Easily create and coordinate travel plans with friends while minimizing the room for miscommunication.
TIME
Sept - Nov 2022 12 Weeks
ROLE
Experience designer Researcher
WITH
Julianna Bolivar Jennie Lee Wendy Li
FINAL DELIVERABLE
What's Unpack?
Unpack is a mobile platform that helps friend groups plan trips without sacrificing the spontaneity and fun nature of trips. With Unpack, friends are able to stay on the same page, via prompt updates, and prevent conflicts that arise from miscommunication.
Design process
[1] User research
Research
Guiding question
[2] Scope & audience
Qualitative interviews
Narrowing scope
Target users
[3] Define
User flow
Brainstorming
Hypothesis
Key insights
[4] Design
Initial designs
Usability testing
[5] Refine
Mid-fidelity designs
Usability testing
[6] Deliver
Final prototype
Conclusions
BACKGROUND
Traveling as a group's exciting, but it can be prone to conflict.
PROBLEM SPACE
Traveling as a group can get complicated.
Travelers lose time trying to decide where to go and what to do while on their trip: generally, users want to keep a degree of spontaneity and be open to adding unanticipated activities to the plan. However, trying to be spontaneous means that a lot of time is wasted on updating the plans to last-minute changes – this problem is especially difficult when trying to come to a consensus as a group.
DESIGN GOAL
Enhance the communication.
Understanding that there is a large room for miscommunication during group trips, we asked, “how might we create a collaborative and communicative tool to help people plan in a group during the trip planning process?”
USER RESEARCH
Identifying pain points and opportunities.
RESEARCH
Understanding the space
We conducted a round of think-aloud testings with college students; after identifying their time and budget constraints, we were able to narrow the problem space to solely the planning aspect.
Think-aloud testing
Narrowing our scope
We began by conducting think-aloud interviews to understand how users approach travel planning, aiming to refine our focus. We observed their desire for unique experiences that align with their current interests.
Semi-structured interviews
Identify pain-points
Next, we conducted semi-structured interviews with college students about their group travel experiences. We identified a common preference for spontaneity paired with a flexible itinerary.
TAKEAWAY 01
Didn’t want to pigeonhole into the most-visited museums... wanted to find underrated museums
TAKEAWAY 02
Appreciated that the articles had tags for each museum, regarding the type of content + the price range
TAKEAWAY 03
Picked back-up museums in-case of unexpected circumstances
TAKEAWAY 04
Added notes about each of the museums he was interested in
Key takeaways
Pain points echoed
The main insights we gathered from our user interviews were the following:
People approach traveling from 2 perspectives: "have a plan" and "be spontaneous",
Users maximize their traveling experience by planning flexibly.
Conflicts occur when friends try to compromise on a group itinerary.
GUIDING QUESTION
Focus on the planning process
With the key takeaways, we established our direction for this project: how might we support college students in planning for short-term, budget vacations?
SCOPE AND AUDIENCE
Narrowing our direction to our target users' needs
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
How should we target these problems?
We did a walk-the-wall exercise to identify any patterns we saw amongst our interviewees. Then, using these extracted insights, we did a reverse assumption exercise to help us reframe the problem.
Walk-the-wall exercise
Takeaways
Empathizing with our users
We, as the designers, carried our own opinions about traveling, so these two exercises allowed us to find echoes of certain concerns and also see the problem from a new light: this helped us eliminate biases and maintain an open mind as we continued to ideate the solution.
persona 1
persona 2
NARROWING THE SCOPE
Staying on the same page
Fundamentally, we wanted to focus on helping the friend group stay on the same page for the duration of the trip, making the planning process as effortless as possible, and minimize the room for conflict.
IDEATE
How can we enhance our solution?
JOURNEY MAP
Identifying potential entry points
Based on the personas, we created journey maps that organized our users' planning process.
journey map for persona 1
journey map for persona 2
BRAINSTORMING
Crazy 8's and Storyboarding
Kickstarting the brainstorming process with crazy 8's, we then created storyboards to further solidify solution concepts.
