2020
Even in difficult times
life finds a way!
New Concept
Time Travel
Once upon a time a 16 year old boy named Albert Einstein came to a conclusion that a person moving ages more slowly than a person at rest.
Clocks on airplanes and satellites travel at a different speed than those on earth.
When astronaut Scott Kelly spent nearly a year aboard the International Space Station in 2015-16, his twin astronaut brother Mark Kelly aged a little faster than Scott. Einstein's conclusion was that time moves more slowly when one is moving, than when one is standing still.
Einstein's work comes from the realization that time moves relative to the observer. This led him to the counterintuitive idea that time flows differently according to the state of motion, and to the conclusion that distance is also relative.
The faster you travel, the slower you experience time.
And Yes, it is possible to travel in time, we all travel in time!
We travel one year in time between birthdays, and we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.
About
Journey is a travel in time agency that was started during the pandemic era of COVID-19. Due to the health restrictions and safety measures the company's goal was to provide a travel with confidence journey, simply a safe and sound trip with a full spectrum service, giving travelers an opportunity to escape reality and enjoy a great experience.
The stakeholders "Virgin Group" owned by the Branson family and partners" are imaginary, and the work presented is my individual effort as a student for a conceptual time travel project provided by DesignLab.
Goal
My objective is to create a simple exposure to historical events, and to experience living a moment in time.
That specific moment, that each one of us had at least for once dreamed about becoming a reality.
"What if I was able to go back to August 1969, and be among the half million who had attended Woodstock?"
My role: UX Designer
Team: N/A
Problem Solving
Problem: Year 2020 travel restrictions and the various travel agencies that offer multi-packages, but none has a full spectrum coverage.
Solution: Presenting a one provider that already has a solid foundation in the travel industry.
Journey as a company aims at providing a full board elite service, covering any need or requirement on your itinerary list.
Worry free: provide solutions to safety measures from social distancing to wearing the right mask, an easy booking process created from a simple navigation, and a new fun factor which compliments Journey's website by an exquisite exposure to historical events, which took place back in time.
Users
My users were from different parts of the world highlighted on the map, each user or participant had a unique demographic from the single adventurous guy to the hard working mother who wants a peace of mind.
I focused on users who are financially relaxed, to cater their high-end needs and to be able to reflect Journey's website concept that aims at providing an elite experience.
Age group: 30-65
Stakeholders
Know your competitors
Mr. Branson: "Did you do your due diligence?"
Me: "Yes, here are the results."
During COVID-19 the stakeholders of Journey's agency wanted to raise awareness about safety measures while maintaining their position in the market.
Journey's Slogan: "It's all about the Journey."
My elevator pitch:
"Journeys are made of moments, the current circumstances are jeopardizing the travel industry and coming up with a new agile concept that provides the full sense of safety as well as a dreamy adventure to travel in time may create a new sense of comfort, and a positive impact on reevaluating how people will start to plan their journeys.
We live in a surreal era, so how about we go and pay Salvador Dali a visit?"
Research
Reality bites
A condensed analysis research was done during the course on real travel companies.
The competitors:
Airbnb, StayHome, Vrbo, Vacasa, and Booking.com
* The vacation rental companies all shared a similar booking concept, providing a place to stay while adding a small twist to their CX.
* Most companies had internal agreements to provide rental of a listed space to a 3rd party while receiving an incentive as part of the market share.
* The average service fees for the host starts at 3% and 18% for the guests, this was one of the main pain points for the hosts and the guests.
* Few companies had management issues and concerns from keeping up with the cleanliness and maintenance of the place, to delivering the true experience that they had promised their customers.
* Booking.com is the only travel company that provides stay, travel tickets, travel & hotel , and car rental packages.
* Airbnb was the winner in terms of:
1. Booking services
2. After services
3. The minimalistic UI design
4. The easy navigation
5. And all the available fun experiences
Circle of Competitors
Desk Research
Quantitative and Qualitative research methods lead us to gain specific insight about our users, and future customers, they are also a good starting point to visualize our journey through identifying similar services in the industry, learn about the value of the product we are trying to present, and to create a solid documented data as a future reference.
My plan was improvised multiple times during the research phase, and If time is by my side there will always be more room to do more research, work on solution developments, create storyboards for multiple scenarios and potentially set diverse experiences.
My blueprint evolved as I was fortunate to have a global interaction with various users, which was an eye opener on global market precautions studies, and reactions towards the current travel situation.
Approaching global markets is a key tool to transform moments of booking a journey under the global pandemic, people share the same habits and almost have the same booking requirements from choosing a destination, booking a flight, going to the airport, taking safety measures, checking in, finding their seat, while keeping the level of anxiety low.
The Globe
Interviews
We can only sketch our map through the voice of our audience, sharing the big picture with our audience creates a circle of trust, it also breaks the barriers of formalities, and in general people love to tell their stories.
The interview process was very delightful and insightful. It brought new opportunities to the development of the Time Travel idea, and my users also confirmed their eagerness to find a one travel agency that can provide them with full coverage.
Participants
Journey Map
The outcome of my journey map illustrated key findings and takeaways from my users, embracing emotions, and measuring expectations.
