Guidelast

The challenge.

Create a travel guide app for iOS and Android. Its main functionality would be to create and share travel guides with a travel community, and co-create the guide with family and friends. It would use basic information from Foursquare.

My role.

This has been one of my personal projects. I am still working and looking for a development partner to scope the features in the app. I worked on the discovery process, data analysis, research, sketches, prototypes, usability testing, final screens and copywriting.

Design process.

The first thing I did was benchmark research. I was looking for pros and cons of the main apps available in stores. I found out that there’s no travel guide that users could easily create and share with their family and friends. Also, it wasn’t easy to find fast guides, such as “three days in Manhattan” or “one week in Barcelona”. I ran an online survey with travel groups on Facebook to validate the problem. My intention was to know if more people would be interested in such a product, understanding their behavior in planning and traveling. The answer was positive. There is an interest in better managing travel plans and finding quick guides to a city during the trip. Finally, I designed the product flows, wireframes and set up a navigable prototype for usability testing.

Specific issues.

There are several ways to consume guide content before and during a trip. Blogs, travel platforms, tour guides, among others. My idea would be to focus not on sightseeing destinations or restaurants individually, but on the guides as a whole.

1 – Use data from other websites

I decided to use content from Foursquare, because it’s rich in user information, user rating, map and geolocation. So, instead of creating new places, I decided only to group existing locations from Foursquare to create the travel guides.

2 – Main specifics

To search or to create a new travel guide, what would the specific points be? The survey results showed me that there were three: location (city and country), number of days spent on travel and season. That way, you can look for something like “four days of Summer in Sao Paulo, Brazil”. Then, of course, would come some filters, such as number of people traveling, things you want to do, places you want to go, and much more.

3 – Auto Travel Routes

One really important thing in a travel guide is to decide which way to go, but in a smart way. So, if you are going to spend four days in Manhattan, what would you do on each day, based on geolocation, and time? The app would help people to create those routes, and would recommend the best route for each day.

The results.

The app is not in stores yet. I’m currently searching for a development partner to iterate, find ideas on how to improve it and launch the app. Through research, I was able to learn more about the travel market, and how to work on travel guide models that would be really interesting for travelers.