Weebul: A travel experience app
Role: UX/ UI Design, User Reasearch
Timeframe: 12 weeks
Weebul is a mobile app that allows allow users to have a much smoother experience when finding food and places to go when travelling.
The Problem
Users are experiencing challenges in locating optimal experiences in unfamiliar destinations, leading to unwarranted stress and time consumption
When you travel to a new place whether it be a different city, province or country, we go to google to try to find the best restaurants or activities in the area but it’s always flooded by different factors. The top restaurant for example would be a common chain and it takes time to search and find something unique that also has real reviews as wells that aren’t bot generated.. Google results don’t give what you want for the first time in a new area and it’s not geared for first time travellers.
How might we eliminate the need for a vast network such as google and gear more specifically towards travellers who are in search of unique experiences?
The Research
In order to gain a deeper understanding of the users frustrations, I conducted 5 user interviews
When Interviewing, I was gearing towards people who travel at least 3 times a year to get a better understanding of how they deal with looking for the best experiences. I asked a total of 14 questions:
What’s your name?
What do you do for a living?
How often do you travel in a year?
Do you travel alone or with others?
How often do you chose the top 5 searches and did they meet your expectations?
Did you ever have a bad travel experience? if so what went badly?
Describe the last time you were in a city or country and your experience in terms of finding stuff to do (ex: food, events etc..)
At your travel destination, what source do you use to find restaurants and things to do? (Ex: google? App? People?)
How easy was it to find your experiences using your source(s)?
Has there ever been a time where you faced any issues with the method you used?
If so what are the issues? (ex: took too much time? Results were unexpected?)
Did this method you chose meet your expectations?
Describe a time where you searched up a place to eat but it did not meet your expectations.
What are your reasons for using this method of research?
Would you use a different method next time? If not, why?
My main focus in these questions was to understand the method they chose to find there experiences and if it was a smooth and easy experience.
4 out of the 5 people used google maps and they all mentioned that the most important yet frustrating thing when travelling is the reviews. They all suspected that the reviews were bots and a lot of the time, the places with the best reviews was a bad experience. Because of this issue, I decided to gear more towards resolving that in my app and come up with a unique solution to eliminate bots. The users also wanted to find hidden local gems in the area.
The Solution
Diving deep into the world of reviews
With the information I have gathered from user research, I have come to the conclusion that reviews are a major issue and that people want real and raw reviews from both tourists and locals.
Sketching it out
Once I had the problem at hand, I focused on two main aspects:
A unique way to add reviews to eliminate bots. This would allow users to not only trust that they will have a good time, but it would eliminate stress
A more accurate filtering system in order to find hidden gems since part of the travel experience is to eat and do things that the locals do, and this would give them the tools to find these places.
Validating the review/filtering concept
A prototype was created in order to ensure a smooth flow from A to B. Overall, testing went very well except for a few main pointers:
2 out of the 3 testers were confused on how to access all nearby places after filtering or by researching. They didn’t know how to ‘view all’ since it was not properly indicated to swipe up or down to view the whole map or view all places.
1 out of the 3 testers couldn’t figure out the filtering system since the UI for the dropdown looked very similar to the buttons.
With these fixes I did a second wave of testing and these were the results
Lots of engagement with the filtering system which saved time and narrowed down results
Higher satisfaction rates with the review system
End Result
A smooth travel experience
Overall, the apps concept increased the users satisfaction and allowed for a smooth experience. If given the opportunity to revisit the implementation process, I would spend more time researching alternative approaches to incorporating reviews. While the current method reduces bots by 95%, it unfortunately takes more time to post a review then it typically should. With more time, I would do more to change the system to enhance the user experience.