BesTrip is an all-in-one trip-planning platform that streamlines travel by integrating transportation, accommodation, and daily activity planning into a seamless and user-friendly experience.
Duration
8 Weeks
Team
Group of 4
Role
UX/UI Designer
Tools
Figma, Google Form, Photoshop, Open AI & Optimal workshop
Travelers Looking for Transportation
Travelers Looking for Accommodations
Travelers Looking for Activity Plans *
Travelers Looking for Comprehensive Trip Planning
We concentrated on designing the task for the third group on the website and mobile *
Our team of 4 followed a Double-Diamond approach based on the design thinking methodology. It was not a linear path; we bounced between stages as the project progressed
To understand the user’s pain points and develop effective solutions, we employed a comprehensive research approach that consisted of the following methods:
To better understand the needs and preferences of our target users, we conducted a survey. We received a total of 111 responses, of which 78% were between the ages of 36 and 45. Here are the key findings
Challenges faced during trip planning include:
Essential features that users want to see on a trip-planning website are:
To gain deeper insights into the needs and preferences of our target users, we conducted interviews with 21 individuals. These interviews provided valuable qualitative data to complement our survey findings.
Suggest Attractions
Preferred Activities
Images
Review
Budget
Details of Attractions
Show Distances
By creating the affinity diagram, we identified the most important factors to consider:
1. In the initial phase, we drew inspiration from Expedia, Airbnb, and Booking.com to design our site’s information architecture and search bar. We enhanced our platform’s navigation and content organization by adopting key elements from their user interfaces to improve user experience.
2. Our Personalized Plan feature was inspired by Expedia, TripAdvisor, Make My Trip, Ease My Trip, Yata, Travel Triangle, and ixigo. We implemented a similar approach to offer customized travel itineraries based on user preferences, ensuring a tailored and engaging experience.
To ensure our website meets the diverse needs of our users, we developed a user persona representing a typical user. This persona helps us understand the goals, challenges, and behaviors of our target audience. A user flow for giving a plan was developed after that.
By conducting 9 close card sorting sessions, we gained insights into how to organize different sections of our website. These insights guided us in creating our first version of a site map that meets the needs and preferences of our target users and iteratively refined it based on user testing.
User flow was developed accordingly:
During the development phase of our trip-planning website, we encountered several challenges that required thoughtful solutions. Here are some key challenges and how we addressed them:
The main challenge was ensuring that users immediately recognized BesTrip as an all-in-one platform for booking transportation, accommodation, and activities, preventing the need to use multiple sites.
Provide transportation, accommodation, and activity recommendations that align with the user’s specified budget.
Allows users to set budgets for transportation, accommodation, and activities, with tailored recommendations for each category.
Customizing daily itineraries to suit individual user preferences and needs.
1- Developed a system that creates personalized daily travel plans based on user details, offering tailored activity recommendations.
2- Implemented a modular design to cater to diverse users, including elderly travelers, families with young children, and individuals with specific health conditions. This design enables customization through filters for accessibility, duration, and free cancellation, ensuring inclusivity and user-friendliness.
3- Enable users to customize their plans with an “Edit Plan” button, allowing them to modify activities, save changes, and store the final itinerary in the “My Trips” section for easy access.
Users require comprehensive details about attractions, such as popularity, visit duration, images, reliable information, and map locations.
1- Detailed cards for each activity and attraction include ratings, visit duration, images, and comprehensive information.
2- Locations are viewable on an integrated map and Google Maps, with these details included in daily plans to help users make informed decisions.
Home Page
Activities Page
Plan Page
Home Page
Activities Page
Plan Page
Home Page
Home Page
Many users didn’t initially realize our site offers comprehensive transportation, accommodation, and daily trip planning options. To address this, we redesigned the search bar to clearly display these options, ensuring users can easily understand the full range of services we offer.
Activities Page
Activities Page
To address the issue of misleading images in the activity selection section:
1- We removed these images and retained only the activity names, simplifying the selection process.
2- To prevent users from missing key attractions, we introduced a “You Will Miss These Must-See Attractions” section, enabling users to easily add important destinations to their itinerary using the “Add to Plan” button.
Activities Page
Activities Page
We discovered that users preferred quicker plan generation without answering many questions. To address this, we made the second and third sections optional, allowing users to specify unavailable times, and added an “All Days” option for consistent schedules. Additionally, we removed two open-ended questions as users often skipped them and showed little interest in restaurant suggestions.
The UI Kit is an essential component of our design process, providing a collection of standardized design elements and components that ensure consistency and efficiency throughout the development of NeighbourTools. This toolkit helps maintain a cohesive look and feel, streamlining the design and development process.
Home Page
Home Page
During usability testing, it was found that users had difficulty locating the search bar due to the cluttered hero image. Therefore, the hero image was modified, and the search bar was repositioned cohesively on the left side.
Activity Page
Activity Page
In the usability tests, we noticed that some users didn’t realize they could directly add places to their plan, so we added a note above the images and included a “Sort” option for easier selection.
Activity Page
Activity Page
During testing, we found that users had varying preferences for plan customization and were unaware of the filtering options. To address this:
1- We consolidated all questions onto a single main page, enabling quick access and detailed planning
2- While allowing users to filter activities based on their interests, physical conditions, and desired duration.
Home Page
Attractions Information Page
Activity Page
My Trips Page
Log in Page
Plan Page
Editable Plan Page
Home Page
Log in Page
Activity Page
My Trips Page
Account Page
Sort and Filter
Map Page
Plan Page
Editable Plan Page
Here is the last prototype, displaying what we have achieved through our design process.
Evaluate the current design by testing the user experience more.
Finalizing the app version of the platform.
