Travelopedia
Travel application that aims to inform travelers about safety measures present in the country that they are traveling to
Competiton UX Fest SLO 🏆 3rd place winners
Team Jacqueline Le, Ivy Thong
Timeline 5 Day Design Sprint - April 2021
Online Tools Figma, Zoom
Overview
Challenge: Your challenge is to create a mobile or web application that solves the problems of a post-COVID world.
Even in a post “COVID-19 world”, COVID-19 and other diseases will still be present in countries that lack the health resources. However, many travel restrictions are lifting, and diseases will still spread. The pandemic has heightened the importance of health and safety, and it’s important to maintain safety measures when abroad. Studies have shown that Americans are excited to travel once the pandemic is over. The mobile application we created will help and encourage American tourists to prevent the spread of diseases when traveling internationally. It aims to inform travelers about any safety measures that might be present in the country that they are traveling to.
User Research
We did not have enough time to complete user interviews, but we did create a survey to ask our potential users about their traveling habits. User research is one of the most important, if not the most important, steps of the design process and we made sure to dedicate enough time to this step.
Prior to our surveys, we did some online research. Studies found that travel was one of the most anticipated activites that Americans were looking forward to post-COVID. We then took this information and centered our application around travel and created a Google Form. From 61 responses, we found that 83.6% of our respondents were planning on traveling after the pandemic, but only 39.3% were well informed about their interested countries’ covid/quarantine measures.
We used this research to focus on the needs of our users. We wanted to create a system that would allow users to find quick and effective safety updates on their country of interest. With our users interests to mind, we moved on to an information architecture and low fidelity sketches.
Information Architecture
Low Fidelity Sketches
We spent 10 minutes creating rough sketches for our mobile application. After that, we went around and discussed each of our sketches, highlighting what features we think would be useful for our users. We gave each other helpful feedback as to why one feature would be successful/not so successful to help each other become better designers. Throughout the entire process, we made sure to discuss everything in great detail, as design sprints require intense collaboration.
High Fidelity Prototype
👋Click here for an interactive prototype👋
Results and Takeaways
This was the first design sprint that I participated in and I learned a lot in those 5 days. We simplified our UX design process and we focused on user research, ideation and design, and prototype. Ideation allowed us to participate in rapid brainstorming of application ideas and prototyping gave us insights into the impact of our designs on our users.
No ideas are bad ideas! I’ve learned that it helps to throw out even unconventional ideas because it helps us narrow down our final designs. After our prompt was released, we spent hours discussing what application we would want to create. We kept going back and forth because we kept looking at the logistics and its feasibility. After hours of brainstorming, we finalized our idea and started diving into research. This made me realize how helpful rapid sessions are as we were able to find the good and bad points of each possible design solution.
Although design sprints can be stressful, they are important because they create a creative space for designers to develop effective and quick solutions for users. It challenged my team and I to think on our feet. The end results were so rewarding, because we knew that we did the best that we could in the short amount of time that we had. Due to the pandemic, we worked 100% remotely and we still managed to collaborate well. However, I would love to participate in an in person challenge when it is safe. I think design sprints are a great way for teams to bond while designing effective solutions. I am looking forward to participating in more in the future.