Dromomania

• Dromomania
• ✈️ Preparing for Takeoff
• 🔍 Searching for insight
• Familiarizing with the market
• Connecting with the users
• Defining the Product
• 📂 Crafting the company
• 🧭  Exploring Designs
• 💭 What do the users think?
• What’s next?
• Wrapping up

✈️ Preparing for Takeoff

For this project, the goal was to challenge myself by creating an end-to-end application from scratch. After carefully considering various possibilities, I set my sights on solving a problem that hits home: coordinating group travel. The logistics of planning a trip with others and setting a reasonable budget can be intimidating, but I saw it as an opening to design an app that streamlines the process and makes group travel accessible to everyone.

🔍 Searching for insight

Familiarizing with the market

In order to understand the market of travel apps and find gaps that my app could fill, I created a competitive audit reviewing four popular travel apps: Wanderlog, TripIt, Roadtrippers, and Trip Advisor.

What I learned…

In order to have a travel app that meets the standards set by the competition

• Allow users to browse and book all aspects of the trip
• Keep track of a budget
• Encourage collaboration

How can I make my product go above and beyond?

I had many ideas for this project, but the scope was too big for the time allotted. Some of the ideas I had included:

Although these features could really set this app apart from others, I had to narrow down the scope to fit within the time constraints of the project (shown in roadmap in section for defining the product).

Connecting with the users

As always, it is important to look past my personal goals and seek an understanding of the potential users. I conducted interviews for qualitative information and created a survey for quantitative data. This gave me information to assess the users’ goals, needs, motivations, and frustrations and create a persona.

Defining the Product

Initially, my app feature ideas were too extensive for the project timeline. To prioritize user and business needs, I created a Venn diagram to align achievable goals and determine the MVP.

Bringing in the structure

To finalize the app features and ensure a smooth information architecture, I followed these steps:

1. Created a roadmap

2. Developed a sitemap

3. Sketched 3-5 wireframes for each screen, spendign no more than 1 minute per screen.

📂 Crafting the company

Bringing together the brand

I wanted this app to be colorful to represent joy: reflecting colors that could be found in nature,

🧭  Exploring Designs

While colors and fonts play an important role in setting the tone for the design, the overall visual design is critical in creating a positive user experience. Let’s dive in. 🤿

After logging into the app, users are required to select a trip before accessing any features. This approach:

• Limits app usage to specific trips to avoid confusion
• Allows for a smooth and seamless navigation experience across all features.

When starting a trip, the first step is to select a location. This app provides a dedicated page where users can:

• Browse through various locations
• View highlights of each location
• Select and confirm the location to start their trip.

The trip's homepage provides users with various options, including:

• Viewing the list of members
• Adding details categorized by type
• Checking the itinerary
• Navigating between different pages, including trip messages, polls, saved ideas, and budgets, using the navigation bar.

• The app provides dedicated pages where users can browse flights, transportation, accommodation, and activities.
• Once they have found what they're looking for, users will be directed to external booking sites to complete their bookings.

• Users are offered the convenience of forwarding emails or manually inputting the information for easy integration into the itinerary.

• Since trip planning can be challenging, and users may not be available at the same time, our app offers the option to create separate chats for different aspects of planning. This helps users stay organized and focused on specific topics.

• Planning a trip can be overwhelming with so many different things to keep track of. Polls provide a simple solution to manage the decision-making process and track the preferences of all group members.

• Group members can save their preferred activities in the "Ideas" section, allowing all members to view the details and make an informed decision.

• Budget feature created to address user struggles with personal budgeting and coordinating budgets with travel mates.
• Users can add expenses to track spending and keep tabs on debt.
• Budget categories prompt users to consider each area for spending.
• Users can monitor how much of their budget they have used.

For a more detailed view of all screens, you can explore the prototype on the left or browse through the screens on the right.

💭 What do the users think?

From the usability testing, many places of improvement were identified.

Iterations stemming from this are:

• Creating more visuals on pages with large blank spots
• Adding icon to show/hide password
• Increasing/Decreasing spacing
• Adding additional interactions for the prototype
• Reorganizing information on pages to highlight certain information

What’s next?

During the testing conducted, I identified several key areas for improvement that I am excited to implement in future iterations of this app. These enhancements include:

• Adding a button on each card will enable users to add items to their itinerary easily. This will be especially useful when users make bookings on external sites, as they will be redirected back to the app to update their itinerary.
• Incorporating a feature within the idea list that displays which group member added each item, along with the ability for other group members to like and comment on the idea.

By implementing these improvements and others, I am confident that this app will become even more user-friendly and engaging for its users.

Wrapping up

The process of creating this app was both exhilarating and demanding. While it was difficult to prioritize certain aspects and set aside certain features for the MVP, the end result was a significant milestone towards improving and refining this app. It is exciting to see how this app will continue to evolve and develop through future iterations. Overall, the creation of this app has been an inspiring journey that has laid the foundation for even greater things to come.