Role
UX Designer
Tools
Figma, Marvel, FigJam
Timeline
10 Weeks
TripFetch
TripFetch is an app that matches world-wide destinations to employee’s schedule. Using TripFetch improves worker’s work-life balance and streamlines the process of choosing, scheduling, and planning ways to spend vacations based on a global community of travelers. TripFetch was the result of a UX design conceptual project I solved for after identifying a lack of vacation usage among U.S. employees.
Background
Talking with a friend, I came to realize that, unfortunately, the same is not true for the majority of Americans. In the wake of a global pandemic, this felt concerning in a way that shook me to my globe-trotting roots. Taking vacations doesn't just mean a trip to the beach, it plays a fundamental role for our mental health by establishing a healthy work life balance.
As my research continued I decided to take this problem on as a UX Case Study.
As someone who loves to travel, vacations allowed me to see the world while taking a break from the office.
UX Opportunity
A page that seamlessly highlights the valuable benefits of the products and programs offered by Total Wellness+ in a trustworthy design will allow users to more easily sign-up for consultations and complete the Health and Lifestyle questionnaire.
Designing for value, trust, and aesthetic
Solution
Design an app that helps users plan all their vacations in advance, plus share and discover inspiring trip destinations through a network of global travelers, eliminating low vacation use and helping achieve a work-life balance for our users.
Designing for value, trust, and aesthetic
The Solution
The Problem
Employees are losing their vacations due to a lack of advanced planning.
Design an app that helps users plan all their vacations in advance, plus share and discover inspiring trip destinations through a network of global travelers, eliminating low vacation use and helping achieve a work-life balance for our users.
My UX Process
Empathize > Define > Ideate > Prototype > Test
News headlines continued to highlight the problem…
“The average American uses only about half of their vacation days a year.”
Research shows employees prioritize their work schedules over vacation planning for months, even years. Altogether, the average American is saying they’re too busy to plan a vacation. The most effective way to combat this dilemma, proposed one article, is to plan vacations as early in the year as possible.
2° Research
Hypothesis
Planning all their vacations early in the year will help users utilize all their vacation time.
To validate the hypothesis using primary research, I sent out a screener survey to 15 employees across my network.
I identified 5 employees who reported leaving over half of their vacation days unused in the last year. I conducted semi-structured interviews with them in order to gain insight into the different ways they manage their annual vacation days and struggles they experience along the way.
Research Questions:
How would you describe the culture at your company concerning employees taking vacation?
What does vacation planning usually look like for you?
Could you tell me about a vacation which you’ve planned in the past?
Do you have any experiences where you considered planning a vacation and didn’t?
Are there any difficulties you encounter when considering what to do with vacation days?
1° Research
Define
I was surprised to find similar personality traits across interviewees.
Grouping similar interview responses helped me understand users’ most common struggles in vacation planning stemmed from common personality traits.
Common user traits included
Not being a natural-born planner
Reactionary planning
Admitting wanting to be a better planner
Never having planned a big vacation before
This data supported my original hypothesis. It was time to synthesize findings into a user persona.
Needs: Planning help
Goals: Travel more
Pain Points: Planning
“I haven’t taken a day off in a full year.”
What are our users’ underlying needs?
In order to help brainstorm some possible solutions, I carried the sum of the research data into the following HMW Statements.
Focusing on users who require motivation and assistance in planning their vacations, I constructed questions that would bring us into Ideation.
How might we motivate employees to utilize more of their vacation?
How might we facilitate employees' ability to take vacation?
How might we inspire employees to experience new adventures?
How might we encourage employees to improve their work life balance?
How might we encourage employees to take full advantage of their vacation days?
How might we facilitate employees’ ability to schedule their vacations in advance?
I then identified the three foundational user journeys that would deliver the most value to users
I wanted my app to feel light, modern, and offer a glimpse into limitless destinations.
Ideate
With this idea of offering limitless destinations, early on I envisioned my app’s Home Screen as seen above.
I drew inspiration from apps like Airbnb and VSCO that emphasized sharing beautiful photos of destinations.
Design
Sketching started by thinking about the most important parts of my app and tying each function into the screens depicted in the user flows
Prototype
Using the Marvel App to create a prototype of the sketched screens, I conducted 4 low-fidelity guerilla usability tests.
Insights from testing the paper prototype usability tests included:
I went back and re-drew screens after each test, implemented the most important solutions in order to better increase the number of feedback possibilities in between user tests.
With the first round of testing completed, I began to create Wireframes for each of my selected user flows
It was time to curate a Design Style Guide to represent TripFetch
Designing in high-fidelity was a learning process with a surprising amount of improvements in my design.
Wireframe
Iteration 1
Final Screen
Wireframe
Iteration 1
Final Screen
Wireframe
Iteration 1
Final Screen
Using a network of both non-designers and industry experts, I tested not only the app’s navigation clarity but its visual design quality as well.
Test
I organized user feedback from my two rounds of usability tests into a priority-based ‘Usability Issues’ spreadsheet
I would then begin solving the most critical issues first, moving down the list until I had solved all significant pain points.
Round One Usability Issues
Round Two Usability Issues
Essential UI updates included:
Updated UX writing for clarity
Redesigned Filter screen
Updated features on Tracker
I ended with the following high-fidelity final screens
My Final Prototype
Explore the functions of my prototype here
Video run-through exploring functions of the final prototype
Future Visions
More Features
I would have loved to explore adding many more tools to the application such as:
• Creating collaborate trip playlists through Spotify
• Suggesting experiences to explore nearby: restaurants, food tours, music venues, etc.
• Direct hotel/flight booking through Airbnb, hotels, airlines, and other travel enterprises
• Adding social features to the Profile, allowing for users to meet new friends through TripFetch as tour guides/local experts and fri
Validating What I Have
An important aspect to any design is real-world validation. In this instance, I was able to ensure real world usability of my app, but in order to take my design to the next level I would screen for employees with low vacation usage and test the app features in order to validate that TripFetch completes its purpose of increasing employee vacation usage
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