Where Budget Meets Adventure: Crafting the Tripsaver App Experience
A travel booking app that helps users find trips within their budget.
The Problem
Traditional travel booking platforms often provide a wide range of options but do not help users stay within their budget. Many travelers struggle to balance the cost of flights, accommodations trying to have a memorable vacation experience. This leads to either overspending or the inability to fully plan their trip due to budget constraints.
Evaluating Competitors: Insights into Travel Booking Apps
The competitor analysis helped me pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of existing travel booking apps. This insight enabled me to identify market trends, uncover opportunities for differentiation, and ensure that my app would meet user expectations while offering unique features.
Booking.com
Expedia
TripAdvisor
User Research
Key Findings
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Pain Points: Travelers may encounter surprise costs that aren’t accounted for, such as last-minute fees.
Current Behaviors: Travelers often adjust their budgets on the fly, but this may not be easily done in traditional apps.
Opportunity: A budgeting feature that adjusts based on actual spending, enabling users to be flexible while staying within overall budget constraints.
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Pain Points: Overwhelming amount of information, difficulty in balancing quality and cost.
Current Behaviors: Users often compare multiple travel apps to find the best deals on accommodation, flights, or activities, but this can lead to decision fatigue.
Opportunity: A budgeting feature that helps users balance budget constraints with quality expectations, suggesting options that meet both price and quality requirements.
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Pain Points: Many travel apps provide vague pricing details, making it hard for travelers to foresee the full cost of their trip, including taxes, service fees, or extra charges.
Current Behaviors: Frustration with hidden costs.
Opportunity: A cost estimator that projects the total trip cost, breaking down the expenses (flights, accommodations) to help users plan more accurately.
Personas & User Flow
User Personas
Two key personas to represent travel app users, highlighting different needs and priorities in relation to budgeting, trip planning, and the overall travel experience.
User Flow
Visualization of the steps users need to follow to complete key tasks, ensuring that the navigation was intuitive and seamless.
Navigation and Structure
Based on the information I created a sitemap. The sitemap helped visualize the relationship between different pages and features, ensuring a clear content hierarchy.
Visualizing the User Journey
To understand user's needs, enhance user experience and improve feature prioritization I created a user journey map.
Idea Validation: Early Concept Exploration
I started by creating low-fidelity wireframes to focus on layout and functionality, without getting distracted by visual details. This helped me quickly map out key screens, such as the homepage, budget setup, and flow screens.
Branding
In this project, I carefully selected colors to align with the brand's values and evoke the right emotions.
Blue was used to convey reliability, security, and trust—essential qualities for a travel service.
Yellow symbolizes happiness and excitement, capturing the joyful spirit of travel.
Red represents enthusiasm and energy, energizing the user experience and inspiring action.
Usability Test Insights
Positive User Feedback on the Intuitiveness of the Budget Tracking Feature
86%
of users
User Confidence in the Variety of Travel Options Provided
72%
of users
User Satisfaction with the App's Ease of Navigation
72%
of users
Final Version
The final prototype showcases how user interactions have been improved through careful design decisions and intuitive navigation. This section visually highlights how the design effectively addresses user needs and delivers an enhanced experience.
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