UX-Case study, November- December 2023

Case: create an app that lets you plan your vacation, including travel options, destinations, and food, with good environmental consciousness.

Are you ready for a crazy adventure that is completely Eco-friendly?

In this case study we wanted to figure out:

  • How it can be easier to travel environmentally friendly?

  • What can be done to reduce the impact of CO2 emissions?

  • How the traveler can be motivated enough to make better choices for the planet?

  • How we can promote good awareness of environmentally friendly choices for the trip, which can be a reflection for the next trip?

Illustration by Karthik Srinivas

Tools:

Figma

Figjam

Miro

Useberry

Surveymonkey

Canva

Excel

ECO-Friendly

Traveling App

Team:

Johanna Martinsen

Jenny Vedal

Kamila Sýkorová

Maren Gullingsen

Research and insight

Define

Ideation and Planning

Mid-fedility prototypes

Usability testing

Table of content

My role:

UX-Designer

Researcher

Interviewer

Workshop facilitator

User persona-flows and task flows

Information Architecture

Prototyping: Sketch, low-fidelity wireframe

User testing

The design process

Timeline:

4 weeks

As a designer I create a process to make a strong foundation for my work.

I’m following the same process when I’m walking through my case studies in this portfolio.

Introduction

In this case-study we have investigated a way to plan a whole Eco-friendly vacation, including information on transport, activities, food and other useful travel information gathered in the same place. We also want to users more aware of environmentally friendly choices for travel, and show how easily it can be done by creating an app that promotes inspiring and credible content. As a final result, we hope to engage more users to make more environmentally friendly choices both before and during the trip, and that the app is experienced as clear, useful and easy to use.

Illustrations by Edward Tapia

To secure a smooth process and include everything, we made a detailed timeline of the whole process.

Empathize phase

Research & Insight

Research goals

High priority questions:

  • What would make users seek an app providing Eco-friendly suggestions for trips and accommodations?

  • Where do users currently seek information or make bookings for Eco-friendly accommodations or activities?

  • How do users currently navigate or make decisions when choosing sustainable travel options?

  • How can we differentiate our app compared to other similar apps?

  • All the methods gave us insight into quantitative and qualitative data. In the competitive analysis, we learned that finding anything similar to what we were looking for was difficult, but some elements can be considered further.

  • In the feature analysis, we found some good features such as an interactive map, goals to make smarter choices, and tips on how to make better choices.

  • When doing the interviews, we discovered that all the participants tried their best to travel Eco-friendly, but none of them found any apps to meet their needs.

  • In the literature review results show that Europeans are more willing to travel Eco-friendly. Many people's travel habits also changed during and after the pandemic, which opens opportunities. An interesting and surprising observation is that many Eco-friendly destinations are affected by wealthy people, which has led to higher prices. Another discovery is that many people are willing to change their habits for better conciseness. Maybe they would if it was easier to make the right choice?

Who is the app for?

The app will be used for travelers (Norwegians? Europeans?) who think of the environment when traveling, who want to contribute on decreasing their own carbon footprints or even save some money.

Why is the product important?

We suffer from overpopulation which goes hand in hand with increased pollution. There is a big need to take immediate action to change our habits. One of the ways to do so is to take greener choices whenever it’s possible to save our planet. This can be done with this app, which can help travelers to enjoy their journeys and be environmentally friendly at the same time.

Low priority questions:

  • How do users with focus on the environment make decisions on which apps to use and where to plan a vacation?

  • What motivates our target users to travel and make eco-friendly choices?

Key Findings

Before crafting our problem statement, we used data from the empathize stage to ask the following questions.

Methods:

  • Interview (4 participants)

  • Survey (61 participants)

  • Competetive analysis

  • SWOT analysis

  • Literature review

  • Feature analysis

  • We needed more quantitative data and surveyed 61 participants. Most participants were in the age of 25-34. We learned that almost 80% of participants prefer traveling both by plane and car. 40% of the participants travel 3-4 times a year. This tells us that a lot of the participants are not Eco-conscious. However, this gives us a chance to raise awareness and motivate potential users to make Eco-friendly choices.

  • About 70% of the participants travel both in-country and in Europe, which supports the data from the literature review; Europeans like traveling in Europe. This means we should take advantage of the train travel, and public transport possibilities.

  • When choosing the destination of their travels, they have different wants and needs; Adventure, relaxation, different cultures, or visiting friends and family. An inspiration to make environmental choices is driven by reducing climate change, but also to save money. Almost none of the participants use any environmentally friendly apps. This, again gives us a great opportunity for a change. We recommend creating an app that makes it easy to make the right choices, while saving money, having fun, and having a good conscious.

The four W`s

What problem can it solve?

The app can bring a solution to let people travel without harming the environment the same as it’s happening today. The app can offer travelers greener choices to take when planning a trip, which helps to protect the environment and allows cheaper travel.

Where is the pain point?

The nowadays problem is actually that there is no such product on a market. According to our research there doesn’t exist any app helping the travelers to take smarter decisions. We have found very few apps with similar thinking that can do a little help when trying to be environmentally friendly. The problem also is some companies using an “environmentally friendly” approach as a business that costs lot of money and therefore may not be affordable for our target users.

How might we help travelers to make more environmental choices?

Primary persona

Define

Vision statement

An app that helps users plan a journey with awareness of sustainable traveling. We shall do so by offering features that can help and inspire users to pick the better choice. The app should make sustainable travel easier and motivating by offering a vacation planner that provides local activity inspiration, tips on how to pack smarter, and a way to order travel tickets with information on the emission impact for whichever transportation they use.

User need statement

As a traveling adventurer who cares about the environment, Gary has difficulty finding efficient and good transportation options to explore around when he travels. He misses a place where all useful information that is relevant during a journey is gathered in one place. Gary also misses a place that shows how little is needed to choose a more environmentally friendly and economical journey.

HMW

How might we fulfill travelers’ expectations about their traveling and be friendly to the environment at the same time?

How might we create a seamless experience collecting all data for transportation for the user`s journey?

How might we promote the local community and activities for travelers?

Key findings of ideation

For the ideation workshop, we have chosen to use brain-writing and mindmapping techniques - both methods of divergent thinking. Based on previous projects they seem very helpful and brought plenty of ideas that led us to a solid final top solution, and prioritized the data in a MoScow.

Ideation

Prototyping

Information architecture diagram

Task flows

User flows

To create the usability testing, we made mid-fidelity prototypes in figma.

Findings report

Wireframing

After sketching low-fidelity wireframes and getting our ideas out, we made wire flows to get the full picture.

Usability testing

Method: Moderated Lab usability testing

Tools: Figma and Useberry

Participants: 4

Tasks:

  • Find transport and order a ticket

  • Find some clothing packing tips

Affinity mapping of data

Conclusion until further development

In this case study, we have examined, researched, brainstormed, and discussed how a travel app on mobile version can stand out from other competitors, with a focus on environmentally friendly actions and ease of use.

We have highlighted what could be experienced as challenging and what makes the app more engaging, motivating, and user-friendly, to satisfy the user's wishes and needs. The intention is for more travelers to become more aware of the choices made concerning the environment, and for it to be simple and motivating when an app can contain all the information gathered in the same place.

Thank you so much for your time :)