fidelity Wireframes.

Using the mid fidelity wireframes, a set of mid fidelity, responsive wireframes were created. These wireframes helped visualize how the various elements will behave when the screen size changes. This process helped weed out elements by importance as some elements needed to be re-arranged or disappear completely. Resizing elements was kept to a minimum to help manage costs and to keep the site recognizable between the various sizes.

Mood Board.

Before putting pen to paper, a mood board was created on Pinterest to help narrow down colors, text, and create a general direction to create Zeit’s brand. Doing this helped narrow down ideas for a direction that aligned with Zeit’s branding requirements.

Before creating the mood board, six descriptive brand attributes were created:

• Modern

• Historical

• Memorable

• Joyful

• Timeless

• Trustworthy

UI Kit.

While the site started to really take form, a UI Kit was created. This includes all of the elements utilized throughout the site. This fluid document will be shared between various teams for quick and useful reference to ensure consistency throughout the design process.

High-Fidelity Prototype.

To facilitate user testing, an interactive prototype was created with InVision. The prototype contains 33 high fidelity wireframes with dedicated hotspots allowing the users to complete various tasks.

Usability Tests.

Along with the prototype, a usability test plan was created based on the task flow. The test plan was developed to evaluate how users interact with the site, how they navigate the site, and to find pain points, frustrations, failures, and positive points.

During the usability tests detailed notes were taken highlighting the way users navigated the site and how they utilized certain features. Also, quotes were notated detailing pain points, questions, and positive remarks about the site. These results were critical in revising the different areas of the site where users experienced difficulties.

Affinity Map.

Referring to the notes taken from the usability tests, there were many helpful insights, frustrations, and positive remarks to help create an affinity map. The insights and notes were grouped together by similarities and then re-grouped by instances shared by users. Some commonalities that were noted included:

• Users didn’t understand the main trip search feature.

• Users found the “Least Recent/Most Recent” filter sort option to be confusing.

• Breadcrumbs need to be more visible.

To see the full affinity map process, please click here

Priority Revisions.

After reviewing the insights and results from the user tests, the following revisions were determined to be most important:

• Update trip search feature to include inactive fields, update button to ensure functionality

• Update breadcrumbs to be more legible

• Reword or remove the “Least Recent/Most Recent” filter sort options

• Add a confirmation number, email confirmation, and possible user account option for trip access after booking

• Implement a way for form entries to be remembered if page is revisited

• Update “Amount Due” to be more prevalent

• Update “Trip Overview” to be higher in hierarchy