CULTURE TRIP MOBILE SITE
CONCEPT PROJECT | TEAM X 4 | 2 WEEK SPRINT
A redesign of Culture Trip's group trip pages to create an intuitive, engaging and empowering experience that puts users in control of planning their next unforgettable adventure - combining cultural authenticity with expert curation and personalised options.
This case study is a work in progress, please be patient…
Research Goals
Assumptions
To stay focused during our 2 week sprint we set out some research goals:
Understand what users look for when planning a trip
Gain insights into what features users want to have when booking on a travel site
Understand the main detractors: what stops people from booking
We had some assumptions too, which we expected to confirm during user interviews:
Group trips are stressful to plan
Solo trips feel risky
People have a budget and want to compare prices
People want know exactly what they will get during the trip
How Does Culture Trip Compare?
A comprehensive Competitor Analysis of 8 travel websites gave us insights into the industry benchmarks and helped us understand how Culture Trip stacks up. This provided valuable insights into our competitive landscape, highlighting differences in offerings, areas for improvement and lessons to learn and avoid.
Here are some key findings:
Customise Your Trip
Offering customised tour options enhances engagement and empowers users with a sense of control over their travel plans.
Destination Insights
Including additional destination information enriches the user experience by offering valuable insights without the need to navigate away.
Detailed Itineraries
Clear and detailed itineraries fosters trust, reassures users and allows them to make well-informed decisions.
Buddy Profiles
Incorporating profiles of fellow travellers fosters a sense of security, particularly for solo travellers, enhancing the overall trip experience.
How To Reduce Hesitation & Confusion
Looking for opportunities to boost user confidence on the site, we recognised the need to refine the site's Information Architecture. We noticed that some category titles weren't as clear as they could be, potentially causing hesitation in clicking through. Additionally, certain important categories were missing from the global navigation, making it harder for users to find what they needed.
To address these issues we conducted a semi-open card sort with 11 participants. This helped us get a real feel for what was missing and how we could better structure our site for smoother navigation. Here are the resulting changes.
We changed phrasing to make it clear what the category contains
We added more categories as testers responded saying they want these in the global navigation
We replaced bar menu with a hamburger menu for more streamlined mobile navigation
”I want to be on holiday, not on the booking site!”
Most importantly we had to find out what do users really want? So we conducted 11 user interviews and tried to find out. We wanted to understand their broader motivations when choosing a site and planning a trip, and learn about the pain points. What motivates their decisions.
We also learnt more about the features they like to use or they wish to see - so we can make the search and booking process seamless. We need to remember - they want to be on holiday, not on the booking site.
Were Our Assumptions Correct?
Overall our assumptions were confirmed by the findings of the interviews. We also discovered that people want to feel in control of their holiday even when booking onto an organised group trip. We also learnt about tab fatigue from having so many research tabs open!
So can we give the user a sense of control over their trip even with a package trip and how can we make the decision easier for them?
We approached this task as a team, to pull apart and digest the information and identify any emerging trends. We hoped that if we can pinpoint and address the most common pain points, this in turn would enable us to tackle smaller issues and enhance the overall user experience.
So What Did We Learn? Identifying The Painpoints witt Data Analysis
“I want to be assured that what is represented on the site matches the reality”
“I want a way to personalise my experience even when booking an organised trip”
“I want transparency when booking my trip”
“I plan and research my trips based on recommendations, social media and reviews”
Persona Development: Meet Lizzie.
To help guide us and keep us away from subjective agendas (“but I would like this!”) we created Lizzie McGuire. We referred to her needs and pain points through the rest project to ensure that our solutions actually respond to the problems she and other users are facing.
Creating the Affinity Map post-interviews helped us uncover the key priorities and pain points for users when they search for a holiday. To ensure we stayed grounded in the user's perspective throughout this process, we devised a Journey Map outlining the steps Lizzie might take and pinpoint areas where we could help her.
This task really helped us empathise with Lizzie and not get distracted with our personal wishes for the site!
The day Lizzie went down the rabbit hole
USER JOURNEY
While researching her next solo holiday Lizzie likes the idea of a group trip and finds Culture Trip. When browsing trips she struggles to narrow down because of unhelpful filters, lack of clear reviews and a vague itinerary. She feels cheated when she discovers that the initial cost has lots of extra fees added and exits the site frustrated.
How can we help?
Understanding the frustrations Lizzie experienced in the Journey Map helped us define to some areas for us to focus on where Culture Trip can help Lizzie find her next trip.
Add trip specific reviews with visuals from past travellers
Show a clear breakdown of price with each individual fee and what is NOT included
Option to swap or add activities to her itinerary
All itinerary information in one place, detailed and clearly written
Problem Statement: Keep going deeper
We needed to get to the core of what Lizzie needs from us. To really understand her problem and how might we help solve it - so we did a speed writing exercise and voted for the most on point Problem Statement and How Might We.
LIZZIE NEEDS …
transparency and customisation when booking a trip because she wants a memorable travel experience that’s within her budget
HOW MIGHT WE…
give Lizzie confidence that she will get exactly what she’s booked.
USER FLOW
DESIGN SPRINT
SKETCHING
Throughout the ideation stage, we continuously referred back to Lizzie’s problem statement to ensure that our solutions give the most impactful results for user experience across the site.
So here’s what we prioritised:
Re-evaluate & prioritise
Testing:
How did the users feel?
We developed our sketches into a cohesive flow implementing all the ideas before we shared it with users. We wanted to check that the user flow didn’t have any confusing CTA’s or dead ends, were there any miss-directions? But just as importantly, we wanted to gauge how the users felt about the site - did it make them excited about booking a trip?
We conducted 2 rounds of user testing gaining insights that allowed to develop the designs further
“I wish I could personalise my experience even when travelling with a group”
We had a lot of feedback about users wanting some autonomy over their trip even when booking package holidays, so we developed an option to customise their daily itinerary.
During testing the users told us that they wanted multiple images of each activity with detailed descriptions and reviews included within the options.
They also asked for any changes in cost to be clearly stated.
“I want a detailed itinerary of the trip, so I know what to expect”
To fix this, we grouped information into an accordion, so users can click to expand a section they want to learn more about. That way we can add all extra information without overwhelming Lizzie.
The current site displays all information in a long scroll, the users found it was overwhelming - as all information was “competing for attention”
“I want to be able to monitor price changes.”
From the interviews, we heard repeatedly how budget constraints guides people’s decisions around holiday choices.
They also shared the immense frustration of additional costs appearing in the checkout page, without any clarification. They described feeling “tricked” and “cheated”
To address this, we made sure the prices are clearly visible throughout including any add-ons.
We also ensured that the booking page has a full breakdown of fees and that we highlight anything not included within that cost.
USABILITY TESTING
WIRE FRAMING
PROTOTYPING
FINAL REDESIGN
Did We Answer The Brief?
The ask from Culture Trip was to re-design the group trip pages, however, we learnt from interviews that sometimes, people drop off before even reaching the trip page due to research fatigue and information overload. This required us to address the flow across the site to make the filtering and decision-making process easier for the user.
The design solution shows how we addressed these: