PlanIt
For the trips that made it out of the group chat
PlanIt is a comprehensive group trip planning platform designed to streamline the entire travel planning process. PlanIt aims to make group travel planning easier and more enjoyable, ensuring that every aspect of the trip is well-coordinated and stress-free.
PROBLEM
SOLUTION
PRIMARY USER RESEARCH
CONTEXT
SECONDARY RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITY FOR DESIGN
DESIGN DECISIONS
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
LOW FIDELITY
USABILITY TESTING
Your trip has finally moved out of the group chat, but now what? Planning it is hard to track because everyone is using too many different apps to communicate.
Coordinating trips, events, and activities among friends, family, or colleagues can be chaotic and time-consuming, often leading to confusion and unorganized plans. There is a need for a tool that simplifies group planning, making it easy to finalize details and keep everyone on the same page.
All-in-one platform that centralizes trip planning, making it easy to communicate, organize, and collaborate.
PlanIt is an all-in-one group trip planning platform that offers features such as trip creation, scheduling management, group chats, activity suggestions, polls, and more. Users can organize and plan trips with friends, and family all within one app. The app helps users collaborate effectively by providing tools for decision-making, sharing ideas, and keeping everyone informed and involved about trip details.
Interviews, understanding the people.
I interviewed three different people of varying ages (21-60), as well as having different planning habits. I focused the questions on planning experiences as well as communication.
Competitive analysis between common planning apps.
I also decided to conduct a competitive analysis with common apps that were used between the interviewees such as Apple Notes, Google Maps, Yelp, and also with the travel app Wanderlog. These apps lack integrated tools for organizing group communication, voting on activities, and more.
How might we design a platform that serves as an all-in-one solution for simplifying decision making on activities, dining choices, and destinations while creating a collaborative environment for sharing and discussing trip ideas?
Figuring out where everything goes.
I then created an information architecture for the app to organize and structure its features effectively. This included defining the main sections and navigation flow, such as the dashboard for managing trips, group communication tools, and specialized features like polls.
Looking at what the audience needs.
Based on user interviews and research, I learned that common frustrations in group trip planning include miscommunication and decision fatigue. By incorporating collaborative features like polls and a centralized trip overview, I want to design for the users to efficiently coordinate plans while keeping everyone informed.
Quick thinking for modifications.
After creating the information architecture for the app, I created some low-fidelity wireframes of the main features in Figma. The low-fidelity frames helped me grasp a basic idea of how the screens would look and be interacted with which I then iterated on.
Receiving feedback and iterating.
I was able to conduct two high-fidelity tests with participants who are soon going on trips. Participants were tasked with general navigation around the app as well as specifically adding a trip and answering polls.
TIMELINE
June - August 2024
(2 months)
ROLE
User Researcher
UX Designer
TEAM SIZE
Just Me!
TOOLS
Figma
Notion
Introducing PlanIt, an all-in-one group trip planning app designed to simplify the entire travel planning process. PlanIt offers four main features in which users can collaborate effectively with friends, family, or other groups, ensuring every aspect of their trip is well-coordinated and stress-free.
The dashboard is where all your current, upcoming, and past trips are kept along with current trip reminders.
A search bar that lets you discover recommendations and popular spots nearby, with the ability to save places and easily share them with friends.
A polling system that allows users' to create and vote for options within their trip
Friends can chat and discuss trip plans whether that's through individual or group chatting.
FINAL DESIGN
Dashboard
Search
Polling
Chat
Shared Calendar
Itinerary Planner
Chat
Notifications/
Reminder
Voting/Polling
Apple Notes
Google Maps
Yelp
Wanderlog
Difficulty Deciding
Difficulty when reaching a consensus on destinations and activities that satisfy everyone. It created stress from trying to accommodate everyone’s preferences, which can lead to delays in planning.
Too Many Platforms
Many interviewees often rely on multiple platforms at once such as iMessage, Instagram, and the Notes app for communication and planning, making it difficult to keep track of information.
Chat
Relying on multiple platforms for communication and planning, making it difficult to keep track of information.
All-in-one
A single place where all trip details (dates, location, and activities) are easily accessible
Polling
A way for users to vote on trip details like destinations, accommodations, and activities.
User-friendly & Streamlined
Avoid fragmented conversations across different platforms, ensuring first-time users could quickly understand and engage with the app.
Clearer navigation for Adding Trips
A main pain point found through testing is that adding trips was unintuitiuve and confusing, navigating into the profile page to add trips with no clear path.
After testing, I decided to add a making floating action button on the dashboard so that users can easily browse their trips and conveniently add new ones as well.
REFLECTION
The power of usability testing.
I'm grateful to have conducted two usability tests throughout this project. The flows and navigation that I initially thought made sense were confusing to my users. Their feedback helped me identify these issues and refine the app's design.
A one-person team is difficult, but you also learn a lot.
Having done this project alone, I gained a deeper understanding into each process of the design process from user research and competitive analysis to creating wireframes and conducting usability tests. I learned the importance of gathering user feedback to refine and improve my designs. This project taught me to be adaptable, solve problems, and always keep the user at the center.
There are always new skills to learn with Figma.
This was the first project in which I used Figma more in-depth. I learned a lot of cool features such as smart animation for prototyping and also using components. There is so much more to learn about Figma and I'm excited about that!