STORYBOARDS
Speed-dating
Concept validation
Originally, we believed that "targeting conflict" = "resolving conflict"; users, however, didn’t see a reason to use a tool to faciliate conflict-related conversations. Instead, users found it more useful to have a tool that can organize and consolidate different people's inputs. Their goal is to use a tool that can prevent conflicts rather than resolve them.
design
How can we enhance our solution?
INITIAL DESIGN
Let's visualize this tool.
These features aim to help preserve the spontaneous and fun nature of traveling while making the coordination process easier by keeping all the tricky information organized.
[01] ONBOARDING QUIZ
Collect everyone’s personal preferences
[02] MAP FEATURE
Provide real-time updates about everyone’s location
[03] RECOMMENDATIONS
Nearby activities based on user’s current location
COLD FEEDBACK
We're heading towards the right direction.
We received validation from potential users about the practicality of having these features as mediators during a trip. An echoed suggestion was to simplify our wording to avoid overwhelming our users.
LOW-FIDELITY DESIGNS
Refining our initial design
With the mentioned factors in mind, we refined our prototype to be less wordy and still preserved the core functionalities of each feature.
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud testing with 8 participants
We had them complete a task of adding an event to the itinerary and invited them to vocalize their think process as we observed and recorded notes. We also invited them to complete an exit questionnaire, helping us measure honest signals and collect user feedback.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Simplifying and finetuning
We synthesized the user behavior and feedback from using our prototype by creating affinity clusters. Our synthesis identified positive echoes surrounding these features' effectiveness.
FINAL SOLUTION
Prototype walkthrough
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Unpack and have fun!
Unpack is an app that makes planning trips with friends easier by helping you stay organized and spontaneous. It considers everyone’s interests and dietary needs when recommending places, and lets you add destinations directly to your itinerary from the map. Collaborate in real-time to keep everyone on the same page, even with last-minute changes.
[01]
Share your preferences
Unpack will create smart recommendations according to you and your friends’ personal preferences.
[02]
Discover on the go
With tailored recommendations, according to distance and preferences, you can find outlets to further explore what’s around.
[03]
Collaborative itinerary
Add ideas and activities to a group itinerary, shared amongst your friends, to keep everyone on the same page.
THOUGHTS + REFLECTIONS
There’s still lots to learn.
Building out Unpack was a fruitful learning experience that helped us learn how to identify suitable research methods at different points into the project. We were able to refine our approaches in user-research and understood how to select a method that would extract the key insights we were looking for. Fundamentally, though, our project was limited in terms of who we were able to interview; going forward, our next steps would be to step outside of campus and interview a more diversified crowd to get a better understanding of how practical as well as useful Unpack would be.
ABOUT
Last updated on 01/29/2025
Easily create and coordinate travel plans with friends while minimizing the room for miscommunication.
TIME
Sept - Nov 2022
12 Weeks
ROLE
Experience designer
Researcher
WITH
Julianna Bolivar
Jennie Lee
Wendy Li
FINAL DELIVERABLE
What's Unpack?
Unpack is a mobile platform that helps friend groups plan trips without sacrificing the spontaneity and fun nature of trips. With Unpack, friends are able to stay on the same page, via prompt updates, and prevent conflicts that arise from miscommunication.
What's Unpack?
Unpack is a mobile platform that helps friend groups plan trips without sacrificing the spontaneity and fun nature of trips. With Unpack, friends are able to stay on the same page, via prompt updates, and prevent conflicts that arise from miscommunication.
Design process
[1] User research
Research
Guiding question
[2] Scope & audience
Qualitative interviews
Narrowing scope
Target users
[3] Define
User flow
Brainstorming
Hypothesis
Key insights
[4] Design
Initial designs
Usability testing
[5] Refine
Mid-fidelity designs
Usability testing
[6] Deliver
Final prototype
Conclusions
BACKGROUND
Traveling as a group's exciting, but it can be prone to conflict.
BACKGROUND
Traveling as a group's exciting, but it can be prone to conflict.
PROBLEM SPACE
Traveling as a group can get complicated.
Travelers lose time trying to decide where to go and what to do while on their trip: generally, users want to keep a degree of spontaneity and be open to adding unanticipated activities to the plan. However, trying to be spontaneous means that a lot of time is wasted on updating the plans to last-minute changes – this problem is especially difficult when trying to come to a consensus as a group.
