Challenge
User engagement and user retention are the key to any products’ success. TravelUR us an intelligent travel platform helping travellers find, travel & love new places. But, there was very low engagement & retention on the app and the users they had acquired through promotions just created an account and went away. Churn was too high. The engagement was low. That is where we stepped in.
Solution
To niche down on an initial user base To understand the users expectations from a social travel app To merge business goals with customer needs To design a delightful, usable and goal-oriented experience for the app’s users OUR PROCESS App Usage Analysis Competition Analysis Customer Surveys Customer Interviews – Phone & In-Person User Empathy Maps User Stories User Journey Maps Wireframes Low-Fi Designs Hi-Fi Designs UX Measurement CREATIVE PROCESS User research is undoubtedly an important part of a product cycle whether we are launching a new product, adding a feature or Improving one. COMPETITION ANALYSIS A competitive analysis is a way to collect and compare data about products (and companies) in the marketplace. It is used to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of products in order to make more informed decisions about our product strategy It is a living document that updates as the market changes to include new competitors. To start with, we chose 8 of TravelUR’s direct competitors and compared them on 20 number of metrics. Once we identified and analyzed the competition, and understand our competitive position, we were ready to do the following: Identify and discuss key areas of competitive advantage and disadvantage. Summarize the major problems and opportunities facing the firm which may require action. Issues that should be considered include types of market penetration, distribution coverage, product line needs, price revisions and/or cost reductions. Integrate our analysis of the competition with a demographic analysis of our market to develop and implement a marketing strategy that will strengthen TravelUR’s market position USER RESEARCH User surveys are a quick and effective form of gathering user data from actual customers or from users who closely match the actual set of users. For TravelUR, we ran a set of 2 surveys, one for each persona. The surveys have a mix of open-ended and closed questions. In closed questions, respondents have a fixed number of possible responses to choose from. For example yes/no, multiple-choice, checkboxes, or Likert scale questions. In open questions, they can respond however they want, such as essays or short answers. The survey continued for a period of a week and we used paid social media targeting to make sure they were seen by the right audience. To ensure higher completion rates, we used the FUnnel approach while designing the questionnaire. the funnel is where you ask basic, general questions at the beginning, more complex questions in the middle, and then return to general questions at the end. We collected over 2500 survey responses in total. The results showed some interesting facts and gave way for new product features. USER PERSONAS The Persona definition is that one or several fictional characters that can represent the majority of the potential users of the product. it not only represents a specific user but all of them, it can be understood as a typical character of the behavior, attitude, skills, and contexts of all potential users. Why Personas? Personas can help the group develop the most useful functions instead of designing functions that will never be used and avoid the usual situation that developers misunderstand what users want because there is a difference between what they say and do. USER INTERVIEWS A user interview is a UX research method during which a researcher asks one user questions about a topic of interest (e.g., use of a system, behaviors and habits) with the goal of learning about that topic. Interviews rely on the user giving opinions, recalling events, and discussing them. With TravelUR, we conducted a series of 25 telephonic and inperson interviews to uncover user behaviour and thought patterns when it comes to travel and usages of travelapps. USER STORIES Once the surveys & interviews were pieced together, we had a good understanding of user needs, business goals and were ready to solve our puzzle! We outlined a set of 60+ user stories, big and small that the app could start with. Once the surveys & interviews were pieced together, we had a good understanding of user needs, business goals and were ready to solve our puzzle! We outlined a set of 60+ user stories, big and small that the app could start with. WIREFRAMES & LOW-FI DESIGNS Once the user stories were mapped out, it was time for the design team to start wireframing. Roughly, TravelUR consisted of about XXXX screens with XXXX interlinked connections. Once the stakeholders were happy with the app’s structure, layout & flow, it was time to give the app a voice & style. Moodboards and Low-fi designs are used to showcase 3 to 5 different styles of the same screen using different colors, fonts & patterns. INTERACTION DESIGN The Persona definition is that one or several fictional characters that can represent the majority of the potential users of the product. it not only represents a specific user but all of them, it can be understood as a typical character of the behavior, attitude, skills, and contexts of all potential users. MEASURING UX Once the designs were signedoff, we got back to our initial set of users(from the interviews and surveys) who agreed to take the product for a spin when ready. Giving sufficient incentives, we recruited about 10 users to perform a usability test of the app (which is still in the design phase). The advantage of testing a product before we even write a line of code is many fold. First, it takes quicker to resolve any usability issues and test new features. Second, there is no waste of time & resources from the businesses end for any changes made. We prepared a series of 10 main actions that the user needs to perform in the app and had the users play around with a fully functioning prototype of the app. As moderators, our team’s purpose was to present the user with each task and then shut up and observe. We measured the ability of the user to perform the task, the time taken to perform a task and the level of satisfaction the user has when dealing with each task. As everything measured, we tracked each of the metrics and if the cumulative number of any task was below 60%, there was something in there that had to be changed. The project came to a close with a design that was easy, intuitive & efficient at best and a happy client.
xdesignworks.com
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