It was interesting to conduct a remote analysis for a journey map, in the future I would like to experiment the energy of people in one space working together on a map and visualizing a journey using post it notes on a board, I think that would enhance the experience and create a proactive vibe.
Information Architecture
Elements
April 2020, we opened our eyes and had realized that silence is the new sound of our sky.
The whole world was on lockdown, the echo of silence stretched from USA to China turning our adrenaline level into a bubble of fear.
They say people always find a new way to be creative as they are adaptive creatures, most artists, architects and genius inventors had come up with solutions during hardship times.
This is the most interesting and challenging part of my UX journey.
Finding my position, resources, readings, learning the right tools to use, switching from one mind set to another, interacting with other students and my mentor, figuring which software is my bestfriend, while trying to build a foundation for my product in order to achieve my basic goals as a UX design student.
The journey started to reveal colorful layers, as an interior architect it had reminded me of drawing a house blueprint, and then work on transferring my prints into a 4D design to plug my creativity into the digital world.
As a designer infusing the golden ratio into my information architecture process is inevitable, this mathematical ratio is commonly found in nature, and when used in a design, it fosters organic and natural-looking compositions that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
My UX journey brief....
Lay down the structural elements, meet your persona, write your story, sort your thoughts through your users, 100 question marks, map your journey and let Davi float on his first travel booking path, sketch your design, draw the skeleton frame, choose your color palette, collect your images, retrieve your vision, and start with the design.
One thing I would consider changing is the card sorting process and the listed categories used during the sort, my users were never introduced to such a concept, it was hard for them to digest the exact idea behind it, and to implement it at a short notice. The results that I got back were not completely fulfilling, but unexpectedly manageable.
Persona
Storyboard
Card Sorting
Participants
Sitemap
User Flow
Wireframes
Brand
Shapes & Colors
Why did Journey agency pick the triangle?
The triangle represents the union of mind, body and spirit. It is known to be a symbol of ascension, creativity, gender, harmony, knowledge, illumination and protection which aligns with the travel in time concept.
The images on the website reflect a simple minimalist approach to space, astronomy, old architecture and futuristic living spaces.
"It is all about the Journey"
Logo Design
Images & Typography
Experimentation
Ideation
The only reason people buy artwork is to match the painting's colors with their furniture, and perhaps the extreme opposite is also true.
Visual evaluation is the thin line between sanity and insanity, 3 cups of coffee, switch from jazz music to rock, change the mood, iterate the design, stay focused, take a walk in nature to vent out your fixation about which color works best on a digital monitor? What background is WCAG? Is this the right size for the grid?
Pass out for 15 minutes face-down on your laptop, and dream about taking a trip to the Colosseum in Rome then suddenly wake up on a loud noise coming from the ceiling, and come to find out that there is a raccoon in your attic.
Your customers start entering your gallery to browse the space, they demolish your colorful walls, skip your action buttons, criticize the images of your artwork, and then say: "Hhhmmm it's nice If you add this, and remove that, maybe then I would consider buying this piece, to hang it on my living room wall facing the east side on top of my chaise lounge."
That was my journey starting from the multiple iteration of the responsive design, and ending with few more ideation after presenting the prototype to my users. All those miles stretched to come up with an idea to sell a beautiful artwork does not mean much to your users If the design was unusable or impractical, there are few things that you should keep in mind, experiment is one essential player in the UX journey, even though your are the designer who knows the rules of design, your users are the only ones who can prove to you if your design is successful by revisiting your site, and by clicking on Proceed to payment button, sometimes you have to break some rules to keep your users engaged, increase traffic and have them happily come back to buy a new artwork.
Responsive Design
Prototype
The prototype was one of the most interesting parts of the UX design, it introduced a whole new chapter of learning and ideation.
Design thinking was one of the main cards I had used during this phase.
Writing the one path flow, determining the most important CTA's and implementing new paths, new page designs and re-designing the flow more than once.
"Done. No, not yet!"
My users tested my path flow on the desktop, and had recommended new creative ways of how to better navigate the website, and had suggested few tips on the UI design.
The test was a truly enlightening experience that had reflected on how interaction with physical users actually works, from setting up the appointments considering the time difference, to using various resources from technology to taking notes using a pen, and paper.
To create a successful product use a practical factor that operates best on recycling and re-testing processes without exhausting all your energy and time. This is an essential step during the UX design journey, which will help define common values, and shape feasibility scales.
Usability Test
Participants
Conclusion
Choosing a destination is the easiest part of planing a trip, the rest takes time and effort.
There are several lessons that I would reinforce in my coming case studies.
One, is to let the desired future drive my analysis, this method is called backcasting, which is introduced by John B. Robinson.
His method moves the emphasis from predicting possible futures to analyzing the effort and investment required to live into a future we would like to see.
Second, using pre-structured templates during the set up of interviews, card sorting, and low-fi, mid-fi and hi-fi responsive designs. Building a reference library will make the process faster and will leverage the mind to be focused on creative solutions for the product rather than investing a lot of time on building standard UX structures, and forms.
Third, listen more. By listening we set a more consistent architecture of moments with our users.
And, I would still refine, rethink, ideate, and deliver in order to achieve a better CX experience.
