Group travel logistics planning with ease.

A case study of the creation of an app that will make the collaboration of all individuals traveling in a group easier. The app will first be built for iOS, followed by Android.


The love for travel does not go away when people become parents.

Families love to travel, even with extended family. Families and the designated “organizer” of travel, don’t like the logistics and planning travel—especially with many calendars and needs to consider. Planning can be time-consuming, frustrating, and key planning details scattered amongst emails, chats, calendars, etc.

Travel Calendar is an app that is a collaborative solution in which helps the organizer of travel or an event plan, plan the details before book booking hotels, flights, etc. Users of this app are empowered with clarity in dates and possible destinations before tackling booking travel. Travel Calendar will allow all individuals to import and submit his or her calendars. With all party’s calendars submitted, Travel Calendar will help determine the best travel dates for your group.

Try the prototype

Step 1: Research, creating and building a vision
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

After in-depth research of competitors, it was discovered that there not many, if any, solutions to travel logistics planning. Competitors of Travel Calendar offer solutions such as reviews, discounted rates, mobile app, and entertainment bookings.

Before a family or group reaches the point in which typical travel booking apps offer solutions, a family needs to know travel dates. Without a solution like Travel Calendar, a user will not only have to know pre-determined travel dates but also (if looking for best deals) know alternative dates on the fly.

Goals

  • figure out the logistics before planning
  • organize schedules
  • organized each individual’s needs

Motivations

  • accessibility of each adult
  • schedules
  • compatibility with other travel tools
  • custom family needs
  • flexibility
  • ease of use
Project Type
UI/UX Design
Role

UI/UX Designer

User Testing

Research

Live Link
https://participate.lookback.io/FrbT9c
Deliverables
  • User Research
  • User Testing
  • UI Design
  • Wireframing
  • Mockups
  • App Design
  • UX Design

The Challenge

Interview results were sorted and mapped into trending topics. Key needs, gripes, and experiences were consolidated into a key persona. This persona represents Travel Calendar’s target market.

Jessica Contreras: 34 year old, Graphic Designer residing in Vienna, VA

Persona

Jessica enjoys traveling, especially flying. She frequently takes short road trips and takes one big trip with her family a year that usually involves flying.

Jessica leads travel booking for her family. There are many travel booking options, websites, and discount vendors to use. She usually begins planning well in advance to give her time to gather family needs, schedules, and holidays. There are many different calendars and schedules that Jessica must consider with planning the logistics of traveling with her family. School, her work schedule, her husband’s work schedule, children’s school and extracurricular, and the schedules of any other family members that are traveling with her family, are all calendars that need to be considered before booking travel. Gathering these schedules is frustrating and time-consuming—this is Jessica’s least favorite part about booking travel; logistic planning. With these details in mind, Jessica then begins her travel booking search.

Jessica needs an easy way to gather logistics in planning her family’s vacation. A way for all family members to input and collaborate calendars and travel needs in one easily accessible place.  

Key Characteristics

  • Enjoys traveling
  • Spends more time in logistic planning of travel
  • juggles many schedules and needs for vacation planning
  • Has a very tight schedule between work and family—in addition to any extended family traveling with (or meeting up)

Goals/needs

  • What is the persona’s primary need?
  • Coordinating and collaborating logistic and planning needs
  • The ability to see family/kid-specific amenities/details at booking

Frustrations

  • Very busy schedule
  • The family has a busy schedule
  • Hard time collaborating/coordinating many schedules
  • Often must cancel/reschedule bookings because no travel dates were missed in logistic planning

Travel loving busy mom

“The hardest part is figuring out when to travel”

Site Map

Interview results were sorted and mapped into trending topics. Key needs, gripes, and experiences were consolidated into a key persona. This persona represents Travel Calendar’s target market.

Usability Test

 Positives

  • Intuitive layout
  • Easy to add users
  • Liked the ability to see who was tied to the account
  • Liked being able to import calendars
  • Liked destinations feature
  • Liked how the recommended travel dates vary by month

Issues

  • Breadcrumbs needed
  • Back button
  • Wanted working menu
  • Iconography need
  • Wanted a visible menu
  • Would like sitemap
  • Wanted walkthrough
  • Tooltips
  • Wanted dashboard to show a snapshot of all features instead of links
Welcome
Create Account
Login
Add Calendar
Grant Permissions
Calendar
Invite Users
Email Users
Generate Link
Dashboard
Destinations
Users

The Next Steps

MVP (Minimum Viable Product)—learn, validate and invalidate assumptions

Many insights were learned from user testing the prototype. Changes to improve navigation, product knowledge and tooltips are the next tasks. The visual and graphic design will be applied to colors and imagery. The hierarchy will further be addressed by adjusting typography for emphasis and readability.

Travel Calendar will be updated with an MVP strategy in mind. Users requested a more functional dashboard with snapshots of the product’s features. As these dashboard modules are developed, they will be released one at a time.