Carry On

I love exploring new places and learn about new culture. I love visiting local restaurants to see the vibes and sit on a random street to see how local people spend their days. But at the same time, I am a chicken who gets easily afraid of trying something new. My lack of experience and knowledge on traveling have lead me to come up with an idea of creating a travel guiding app - Carry On.

Role

Duration

UX Research,
UI Design,
Prototyping

8 Weeks
(Oct 2021 - Dec 2021)

Team

Individual

BACKGROUND

Travelling sounds exciting when planning a trip isn’t really. Unlike the old days when people would have to rely on books and limited resources to plan a trip, nowadays people surf and dive around too much information out there. People have a hard time deciding what is the best option for them. According to a research study on travel stress - ‘Tourism Analysis, 17, 547-552’ by Crotts, J.C & Zehrer, A (2012), the most stressful part of a trip is the trip planning stage. One of the greatest travel stress associated with making travel arrangements.

Research conducted by Trafalgar also shows that

89% of people feel stressed about planning a trip - especially about arranging and the pressure of researching the right information.

Everyone wants a different, unique, and memorable trip. CarryOn is an app which it is not only helps users to manage and arrange their trip plan but also connects to local experts to help users to design trip that satisfies their desires.

Need a tool that provides more than just visiting
tourist area, but also customized resources that satisfy
specific users’ needs and desires.

RESEARCH & INTERVIEWS

I interviewed 8 people, who travel often as much as once a week to barely once a year.
I used Google form to ask people to fill out the survey.
Participants

Gender : Male & Female
Age : Mid 20s - Late 30s
Family : Single / with Partner
/ with Family (+ Children)

AFFINITY MAP

After interviewing 8 participants, I gathered all of their information and group them into categories as shown on the right.

INSIGHTS

Motivations

Travel to explore new place, culture and people.
Being escape to daily life is the key of the travel.
Travel for social purposes - friends, families, and loved ones.
Googling and gathering information on designated place is a must.
Safety of designated place is most important.

Pain Points

Too much information is out there. People have hard time deciding what is best options for them.
When traveling as a group, it’s hard to combine thoughts and decide on plans. There are too many opinions.
Stressed about if everything is prepared and possibility that plan will be ruined or changed.
Wasting time due to wrong or lack of information.

PERSONAS

How might we help Jane to feel comfortable
and confident when she travels somewhere new?

USER MVP

Through collected datas, surveys and research, I used MoSCow method to define MVP.

As a tourist visiting unfamiliar location, I want information of not only well-known tourist places, but someone to guide me on planning my trip that fits with my personal interests.

USER FLOW

From to MosCow method, I was able to narrow it down what functions are needed priority. I decided to create product where a user can connect to a local expert to customize and design her / his trip.

LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

USABILITY TEST FEEDBACKS & LEARNING

I tested prototype to 8 people who are in range of my target market and gave them a task scenario of :

“Imagine you are not familiar with traveling internationally, but decided to travel to South Korea. You are looking for more of authentic experience - about how locals live and its culture than just touring the area. Being that said, you would like to look for a local person from South Korea who will help you to plan out the trip. Show me how would you book a local expert. “

Through usability test, I was able to find and learn on points that need to be devloped and clarified.

Lack of information - more detail or clear direction on how to complete a task is needed.
Having filter is good, but what if I’m flexible?
If it’s getting connecting with local, it would be great to have explanation how the process work. Is it meeting up with the expert or just being provide the information?
Instead of having small buttons, have whole sections to be clickable.