PRODUCT DESIGN, UX REDESIGN
iOS / Android
Best vacations happen with friends and family, right? But the travel experience starts from the research and planning process which can be a dread, especially when aiming for budget effective with multiple people.
So let’s picture Veronica and her friends, brimming with excitement for an upcoming holiday but dreading the complex planning process. Everybody has to agree with the price, so there’s always a friend who thinks we can get a better price. So the decision process is always a dread as prices go up each couple of days.
This is where eDreams ODIEGO stepped in. Our mission? Manage a user flow redesign workshop to create a feature that makes vacation planning as enjoyable as the trip itself.
My mission was to revolutionize the vacation planning experience, targeting individuals like Veronica seeking budget-friendly trips with friends. In tandem, eDreams ODIEGO envisioned a user-centric feature facilitating seamless collaborative bookings. Our journey aimed to enhance travel planning while delivering a frictionless user experience.
OpportunIty Statement
Vacation is mostly taught as a multi-person activity so collaboration takes a great part of the process. Being able to provide that to users would be a game changer.
My goal was to offer users a fun and efficient way to explore vacation deals, compare prices, and involve friends in the planning process. I recognized the need for smarter decision-making and a stress-free platform catering to group dynamics.
Easing a normally very stressful part of the travel experience, eDreams customers would prefer using the platform directly and decide easily.
The Research
My journey began with insightful user interviews. I learned that users like Veronica yearned for extra decision time, simplified comparisons, and a collaborative space to plan with friends. Armed with these revelations, I ventured into the design phase, ready to turn travel planning into a memorable part of the adventure.
I choose different audiences to capture all generations and their thoughts on collaborative planning and how they usually plan trips with family or friends.
I analyzed that comparing was also a big part of the trip planning and users needed to compare prices before buying with friends, which can take a long time to decide.
ReframIng the Problem
⚠️ It was hard to compare several prices with more filters to decide faster on bookings. There were a lot of windows open to go back and forward.
⚠️ Always in need of some extra time for collective decisions before the prices rise.
⚠️ Need more easier decision-making process by comparing amenities, reviews, and prices when selecting a place to stay together with friends.
DesIgn Strategy
👉🏻 Users can save and create trips with details and add friends to edit
👉🏻 Users can add multiple options to a trip, to compare options and decide faster with friends.
We started reframing the quality issue of the content being seen on social media and how the ad structure can be changed so it won’t be annoying but welcomed. When all discussions and talks are organized, we see how our platform can be a source for people to learn what others think.
This need is what we derived from our users and why they want new social media but ease up spending unnecessary time on Instagram. (They used the word unnecessary too - multiple times) We analyzed what was so unnecessary but unstoppable for them and resulted in this step set the base for design strategy.
EARLY INSIGHTS
We’ve started with creating the user journey, emotion mapping, and user flow diagrams to make sure we capture all aspects of collaborative booking.
Starting from flight and hotel search from the homepage, then saving trips or adding new ones. Users could start collaborative booking by adding their friends to their saved trips. Trip details could be seen by added users, we also added a countdown function to create an urgency feeling to make the users decide faster.
PHASE 2
We discovered how important was the comparison function for the users. A vacation group was 85% dependent on the most skilled planner. As the prices grew each year due to fuel prices, budget-friendly options were preferred. Our users would give that extra effort to research to have the best deal possible. Comparing multiple factors along the way.
So we introduced collab planning where users can add multiple trips to compare different information to decide better.
