Mobile App design
Case Study Overview
As a team of three student designers, our task was to brainstorm and develop a mobile app that addresses common travel frustrations. We set out to create a platform that helps travelers seamlessly plan and execute successful trips from start to finish. This case study highlights our research and design process, which was informed by field research, one-on-one interviews, public surveys, and user testing—allowing us to shape a user-centered design system.
goals
Our goal was to design a travel app that serves as a one-stop solution, allowing users to seamlessly manage their itineraries, flights, accommodations, and activity planning in one place. To create a truly user-centered experience, we conducted research to understand traveler needs and pain points, ensuring our design effectively addressed those challenges. Additionally, we prioritized an optimized user experience, making trip planning effortless and intuitive.
our process
Define
Research
User Flow
IA/Prototyping
Test
Iterate
Define
After brainstorming common everyday challenges and analyzing existing travel apps, we recognized a key issue—while many travel apps are useful, switching between multiple platforms can be a hassle.
To address this, we identified our target audience as travelers aged 20-55, including solo travelers, families, and larger groups. From there, we defined our key features, such as centralized booking, localized itinerary planning, unfiltered activity and stay reviews, and budget tracking, creating a seamless all-in-one travel experience.
research
surveys
We designed a brief seven-question survey to gain deeper insight into our target audience's wants, needs, and expectations. The survey received 21 responses, providing valuable data to inform our design decisions.
Which option would you find most useful?
Budget Tracking
Packing List
Collaborative Itinerary
Suggested Activities
Our Findings
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Frequent Travelers: Most people travel at least three times a year.
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Group Travel Preference: The majority prefer traveling in groups.
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App Interest: Many find a travel app useful but are unsure if they would use it.
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Key Features: Suggested activities and collaborative itineraries are most appealing.
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Device Preference: Users primarily use their phones for trip planning.
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Planning Methods: Most rely on websites for organizing their trips.
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Personalization: Users find personalized notifications somewhat important.
interviews
Identifying key issues
High Priority
We conducted interviews with five users from our target audience, asking 15 questions about their travel experiences, technology usage, and preferred apps. By process of analyzing key takeaways from each interview, we then used affinity mapping to categorize our insights, allowing us to identify patterns and determine the most essential features for our app.
Low Feasibility
High Feasibility
Low Priority
User flow
We analyzed our findings to map out the ideal user flow, ensuring a balance between priorities and feasibility.
User Journey Mapping
IA/Prototyping
When designing our Information Architecture, we prioritized a simple and user-friendly navigation menu.
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We chose a structure that ensure seamless usability, ultimately including the following key sections: Login, Home, Hotel Info & Booking, Flight Info & Booking, Activity Planning, Safety Demographics, Budget Tracking, and Deals.
wireframes
​Here is an example of some of our basic wireframes to start our design process. On the left you will find the suggested activities featured page and safety demographics on the right.
Test
For usability testing, we conducted moderated in-person sessions to directly observe user reactions and thought processes. Our key objectives were to ensure users could navigate from the home page to the hotels and flights pages, use the back button effectively, and move seamlessly between the reviews and bundles pages. Success was measured by a user’s ability to complete these tasks smoothly, including logging in via the guest feature and being directed to the home page.
Example of interview testing.
iterate
Here, you'll find our final iterations, showcasing the refined designs based on insights gathered from user testing.
