Product Introduction
User Research
We conducted desktop research to identify the key elements typically included in travel plans, and distributed the survey among 103 people to explore the aspects they care about and find challenging when creating plans.
The 4 most important elements in travel plans
Plane
40.6%
Hotel
58.2%
Landmarks
32.3%
Shopping
26.3%
Culture
26.3%
B&B
39.2%
Train
25.6%
Bus
19.4%
Others
Others
Food
99.81%
Others
Others
Transport
Stay
Activity
Food
Difficulties in making plans
Collect information
Decide itineraries
Organize routes
Make plan lists
Group discussion
4
3
2
1
0
For solo travelers
For group travelers
Difficulty Level
Difficulties for group travelers
Difficulties for solo travelers
Collect information
Organize routes
Decide itineraries
Organize routes
Make plan lists
Group discussion
Keys elements included in travel plans
Food
Routes
Activities
Itinerary
Shopping
Hotels
Transport
Landmarks
Affinity Diagram
We interviewed 20 people and used the affinity diagram to analyze how people make travel plans and their pain points while making them.
Distinguish
I am used to checking the history posts from that account to determine is it the true experience sharing or ads
I once went to a restaurant seems ‘great’, but after going there, the food was not delicious and the service was poor.
A blogger recommend many free attractions in his post, but when I arrived there, I found out that several places were charging fees.
I left a comment below the post asking the blogger about the places that are truly worth visiting and the ones they don't recommend.
There are too many ads. We must rely more on the experiences shared by other travelers.
I followed some good blogger they always share the true travel experience and our interest is similar
The travel information on many apps are not accurate and outdated.
Just looking at advertising is not enough. It's more realistic to find travel info from local people on social media.
Many discount promotional information is fake, and when you go there, you may not be able to enjoy the discounts because the conditions don't match.
If you really care about your travel arrangements, be cautious so as not to be fooled by merchants.
Many discount promotional information is fake, and when you go there, you may not be able to enjoy the discounts because the conditions don't match.
Arrangement
It takes forever to update and reorganize the travel plans when everything is written by hand.
Rewriting and rearranging the travel itinerary is such a hassle with handwritten notes.
Adjusting the travel guide becomes a painstaking task with handwritten details that need constant revisions.
It's time-consuming to manually modify and tweak the travel strategy with memo documents.
I thought I could easily update my travel plans in electronic form, but it's still quite a challenge.
Trying to modify handwritten travel plans on my laptop or tablet is a nightmare.
It's time-consuming to manually modify and tweak the travel strategy with memo documents.
It takes forever to update and reorganize the travel plans when everything is written by hand.
Group decision
It's frustrating when not everyone is online, delaying the decision-making process.
It's a challenge to find a time that works for everyone when making decisions
We spend so much time searching and sharing information during our discussions.
Sometimes the amount of information shared overwhelms us during discussions.
We all have different ideas about what constitutes a fun destination, making it harder to decide
After lengthy discussions, we often feel mentally drained and indecisive.
Considering everyone's financial constraints while planning can be quite challenging.
We worry if the final decision will live up to everyone's expectations and interests.
Instagram is a great app for browsing scenic pictures.
Apps
So I used Google map to compare the hotel distance and Booking to compare the prices.
To find a cheaper stay, I downloaded many apps, like AirB&B, Booking, Expedia and etc to find the best one.
The Redbook always gives me lots of good inspiration and ideas, but I still need to check the detail information on Tripadvisor.
I joined in a Wechat group helping to find free attractions everywhere around the world.
Different apps offered different prices, so I have switch between several apps.
Normally the airplane is more expensive than the railway, but I fortunately find a discount plane ticket on Feizhu cheaper than the railway.
To save money I even used AI to give me the suggestion on the transport.
If the recent photos from one location is much on Ins, it means there must be so crowded recently.
I buy the restaurant voucher on Meituan in advance, and then try to find some discount info on Redbook.
Comparing the price of the ticket by using 12306 and Feizhu to find out the cheaper one.
Balance
It's a juggling act to prioritize and weigh the importance of different factors during planning.
It's tough to find a balance between price and all the other factors when planning
Balancing our desire to explore with the impact on the environment is a challenging decision.
