AVENTURA - HACKATHON - PRODUCT DESIGNER 2020
There is a lack of tourism apps that are culturally relevant and responsive, particularly in South America.
For this hackathon my teams task was to ideate and design an app focused on travel to South America. Some key components of this app include cultural education and insights, safety as a priority and encouraging users from diverse backgrounds to find their adventure in South America.
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Our mission for this project was to create an app with the goal to generate revenue through tourism while also creating an educational tool where people can connect with culture on a more meaningful level when they travel abroad.
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In 3 weeks, our team conducted research, created an advanced design system, and designed a hi-fi prototype app and website.
To expand our idea more into the branding identity and marketing space I created mockups of collateral like posters, mugs and stickers.
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THE HIGHLIGHTS
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Designed and prototyped an app and website
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Conducted qualitative research
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Defined the user flow
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Designed and implemented advanced design system
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Competitive analysis to help define problem
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
3 weeks to research, design, prototype and test our app
MAKE OF THE TEAM
Sabian Fingowar, Audrey Yee, Kari Meadows, Adam Gomez
KEY GOAL
Conduct research and create a prototype of a South American travel app
THE PROCESS
Empathy
Define
Ideate
Qualitative research
Personas
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Competitive Analysis
User Flows
Scope of design
Problem
Design system
Sketching
Hi-Fi mocks
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Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
User flow
Test
Pitch
Interviews
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THE
CHALLENGE
Iterate a tourism app for South America from post it’s to prototype.
THE
SOLUTION
Design an app that focuses on cultural responsive and relevant tourism. Our mission for this app was to generate revenue through tourism while creating a tool for cultural education and insight, safety as a priority and encouraging people from diverse backgrounds to find and share their adventure in South America.
DESIGN PROCESS
DEFINING
THE PROBLEM
To define our problem, we conducted a competitive analysis of other travel apps and websites, interviewed people who love to travel, and talked to people from South America (Ecuador, Peru, Argentina) to uncover insights about tourism and travel in their country.
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We asked some key questions to help us define our problem.
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What currently will prevent travel to South America?
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What are popular travel packages?
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How are people interacting with it?
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How do people feel about travel to South America?
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What is their goal?
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From our research we identified some core insights that helped drive our product forward; people will primarily be using this on their phone to book flights, packages, or tours-this will need to be available in multiple languages. Some people were concerned with travel to certain countries in South America due to environmental, political or human rights concerns. People wanted unique ways to explore new places and meet new people through travel so they can grow and learn.
THE RESEARCH
IT'S ALL ABOUT
THE PEOPLE
Research methods used: Qualitative-Interviews, A|B testing
Culture drives experiences, and can influence how we make decisions as individuals. We wanted that to be our inspiration when building this app to create a truly human-centered travel experience.
It was important to us as researchers and designers to make sure diversity, inclusion and equity were a priority in this app design, and that culture was always part of the process.
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We sent out a survey to the design and research community and extended social network; from the 15 responses we received we were identified some core issues with travel apps regarding lack of safety information, culture knowledge and insights as using travel apps as a communication tool.
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The shorter time frame forced us to choose only a couple key problems to focus on; One of the things we all agreed on when discussing the scope of this problems, was the cultural aspect. We asked ourselves two key questions to begin our process with empathy and move toward creating an equitable experience.
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Who are we designing for?
How can we include them in our design process?
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Atoms- Extensive design system I created for this project.
PROTOTYPE & PITCH
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
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We communicated on several platforms, and so information was fragmented, and we learned by centralizing our interactions, we could be much better synched.
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We had different schedules and time zones which led to difficulties finding time to collaborate, and we learned that clarifying that up front at the beginning would make it clear to everyone how we can collaborate effectively.
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Two of our team were new and we learned that having a laid out plan for how the process was going to go, and who would be responsible for what, would help them understand how things work and make it easier for them to follow along.
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We had many great ideas and perhaps got a little distracted, and we learned that defining a clear scope limit would help us stay focused on what’s most important.