TripSecret
An end to end mobile app where you can travel like a local and discover the ‘hidden gems’ in a city
Project Details
Type
End to End Mobile App
Emphasis
UX Research, UX Writing
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Adobe illustrator, Google
slides, Pen and paper
Role
UX Researcher, UX & UI Designer
“I would never look at Tripadvisor. It’s the epitome of ‘not cool’ because it’s so popular. I want to find the ‘hard to find things’ you have to live there to know about.” - Client
Background
This idea was born from a struggle to find unique experiences when traveling. The client was frustrated and wanted to make it easier for travelers to find food, events, art, or music in a new city.
Her idea was to be able to quickly feel like a local in a new city, to discover the ‘hidden gems’ in a city, experience the local culture, and be able to share with a community of others who appreciate the same kind of travel.
Problem
The struggle and frustration when traveling to find hip local places to patron, which can create unique experiences and define a trip.
Solution
Provide travelers a way to be able to easily see and discover a new place, like a local would know about, so the traveler has an enhanced experience.
Goal
The goal is to research, design, and build an MVP application to be able to share and pitch to investors.
Prototype
Provisional Persona
The “Anti-Tourist”
I knew from the beginning, with this concept ,we would be attracting a specific audience. My assumptions about the “Anti-Tourist” persona were:
Likes to travel
Doesn’t need the comforts of luxury, planned excursions, or all-in-one resorts, in fact those experiences are the exact opposite of what they desire.
Doesn’t like chain restaurants, big box stores, chain hotels or anything that is going to have the same exact experience every time.
Has an appreciation for food/art/music and wants to incorporate these into their travel vs just hitting the hotspots.
When I met with the client, I was concerned this idea would turn into “just another travel app” because:
Saturation of products tackling specific parts of the travel experience - booking, maps, hotels, flights, transportation, budgeting etc.
Saturation of apps to curate and plan excursions in the top-rated destination sites, which usually consist of family friendly activities like zoos and museums.
Differentiation & Value Prop
No ratings
b/c businesses change just to get ratings
Not just another blog
there are plenty of these already
No paid or curated experiences
felt like the anti-thesis of what we were going for
How will we set ourselves apart?
How would we differentiate? We set out to define what we were not and then trust we would discover the rest in the design process
The Process
Discovery
Empathize
Design
Delivery
Market Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Interviews
Problem Statement
Project Goals
Feature Analysis
Sitemap
Flows
Sketch
Wireframing
Visual design
Hi-fi design
Prototype
Usability Testing
Iterate
Define
Personas
Empathy Map
Storyboard
Discovery
I thoroughly enjoyed the discovery phase on this project. I felt like an archeologist and sculptor at the same time. Each step of the way I was digging to find the truth and shaping what would come next.
Research
Research Objectives
My core objectives in the research phase that I wanted to learn were based on the challenges I had identified thus far:
To understand how users currently find and decide on what to do when they get to a travel destination.
To discover if there is a desire or interest to share and learn about others’ experiences when traveling.
To learn how users plan their own experiences, what’s important in an experience, and what will aid in decision making.
FACTS
Market Landscape
$639 billion spend in 2022 (estimated)
70% of all customers do their research on a smartphone
TRAVEL APPS IN EXISTENCE
Booking flight/hotel (Travelocity, Expedia, Hopper)
Getting around (Uber, Lyft, Lime)
Budgeting/Itinerary (Tripit)
TREND
Emphasis on trips focusing on experience
Millennials desire unique locations + doing unique things
TAKEAWAYS
The travel industry is MASSIVE
Design for mobile (app) is the correct place to launch the project
There are a limited number of companies actually tackling the traveler activities and experiences once someone arrives at their destination
There is a demand for unique experiences
First, I needed to get a general landscape of the travel industry in order to know where we would fit. Here were my main takeaways:
The market landscape gave me the reassurance we were designing on the RIGHT platform, tackling a part of travel that wasn’t AS saturated as I thought, and there was a DEMAND for our focus.
Narrowing focus and digging deeper
Businesses in the travel industry were “a plenty”, I found many apps I’d never even heard of. They all were slightly different, but also similar. I wondered, was our idea already “solved” for? I needed to get a handle of all of the different companies, so I mapped them out, since I’m more of a visual person.
First, I started to group similarities, I discovered themes and value props out of this mapping.
The businesses were either a BLOG or BOOKING site.
You could either PAY for a CURATED experience or SEARCH and choose a place.
Value Proposition
Based on the problem and the client needs, I could address what we were NOT!
NOT a curated experience
NOT a booking site.
