TRIPMATE is a mobile application that facilitates young generation to join a familiar social network and make contact with a travel companion who shares the same values and travel goals, enabling a reliable, efficient, and enjoyable travel experience.
Travel demand surges as Gen Z travelers plan revenge travel to compensate for lost trips due to COVID-19. When traveling, Gen Z travelers have a hard time finding:
· travel buddies that meets their expectations-- Safety, travel budget, destination, time schedule, food preference .
· ways to coordinate the various logistics of the trip.
Prototyped final concept with 20 participants and 90% of them were able to find their desired travel plan and companions, engage in a match game, and explore mutual friends' travel plans. They hope the application will be released shortly.
We conducted two rounds of online user testing to verify whether the solution is effective. The SUS score from the first round of testing increased to 85.5 points from 70 points. More than 80 percent of users are able to successfully complete the target task without any guidance.
In order to provide users with a safer environment to search for travel companions, users are encouraged to register with their institution's e-mail address when possible.
Artificial intelligence will analyze the user's information from the database and recommend the best trip for them based on their personalized preferences.
Users can:
· Check the itinerary requirements and travel plans.
· Enhance accurate information exchange among travelers by reviewing travel expectations and dietary preferences.
· Create trusted relationships by checking out travel companion profiles, reading reviews, and checking out mutual friends.
Users can:
· Add detailed information of a trip post such as trip description, requirements for companions, travel plans, wishlists, optional questionnaire, and budget.
· Set the visibility of the post, whether it's public, friends only, or community groups only. Provide users the ability to locate their travel buddies based on the kind of travel they want to engage in
Users can:
· Check out the upcoming trips created by them and join
· The trip editor can edit the content of trip posts, manage the members of the group, as well as track and verify the itinerary.
Users can:
· Join verified groups to ensure safe social connections.
· View friends' travel moments.
· Communicate the travel plans with your travel buddies..
Users can:
· Track the application status of my requests to join other people's trips and the status of other people's requests for trips I create.
· Approval of applications to join the trips I create
· Accept invitations to join trips created by others.
We conducted two rounds of usability testing with ten participants, each round, users were given a SUS survey to measure the usability of our product.
SUS scores increased from 75 to 87.5, and 80% of users appreciated how Tripmate supports them in finding suitable travel buddies in a safe and fun manner.
· Most of youth travelers in the United States take at least one significant group trip each year without parents, spending almost $10 billion a year.
· 65% of Gen Zers ranked "travel and seeing the world" as the most important way to spend their money.
· Nearly two-thirds of Gen Z travelers are planning “revenge travel” to make up for lost trips amid the COVID-19 crisis.
· Safety and having unique experiences also top of mind among Gen Z travelers
We analyzed the most common products for helping travelers find travel companions and determined that most of them aimed at finding travel companions among strangers and took a long time to do so without considering the unique needs of Gen Z travelers.
They could not assist Gen Z in effectively finding safe and suitable travel companions, which became an opportunity for our product to excel in the market.
· Don’t have enough options (friends).
· Have no idea of other’s schedule.
· Time and destination are not matched.
· We have different travel preferences.
· The consumption habits.
Traveling experience is influenced by four factors: safety, budget, interpersonal relationships, schedule, and activities. Safety is their top concern surrounding travel plans.
We met Gen Z who had trouble with finding suitable travel buddy.
We were amazed to realize:
· They desire to travel with others who share the same interests and travel goals.
· They will have difficulty agreeing on a travel plan if they have different consumption
· They feel uncomfortable and unsafe to travel with people that they are not familiar with.
"I like to go out with my friends because we have the same personality, can understand each other, and also understand each other's habits"
· Have no ideas about other's traveling schedule and plan
· Unclear about the budget and consumption concept for travel buddies
· Feel unreliable and unsafe traveling with unfamiliar people
· Don not want to travel with self-opinionated people
· Find trustworthy travel buddies.
· Travel with someone who has the same values and interests as me
· Clarify travel buddies’ travel plan and schedule
· Increase the cost-effectiveness of the trip
Based on two rounds of user testing feedback from 10 participants, we continued to iterate our design with 3 major improvements:
Distinguish the trip I created and the trip I joined
· Move the applied section to the notification section.
· Separate the upcoming section into trips I created and trips I joined.
Changing the hierarchy
· The user is confused by the hierarchical structure of the group and travel buddies.
· The purpose and functionality of groups and travel buddies are different, which should not be displayed in tabs.
Separate types of notifications
· Move the message to the community section.
· Provide information about the invitation in the notification section.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have two rounds of usability testing and to have constant feedback from my professor and users. It was ultimately about making the application truly best for the user, rather than thinking in our way.
During the collaboration process, the lack of unified visual elements and a comprehensive design system at the beginning led to inconsistent visual effects at the high-fidelity stage resulting in multiple re-creations and revisions.
A good presentation does not mean piling up the data; instead, telling a good story requires a balance between showing the extensive research data and demonstrating the critical points of the project.
2. It is essential to have an effective marketing strategy to promote our products, such as building a market on our website to increase our visitors
3. Provide the developer with a design system to prepare for launching the application in the future.
