TripBook

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Whether we are planning a complete trip or planning a trip on a whim, after we have planned our vacation, we still have to deal with air tickets, transportation, sightseeing itineraries, and other planning issues. With all these complicated processes, we always need to plan thoroughly to make proper arrangements. In addition, we want to invite our travel buddies to plan the trip together, but there is no place like the cloud to plan together, so we can only record our schedule in notes.

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We observed that various tools on the market for itinerary planning are mostly focused on the purpose of "organizing the itinerary", without the function of editing with others, and can only share the completed itinerary with travel partners through sharing. In summary, we have summarized our insights below:

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• Too many trips to choose a suitable one.
• unable to edit and share my trip planning with partners.
• Many people are unable to plan their travel itineraries efficiently in travel time, traffic and details.

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Travel planning is one of the most important aspects before going on a trip, especially during Covid-19, when it is necessary to understand the suitability of each scenic spot more carefully. Although there are similar travel planning tools on the market, people found it inconvenient to use or disliked using them due to various factors.

To understand potential users' thoughts and develop design directions, we will conduct a more detailed study.

To understand the needs of our target users for travel planning, we conducted some simple surveys and interviews with potential users. Due to time constraints, we interviewed 10 users and summarized the results as follows:

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We found that most people have the habit of planning their travel itineraries, and many people said they could not find a suitable planning tool when creating their itineraries. Users said that when looking for reviews, they just want to quickly understand the key information of the trip. Most of the people said that the planning of the itinerary can not be edited together, so the itinerary is mostly edited by one person. However, it is less efficient to communicate back and forth in that way.
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When some users search for attractions, what they need more than anything else is to see a list of recommended places to visit and suggested tours. In addition, how to quickly find attractions and add them to the schedule is also important to users. We observed that the information on the travel websites in the market is too complicated and trivial for a trip planner to find the level of functionality needed.

Refine the Problem

• Users are unable to plan travel itineraries with their partners.
• The information on travel websites is too complex for planners.
• It isn't easy to change the planned itinerary at any time.

After confirming the project and goals, I quickly sketched down the ideas with pen and paper. This helped me visualize the ideas in the brain and quickly plan the features I needed.

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Wireframe

Before the formal high-fidelity prototyping, I sketched the wireframe in Figma for more detailed planning. I also thought about the overall color palette, components, and various levels of planning. This was to ensure that all plan meets the functional requirements and can be easily adjusted at a later time.

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Complete and intuitive travel planning and community resources

‍The landing page is designed to give users an intuitive way to take the action they need to take. It guides users through account registration, trip planning, community information, article recommendations, and more.

To increase our target audience and potential customers, we first designed the landing page and presented the message clearly on the page: "Our feature is to help you plan your trip!"

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Increase willingness to use

Planning a trip can be a hassle and a headache, so it is important to improve the experience of planning a trip. We have set up simple features and tutorials on the landing page so that users can understand the benefits and ease of trip planning provided by TripBook at a glance when they enter the landing page.

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In Sections 3 and 4, I have planned the Recommended and Favorite travel types. In the Recommended section, besides showing the currently discounted attractions, users can also use the switch button to view the most popular, closest, and latest recommendations, which will give users more inspiration to arrange their trips after multiple references.  Of course, these will also be integrated into the community.

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Rich advice for your journey

Another feature of TripBook is the community. Through the official editors' selected travelogues on the home page, users can read other people's travelogues to add inspiration to their arrangements and learn more about each destination.

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After logging in, users can see their calendar, community recommendations and personal backstage. They can also see their current, upcoming and past trips on the main page. When we default to not having any trip planning, we will guide the user to click on the "Create a TripBook" button to guide them to create further.

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During the creation process, we have limited the options to 5, considering that too many options would make users less patient.

On the creation screen, you will fill in the trip name, dates, single or group travel, invite friends (appears when group travel is checked), and notes for the trip, which will be entered when creating TripBook.

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After completing the creation, the block on the right will change to search places and the user's favorite records, and the user can drag the desired trip to the daily itinerary by searching.
In the main itinerary block, we can see the blocks on the left divided by morning, afternoon, and evening by color. Each travel process is displayed in a green block. Users can make changes through TripBook at any time, before or during the trip.

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Consistent visual and experience planning

To ensure a consistent visual plan and user experience across all pages, I defined a basic design system for the project to improve design consistency and to think through the hierarchy of each page. The design system also helped me to communicate more smoothly with the subsequent development needs.

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While working on the high-fidelity prototype, I will also work on the component library, which not only makes the overall vision more consistent but also increases the convenience of production.

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This project topic started when I attended a course at Hahow taught by Simon, a UX designer who I respect very much.

It was an interface design challenge organized by the course. I was given two weeks to complete the design process and the outcome. Starting with getting 5 user stories, it was a challenge to push my limits and how far I could go. I was lucky to be selected as a shortlist from over 200 participants and I continued to iterate on the design to make it more complete.

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I learned a valuable lesson from this: You never know how far you can reach until you try!

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