My RoleProduct Designer
Timeline
Mar - Jun 2020
9 Weeks
Team
2 × UX Designers
1 × Project Manager
1 × Visual Designer
1 × Developer
Tools
Figma
Optimal Sort
Product Design
Working in intense collaboration with the client and the cross functional team, we had weekly planning meetings and follow-ups to understand business/user requirements, define priorities and set product goals.
Information Architecture
Used design methods and co-creation workshops to fight complexity and break problems into an easy to use solution.
Design System
Created a design system to collaborate with the distributed engineering team, scaling the product with a consistent experience
The client was very pleased with the design and they decided to continue working with us to bring the site live. However, due to COVID, we postpone the launch.
How can we help a travel agency to find its niche and expand to B2C market?
Star Travel Co, which is a Russian tour operator specializing in inbound tourism in Russia. The company wants to expand its market internationally and switch business from B2B to B2C in need of a digital transformation to appeal to international customers and sell its travel products.
We’ve developed a customizable tour building website that can be booked directly from customers. It provides an untapped market opportunity.
Feature 1.
Find the right tour
• Guiding users to what they want.
• Essential filters to help users scope down choices
Feature 2.
Interactive map
• Contextualized hotel, transportation and attraction information
• The map will display the tour information that you are reading and change correspondingly
Feature 3.
Itinerary Customization
• Compare and personalize tours effortlessly
• View details of each day of the tour itinerary
• Change hotels and attractions easily in customize mode
I conducted 5 usability tests with the original site and a use flow analysis to understand the structure of the original site and user's attitudes.
The original Star Travel Website
Star Travel's Original Site has 245 tourist attraction pages
“I don't know where to go next if I want to book this tour here."
- P3
Flow analysis of the original website 🔍
Star Travel identified their target audience as “English Speaking Travelers”, which was a very broad audience to design for. In order to narrow down the scope for design and align the business focus, we used Alignment Persona so that both the client and the design team can align on which user group to prioritize:
Detailed Persona 🔍
The target users that we concentrated for MVP were Larry the Layback Traveler and Penny the Planner.
We conducted 11 card sorting with Optimal Sort to streamed lined the information architecture as follows, and moved the relevant attraction descriptions under each tour.
Detailed Information Architecture 🔍
We've used sketches and wireframes as a communication tool, bringing clarity and tangibility to the product decisions. Here's where assumptions were validated and product strategy was discussed in the early stages of each new feature.
Sketches for key flow
1st iteration wireframes
After communicating with the client to understand the branding image, I took the lead in and creating a design system for the site from the wireframe system.
Due to time constraints, we conducted 6 rounds of RITE (rapid iterative testing and evaluation) to receive timely feedback and iterate the prototype quickly.
Home page search bar wireframe
Feedback
The label "TOUR TYPE" is confusing and misleading
"Signature" and "Personalize" didn't help users to understand the tours' differences
Having "Both" as one of the options to select all is awkward
Home page search bar with tour explaination
Response
Changing the label to "GROUP/PRIVATE" which is self explanatory
Users found it helpful to use the added tips to explain group/private tour's differences
Use check box that allows users to select multiple options in the search bar
Tour itinerary details page wireframe
Feedback
The information under "Itinerary" is weighted more than the other two tabs on the bar
All itinerary information displayed chronologically on each day is too long and repetitive
Having too many different things can be modified on each day is overwhelming
Tour itinerary details organized into 3 categories
Response
Break the itinerary tab into 3 parts: hotel, transfer, and itinerary
Break the itinerary information accordingly into hotel, transfer and activity itinerary, which align with user's natural organizing logic
Interactive map on the right is appreciated. visualization helps user understand how their day will be like
My team and I presented the project to our client at Star Travel and hosted a critique session to showcase Star Travel Website to industry professionals. We received both great enthusiasm and positive feedback.
"This is a world of difference from the old website!"
- User who tested both the before & after site
"It is really clean and modern!"
- User who identifies as Planner
"I love it, how soon can we start building this?"
- CEO of Star Travel
With the global pandemic, there will be a redistribution of where travelers go. People are more likely to visit smaller communities with personalized planning in a smaller group, which makes customization more valuable.
The Checkout Page is as important as the searching and customizing experience. We are hoping to provide more options for people to specify their needs on their way to confirming the trip. We also to hope to conduct more usability tests with target users who identify as Layback Travelers.