NOT a blog site
MY HYPOTHESIS
We would most likely fall somewhere in the range of search & organic experiences
Don’t forget to ask your audience!
Because of my value prop assessment, I could do a comparative analysis of the businesses within the area we were focussing on.
I wanted to discover
Comparative Analysis
I chose the competitors I did because they were the top sites my users used.
My takeaway = don’t just google, ask your users.
What they were doing well?
How they were solving for users?
Discover if there were any opportunities for us?
MUST HAVES
Search, filter, map options
Easy to make reservations
Save favorites
Tags for quick identification
OPPORTUNITY
Recommend Itineraries
Locals/Experts give recommendations
Up to date helpful local travel information
User Interviews
This was going to be the fun part because I knew this is where I would discover what user problem we would actually be solving for.
One assumption I had was what a “unique experience” was. I felt I was using the word “cool”, “hip” and “unique” a little too much and didn’t actually know how others defined this. This was important for me to discover in the interviews to know how to design for it.
people
interviewed
yrs old
Trip planners (plan trip for themselves, couple, or group)
Jobs in creative field
have a strong aversion to Tripadvisor
The biggest takeaway that shaped every design decision afterward was how the users would FIND the coolest restaurants or shops when traveling
TOP 2
57% Friend Recommendations
43% Locals (server at restaurant, airbnb host, etc)
Why? Because these were TRUSTED sources.
“I wouldn’t pay for experiences. I can get benefit, satisfaction, and depth from creating my own experience.”
“I don’t want a specific experience, I want to browse and discover”
“Most travel sites are terrible, I don’t trust them .”
“Not Tripadvisor because those are tourists leaving reviews. those aren’t ppl that have same priority or values as me.”
Need for “up-to-date” local information
Need to know where to go for last minute planning, which creates the uniqueness
Enhance experience - when the history or story of a place is known
User Interview Insights & Themes
57% of users were upset when they didn’t have specific and relevant local information for their trip that was necessary for safety, following local regulations, and transportation needs.
71% of users have an “anchor” reason for traveling and plan the anchor. Everything else is flexible and filled in last minute while at the location or right before leaving.
57% shared that when they learn or know the history or a story behind a place/building/structure the experience of that moment is enhanced
Desire to recreate experiences seen from influencers
Users dont trust reviews from tourists, they trust people who travel like they do or have similar interests, these are friends, locals, or noteworthy bloggers/influencers, or just photos.
DEFINITIONS of “UNIQUE” EXPERIENCES
“Unplanned exploration”
”It’s the newness. You’ve never done it before”
”No expectations”
”Something you weren’t expecting”
Empathize
User Persona
Who am I designing for?
Confession, during this project I referred back to Melanie every time I got stuck on what to do or how to design the next step.
I didn’t realize how key the user persona is, until this client project.
I would think about her, what she cared about (unplanned exploration, access trusted sources), and what her frustrations were (wasting time, hard to find information) and then would know how to proceed in designs.
Empathy Mapping
Keeping me in the same lane with my user
Creating the empathy map was a way to get inside Melanies brain and feel like I was having a conversation with her whenever I needed to keep my design decisions in lane with her.
Storyboarding
I chose to storyboard to put all the user problems I’d discovered into context. I wanted to discover where in the travel experience problems currently surfaced and where Melanie would possibly use the app in her travels that would be able to solve for these problems.
Define
User Problem Statement
What I discovered in the user interviews was Melanie didn’t come out and say what her problem was. Instead, I got to read between the lines and discover what her desires and goals were.
The four areas I chose to focus on were:
Project Goals
New constraints added + realignment
Before moving forward, I met with the client to share my findings. This was a critical meeting because I got more clarity on aspects of the app important to her. Plus, new “constraints” were added.
I thought the constraints were going to limit the app growth or go against what users wanted, but then I discovered most of the stakeholder desires aligned with users.
Ex) The stakeholder wanted to control the content with an “invite only” model. She also wanted to control what got posted that was “cool”.
Since users wanted to go to the “coolest” places trusted by their friends (or locals) these constraints actually aligned with user desires - WIN WIN
Defining who we are in the marketplace
Feature Mapping
Trust is built in the community
- Create an “Invite Only” model
- Will be a social platform. Users will be able to follow local guides, see where friends have been
Unique experiences come from being able to BOOK and PLAN last minute
- Connect booking / reservations to third party apps
- Allow users to add trending news and local updates
With a new lens, there can be new discoveries
Feature Analysis
Now I had an idea of the features that would be a part of the app, I wanted to take a look again at the competition through the eyes of the features I was designing for to see who was excelling at these. I could draw inspiration from what was working well, and iterate from there.
