VentureNode Travel App
Reframing what travel means and empowering users to be curious about their surroundings— starting from their very own backyard.
With the world opening back up again (and stable this time), the opportunity to travel has quickly become a way of interacting with the world as well as get away from the everyday grind. It can, however, be quite expensive in time, money, and energy to find, plan, and travel somewhere.
Problem
Instead of tying travel to the idea that it must be in a certain faraway and mystical place (although escapism is so real), VentureNode seeks to help users' understand what their personal interests and motivations are in order to turn the reason WHY they travel into small adventures that are manageable and just as rewarding.
Solution
Target Audience
Travelers in their 20s to early 30s who are interested in traveling consciously.
UX Research, UI Design, Branding, Prototyping, User Testing
Roles
Project Duration
January ‘23 - July ‘23
Platform
Tools Used
Figma, Optimal Workshop
Mobile Web-App
Conducting Research
Research Goal
I wanted to understand what users' individual needs were, what motivated them, and what factors made them actualize travel plans.
User Interviews
Five interviews took place in person and on Google Meet, with age ranging between 23-28 years old. These people, on average, travel 3 to 5 times a year, with 1 to 2 being bigger trips that usually last for a long weekend up to 2 to 3 weeks.
Credible
Everyone valued a level of credibility, either through recommendations from friends, family, favorite online personalities, blog posts, or online reviews.
Connection
Everyone wanted to build a deep or deeper connection with the people they travel with or locals in the area they went to.
Fun
The trips needed to be stimulating and fun. People go on these trips to experience something that is apart from their day-to-day life.
Stress-Free
Everyone valued a stress-free trip, with planning (ranging from just having a list of activities to everything planned to the hour) done beforehand to make the trip go smoothly.
Transportation
A major obstacle that everyone faced was finding an ideal mode of transportation while factoring its cost.
Strong focus on discovery and learning about how to travel
Goes further than suggestions and prepares budget, modes of transportation, and accommodation tips per travel destination
No way of saving interesting articles or travel destinations for future use
"Your planner friend" that plans fun things to do in the local area
Fun and exciting branding and and relatable tone and makes engaging with the app more exciting
Fun and exciting branding and and relatable tone and makes engaging with the app more exciting
Most booking and reservations could be done directly through the website
Provides reviews for community feedback and builds credibility
Too focused on popular destinations or touristy spots as opposed to refining the results to accommodate the user's needs
Competitive Analysis
I wanted to get a better idea of the industry itself and discover opportunities for solutions that I could fill. Looking at the companies I was able to see what expectations, issues, and upcoming changes exist.
In order to form a deeper understanding of the users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors I created 2 personas to account for experienced travelers/people that plan more loosely, and newer travelers/people who prefer more structure.
Meet Kelly and Kenneth
With the data synthesized and empathy manifested, I considered key features that would work for both Kelly and Kenneth in an Affinity Map. These were the three major flows that would make the largest impact for them in a MVP (Minimum viable product).
Key Features
Personalized Questionnaire
Shows locations, activities, and content creators catered to the user’s travel style, budget, and interests
Encouraging Proactivity
For users to feel more motivated to look at traveling from a different perspective and embracing their local area, such as featuring local guides that highlight unique places
Diversity in Destination Discoverability
Allows users to search and discover based on a combination of locations, the content creators, or the activities
Using the user flows that were determined I began sketching several possibilities to determine what was the best visual solution for the problem.
After I sketching out the different ideas, I began to map it out in mid-fi. Doing things in Mid-fidelity helped bring my ideas to life without getting lost in the details. With Mid-Fidelity, I focused on the visual hierarchy and the placement of elements.
Ideation
➡
For VentureNode, I wanted it to look playful, adventurous, and curious. This landed on a branding that encompasses a playful sophistication, as many young adults desire tapping into their “inner child”, and finding a balance of nature and urbanism.
The colors orange and the green play on the balance between the outgoing and the shy, the sprawling urban scene and the serene natural wonders.
The typeface is structured but wide and round, making it seem approachable.
The logo is a location tag with crossing lines on it to show the different directions one can go and the different intersectionalities or connections that can be made.
Branding
After creating the high-fidelity frames and prototyping, I conducted a usability test with 5 participants. With varying levels of travel experience, they were able to validate many assumptions made during research, while also highlighting certain pain points that allowed for areas of improvement.
Usability Testing
3/5 wondered what the purpose of having a content creator-focused section was for.
3/5 vocalized wanting more credibility when looking at new locations.
2/5 people wanted more personalization for the questionnaire.
All were able to sign-up and fill out questionnaire with no problems.
I organized the feedback into a Impact/Effort Grid in order to determine what I should focus on in the next iteration of the prototype. These points centered around two major points:
Expanding on the purpose of the questionnaire and rewarding the user for filling it out.
Adding more human elements/creator focused functions that set the web-app apart from other programs and creating more credibility.
With the synthesis from the user testing and prioritizing now complete, I was able to move back into the wireframes and implement my insights.
Iterations
“The questionnaire isn’t very rewarding; I don’t know what I gain from it.”
Before
(1) Very basic prototype with no flexibility
(2) Had no “reward” for finishing the questionnaire
(3) Homepage was the same before and after the questionnaire
(4) Did not clarify the different sections
After
(1) Created a more integrated prototype experience
(2) New section showcases customized results through onboarding
(3) Changed the beginning and ending homepages
(4) Added a section break to explain the purpose of the next questions
“What do the tags do? I didn’t think I had to add them myself.”
Before
(1) Wasn’t always clear where these places were
(2) Tags were relatively generic and common (potentially hard to find places with unique traits)
(3) Redundant actions led to decision fatigue
(4) Tags were already generated, users didn’t need to put more
After
(1) Added “city, country” to point out the different locations
(2) Showcased tags according to the categorized lists
(3) Removed “Want more suggestions? Refresh!” so users would click “view more”
(4) Tags is now automated function throughout the app and the text box is replaced with notes
“I like the idea of content creators, but I’m not sure what they’re doing here.”
Before
(1) Just viewing and following a creator wasn’t a special feature
(2) What purpose did ‘post’ serve?
(3) It’d be nice to know what themes the guides would cover
After
(1) By going from looking at locations to save to finding a content creator to follow shows the flexibility in finding new ideas
(2) Posts features photos of content creator’s recent travels which can be found in the destination info page of the place they take photos at
(3) Tags were added to the guides as well to further implement the usage of tags and keywords
I found being able to create a product from concept to prototype really insightful. It also made it all the more enjoyable to focus on traveling with intention and to find solutions that could help others navigate traveling with more intention and ease. Throughout the process of building VentureNode, I learned the balance of sticking to methods and designs that I know best while also trying out ideas from feedback I’d received in order to create a little bit of novelty and something desirable. With a finite timeframe, being able to discern what was plausible or not really challenged me to find creative solutions that would address the problem, not cut corners, and still be able to be achieved in the limited time.
Reflection
If I were to continue this project, I would like to further research how to create more connections through the app. While I believe there is a lot of credibility and connections built into the app, such as the content creators, sharing trips with friends, the review section, and guides, I believe there are still so many more ways to build connections. For example, I would consider implementing a flow that would allow users to create groups that would allow for conversations to form and encourage more interaction and ideation for like minded people to create new plans that could finally “make it out of the group chat.”