Role and Responsibilities: UX Researcher, UX | UI Designer

This was a solo project where I created and facilitated user interviews and research, created user personas and scenarios, and designed and tested low-fi to hi-fi clickable prototypes.

Problem: Travelers face numerous options for planning the perfect trip, but are anxious about over planning and missing out on the cool local spot that makes the whole trip feel worth it.

Solution: LOCAL puts travelers in touch with local individuals and businesses in their destination  who can recommend must-do’s and collaborate to help make your trip feel extra special.

Impact: LOCAL is a travel aid app that allows users to immerse themselves in a destination by connecting them with what makes a city special, its people. By fostering collaboration, we ensure that users will have a uniquely LOCAL experience.

“What I really love is getting to [a] place, and a lot of the Airbnb... have the little binders in the room that tell you, ‘Here's some things that you can do locally that you should try and places that you should go…. Either that or talking to locals and asking people what they recommend to do in that place, once I get there. I try not to do too much outside planning because then I think it takes away from the spontaneity, being in the place and seeing the Hidden Gems that pop up once you're there.”

“...generally, when I travel, for me, it's very stressful to try to schedule very specific things at certain times, just because I like to be prepared if it doesn't happen... You don't wanna put things on the schedule or just be prepared if it's not gonna happen, especially now when you have a kid.”

Key insights taken from surveys and interviews were collated into a affinity diagram. Here, several main themes were consistent within our user pool:

• Travelling with children requires more energy when planning, and influences most choices.

• Users enjoy discovering a destination through locally sourced recommendations 

• Users have favorite apps and websites that they use to plan a trip that they trust.

Whatever their interests, food is a top priority for most users.

Empathy Map

Creating an empathy map based on our research helped demonstrate the needs of our primary user.  A surprising insight was that money was often a major decision factor, though it was rarely opening discussed.  Also, there is a strong sense of ‘fear of missing out’ amongst our users, adding pressure and stress to planning and enjoying a trip.

Problem Statement and User Persona

Seasoned travelers need a way to discover flexible high quality activity options when visiting a new city because they enjoy local experiences, but fear making a bad choice resulting in a soured trip.

During user interviews and survey analysis, we discovered most people prefer to plan only major aspects of a trip, but enjoy discovering daily food options and activities through exploration and  local suggestions.

Therefore, I believe travelers want help or guidance to take the pressure off of making the best decision and that we can help if we connect travelers with locals at their destination location.

LOCAL does this by providing a platform that allows travelers to tap into local knowledge to find advice, recommendations, and suggestions in a given area to help narrow down options and find worthwhile experiences. This will support small businesses and communities as well as let travelers who are not local, experience quality non-tourist focused options.

Competitor Analysis

I began brainstorming by looking at an existing popular app to see where there was room for improvement.

Yelp capitalizes on user involvement. Reviews and ratings are at the heart of their ranking system that brings popular locations and experiences to the forefront. Businesses can also pay for priority placement in searches. There are excellent filtering options and their geolocation function makes finding nearby places and activities easier.

This dependence on user reviews can be misleading, as tourist traps and wildly popular places get top billing. Not every traveler wants to go to the busiest place, and often restaurants in tourist focused areas are geared towards the masses, not personalized experiences. With overwhelming options, it’s easy to overlook options that may be more appropriate for your situation.

What if users had more personalization options so suggestions were tailored to them and there was interaction between users and the businesses or locals for travelers interested in activities off the beaten path?

User Scenario

Using our user persona and the insights from our competitors, I begin to extrapolate what her goals, emotions, and struggles are and what actions she might take to reach her goals. I then apply those ideas to a real world situation where I can relate and understand her emotional journey. This gives me guidance on possible features and how a user would use our app.

With our User Journey we see confidence will be key.  We must foster trust between the user and locals they are connecting with.  

Also, users will most likely be viewing this on the go, so their experience should help ground them, reducing the likelihood of FOMO.

Prioritization Matrix

Using the areas of personalization and interaction, I plotted out proposed features.  “Must-Have” features include:

• Local and traveler ranking

• Map navigation with points of interest

• Chat function with current locals 

• Local suggested itineraries 

• Local and Traveler Profiles

User Flow

Taking the ideas for features and functions, I created task and user flows to map how they will work. Here is the user flow for chatting with a Local to find an activity on the go. The user has options on what they share with the Local to build trust and security.