Considering available time while making decisions can be quite demanding.
Making decisions often involves sacrificing some aspects in favor of others.
There's always a concern that the final decision might not meet our expectations or preferences.
Sometimes the most enticing destinations are too far away, making decision-making difficult
Each person has their own preferences, making it hard to please everyone when deciding.
Gathering information and considering various factors can be overwhelming during the planning process.
With so many factors to consider, it's easy to get stuck and struggle to make a choice
Plan list
Handwritten travel plans make it difficult to maintain a clean and organized itinerary.
After spending hours writing my travel guide, it's frustrating how cluttered and unreadable it becomes.
My handwritten or digital travel notes are often overwhelming, making it hard to find specific details.
I wish there was a more visually appealing way to organize my travel information instead of just basic location details
My handwritten or digital travel plans lack the necessary structure and fail to provide a well-rounded itinerary.
Despite recording every detail, my travel guides fail to capture the essence of my experiences.
Handwritten or digital notes don't provide a concise overview, making it time-consuming to extract key information.
I struggle to remember the places I wanted to visit due to the lack of organization in my travel documentation.
It's challenging to translate my messy handwritten or digital travel notes into visually appealing content.
My handwritten or digital guides often lack the spontaneity and personalized touch that I desire during my travels.
Main steps
Gathering information
Making decisions
Arranging itineraries
Plan list compiling
Travel information is scattered across various platforms
People often need to gather and compare the travel information from various platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google Maps, YouTube, and TripAdvisor.
Adjusting the plan list takes a lot of time
People usually make plan lists using phone memos, PowerPoint, Excel, or by writing them down, which can be troublesome to adjust and prone to mistakes.
It’s difficult to plan a seamless travel route
When planning a route, people always have to consider and balance so many factors like accommodation, the location of attractions, and local transit costs.
It's troublesome to make travel plans with friends online
When friends discuss plans, they often need to share large amounts of text, images, and links on chat platforms , which can lead to information overload .
Problem Statement
To assist travelers in easily creating the travel plan, we offer a travel planning tool that helps them conveniently gather travel information, make related decisions, organize itineraries and compile the plan.
Detail Design
1
Transports
2
Stays
3
Activities
4
Foods
How to start making the itinerary from scratch
As users begin planning their trip, we guide them through each step to explore their liked places to make the entire process smoother.
How to easily compare price information
We provided the "Best Deal" sourced from price comparisons across other platforms, helping users make smarter purchase decisions at the best price.
How to quickly gain travel inspirations
We recommend travel guides shared by other users based on the user's destination, so they can either use them as a reference or download them directly, instead of planning their trip from scratch.
We recommend relevant experience posts to help users quickly gather travel information.
Homepage
Guide detail page
Post detail page
In each exploring step, users can easily gain a lot of travel information about transports, stays, activities and foods, and add the items they like.
Exploration pages of Transports/ Stays/Activities/Foods
Transports-Ticket
Activities-Detail page
Detail Design
How to effortlessly organize travel itineraries?
After users finalize and confirm their selections, we would automatically generate the optimal travel route based on the locations, opening hours, etc of the chosen places.
How to enhance the efficiency of discussion within the group？
We allow trip planners to invite group members to view the list together and enable invitees to comment on each item, helping planners efficiently gather feedback.
How to edit or modify the finalized plan list easier?
We present the plan list in card format, allowing users to easily add, delete or copy content. And by long-pressing and dragging, users can easily swap the positions of different cards.
Items picking page
Items confirmation list
Plan list
Edit the list
Invitees’ view
Planner’s view
User Test
User Feedback
User Feedback
Design Solution
Understand the User Problem
Design Solution
Some users would prefer to see an overview of the itinerary after the route generation.
Some users felt confused about how to edit and modify the plan list at first time.
Once the plan is generated, we first present the overview list to users, helping them quickly browse the content arrangement, and provide a tab-switching feature that allows users to switch to the detailed view.
Although we provided flexible itinerary editing and modification features by easy drag-and-drop or swipe, most users didn’t realize these features.
We offered a tutorial to guide first-time users through the convenient itinerary editing features.
Before
After
Tutorials for first time users