Carevan

Three paths of discovery leading research

Our research plan was based off discovering what tools groups use when it comes to making activity decisions and allocating the costs. From here we established three research questions:

Insightful information

With the insight gained from interviews, we developed an affinity diagram and determined categories of focus for our users. Below demonstrates the key insights from our data:

Easier management

Interviewees suggest they desire an efficient, beginner-friendly way to manage travel and book experiences.

More travel

People want to travel, it's just most lack the experience to start or abundance of time and money.

Split payments

Data suggests people need a third-party to request money from friends, however it can be frustrating figuring out correct amounts.

Planning

Frequent travelers often face challenges managing all their costs, affecting their ability to participate in desired activities.

Who we are designing for

Features for the avid adventurer

The ideation process started with an "What I like, I wish, what if" brainstorm that was divided into idea clusters. These clusters we're reorganized by importance in a feature prioritization matrix that was then developed into several ideations:

User Flow

Critical in the development of the wire-framing process, we needed to decide how we wanted the user to navigate through the app effectively, mitigating any room for errors. We prioritized creating a familiar experience to support an inviting interface.

Developing the interface

Translating an idea into a tangible design can often stray from an initial idea. By having the user flow completed I stitched together a bland palette. The pieces were then refined visually to my art direction.

Testing for usability

By creating tasks we could determine any means of improvement to further improve user experience on our app.

Opportunity for improvements

Through testing we discovered the interface had some serious work to be done. There was a low success rate and we used this opportunity to iterate a reimagined prototype.

Iterating changes based off testing

Below is a graphic of all the changes and reasoning behind the major developments of the dashboard, which went through trials of testing.

The biggest obstacle I faced was the creation of the of the user dashboard. I had to consider what was relevant enough to the user and what needed to be reached as easily as possible. Through guerilla-testing there were several iterations made. The most important change was merging the dashboard with the search screen. For the other iterations we created a 2x2 prioritization matrix with the key changes being a bottom navigation for quick to reach items, giving trips a centralized button, uniformity in size and font and the rename of sections such as 'explore' to 'search' and 'payments' to 'cart'.

High-Fidelity Prototype

Final thoughts and future iterations

After all the rounds of user testing, the design resulted in a perfect completion rate of our designated tasks. I was proud of leading the direction of the design as the app has a personal, distinguished aesthetic. Given more time I would iterate on a social aspect that would follow the profile creation and friend feature. Also the options for different hotels wasn't included but is a crucial element in the entire booking process. As my first project in interface design there are some inconsistencies that need to be addressed in the physical design but overall, I am excited with the outcome.