I admit, I went a little overboard with the number of sites I analyzed. I found the smaller apps/websites had unique features that worked well (they were solving for some of the problems my users had - like last minute trip planning, finding the coolest places etc). I took time to analyze the small, medium, and large apps.
I was inspired by:
TripScout - city info that was actually digestible and “know before you go” feature
Trippin World - you could follow see what local experts artists recommend in an area
Thrillsst & Infatuation - hip way of explaining the place, and only listed favorites.
Step Your World - map feature, where you could easily filter by food/shops
User & Task Flows
Onboarding - The app is invite only, so i needed to get this right. To establish community and trust right off the bat. Also, there was going to be new language like “gems” and “shout” so I wanted to make sure a new user was expertly onboarded.
Add content - this would be part of the user generated content that contributes to trending news and local info
Discover and save - where the “last minute” finds would be seen
Explore - a way to see the coolest places in a city youll be traveling to - by those you trust most - the local experts and your friends
I initially chose 3 flows, as I was designing, realized a 4th one was needed (added to wireframes and hi-fidelity designs)
Design
Wireframes
Although this was going to be more of a social app where you could follow and take a peak at what locals and friends recommended, the biggest design decision was to make the MAP the default home and the main way a user would navigate.
From a previous project I’d completed, which included maps, I learned users rarely choose the complex filter option, like you might do when shopping for clothes. For maps, either give them the filter tag on the map screen or let them search around. I decided to make filter tags based on what the users are aiming achieve (ex. “dont miss”, “last min” “tonight”)
SOLUTION : Map navigation
WHY: Users want to quickly find last minute gems
Iterations
Feedback early and often pays off
When designing for mobile: use space wisely
I designed 2 cards where the user could quickly see the details of a place pop up in the card, when clicked.
I originally liked the pop up right on top because the ease of correlation (usability heuristic).
Color, it’s your communication to the user
I originally had the map linking to google maps with a color map.
Early feedback I received was that the user didn’t know what to look at, and since I was specifically using the color to communicate the types of gems, I needed to make some iterations.
Iterations made:
Change map to grayscale
Add icons to show a second distinction of the gem
However, the feedback when testing, was that it was too small and wasn’t a good use of space.
Second option - make it easier to read, similar to google maps (consistency heuristic) - this was the winner.
Visual Design
When the client came to me with this concept, all she had was an idea to gamify travel. She didn’t want it to be super “silicon valley” appy, she wanted it to be cool, just like the local hidden gems you find in a city, there is a charm about them.
I approached the name, logo, and visual design with this in mind.
I was inspired by old school maps, treasure chests, pirates - classic and charming.
I now present.......TripSecret!
TripSecret Brand Design
Branding and logo
Final Designs
Delivery
Prototype
Flow 1 & 2
Flow 3
Flow 4
Onboarding & Search/Save
Explore
Add a Gem
Usability Testing
moderated user tests
female : male
Successes
"I like this a lot, much more than what I’ve seen on the internet so far"
"I love the 'what to order' part. Everyone wants to know that"
"I really want TripSecret. When does it come out? It’s genius. It’s really cool"
"I would love an app like this. It’s a whole world. I’m excited for it and what I would discover in it."
Pain point & Iterations
0% clicked on the underlined city guide = failure
The red hurts my eyes. I cant see it very well.”
0% liked or understood the name “cool cats” = failure
“I need space between ‘when to go’ and pairings. I went to Root Cafe and my eyes have to fight to understand the place when I see the recommended pairings”
All of the decisions below were taken from synthesizing my usability tests and completing affinity maps and priority matrixes to identify the high priority iterations.
yr olds
were surprised and delighted by the history, cultural info of the place
liked the designs at the onboarding pages
Anytime I shared the app concept with anyone - 100% of the time people said they would use an app like this - so I’m going to call that a major success!
really connected with the “invite only” and community feel of the app
Conclusion
Next steps
Continue to iterate and develop full prototype and retest
Pitch to investors at couchsurfing (a good fit)
Become silicon billionaire ;)
Lessons Learned
Give users the option of choice where possible. Dont throw all the information at them at once.
Ex. instead of showing all of the “moments shared” feature, use an accordion to let the user discover more. They feel in control and interact with the site more. How might I create more interactive features so user can relate with app more?
Give user commands and tell them what to do when collecting information from them vs asking questions.
Ex. Instead of “What makes it a gem?”, change it to “Choose gem category”
Language is important, it builds trust, and needs to be clear and in alignment with the brand.
Ex. 0% of users resonated with “cool cats”.