PROBLEM SPACE
Traveling as a group can get complicated.
Travelers lose time trying to decide where to go and what to do while on their trip: generally, users want to keep a degree of spontaneity and be open to adding unanticipated activities to the plan. However, trying to be spontaneous means that a lot of time is wasted on updating the plans to last-minute changes – this problem is especially difficult when trying to come to a consensus as a group.
DESIGN GOAL
Enhance the communication.
Understanding that there is a large room for miscommunication during group trips, we asked, “how might we create a collaborative and communicative tool to help people plan in a group during the trip planning process?”
DESIGN GOAL
Enhance the communication.
Understanding that there is a large room for miscommunication during group trips, we asked, “how might we create a collaborative and communicative tool to help people plan in a group during the trip planning process?”
USER RESEARCH
Identifying pain points and opportunities.
USER RESEARCH
Identifying pain points and opportunities.
RESEARCH
Understanding the space
We conducted a round of think-aloud testings with college students; after identifying their time and budget constraints, we were able to narrow the problem space to solely the planning aspect.
RESEARCH
Understanding the space
We conducted a round of think-aloud testings with college students; after identifying their time and budget constraints, we were able to narrow the problem space to solely the planning aspect.
Think-aloud testing
Narrowing our scope
We began by conducting think-aloud interviews to understand how users approach travel planning, aiming to refine our focus. We observed their desire for unique experiences that align with their current interests.
Think-aloud testing
Narrowing our scope
We began by conducting think-aloud interviews to understand how users approach travel planning, aiming to refine our focus. We observed their desire for unique experiences that align with their current interests.
Semi-structured interviews
Identify pain-points
Next, we conducted semi-structured interviews with college students about their group travel experiences. We identified a common preference for spontaneity paired with a flexible itinerary.
Semi-structured interviews
Identify pain-points
Next, we conducted semi-structured interviews with college students about their group travel experiences. We identified a common preference for spontaneity paired with a flexible itinerary.
TAKEAWAY 01
Didn’t want to pigeonhole into the most-visited museums... wanted to find underrated museums
TAKEAWAY 02
Appreciated that the articles had tags for each museum, regarding the type of content + the price range
TAKEAWAY 03
Picked back-up museums in-case of unexpected circumstances
TAKEAWAY 04
Added notes about each of the museums he was interested in
Key takeaways
Pain points echoed
The main insights we gathered from our user interviews were the following:
Key takeaways
Pain points echoed
The main insights we gathered from our user interviews were the following:
People approach traveling from 2 perspectives: "have a plan" and "be spontaneous",
Users maximize their traveling experience by planning flexibly.
Conflicts occur when friends try to compromise on a group itinerary.
GUIDING QUESTION
Focus on the planning process
With the key takeaways, we established our direction for this project: how might we support college students in planning for short-term, budget vacations?
GUIDING QUESTION
Focus on the planning process
With the key takeaways, we established our direction for this project: how might we support college students in planning for short-term, budget vacations?
SCOPE AND AUDIENCE
Narrowing our direction to our target users' needs
SCOPE AND AUDIENCE
Narrowing our direction to our target users' needs
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
How should we target these problems?
We did a walk-the-wall exercise to identify any patterns we saw amongst our interviewees. Then, using these extracted insights, we did a reverse assumption exercise to help us reframe the problem.
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
How should we target these problems?
We did a walk-the-wall exercise to identify any patterns we saw amongst our interviewees. Then, using these extracted insights, we did a reverse assumption exercise to help us reframe the problem.
Walk-the-wall exercise
Reverse assumption exercise
Takeaways
Empathizing with our users
We, as the designers, carried our own opinions about traveling, so these two exercises allowed us to find echoes of certain concerns and also see the problem from a new light: this helped us eliminate biases and maintain an open mind as we continued to ideate the solution.
Takeaways
Empathizing with our users
We, as the designers, carried our own opinions about traveling, so these two exercises allowed us to find echoes of certain concerns and also see the problem from a new light: this helped us eliminate biases and maintain an open mind as we continued to ideate the solution.
persona 1
persona 2
NARROWING THE SCOPE
Staying on the same page
Fundamentally, we wanted to focus on helping the friend group stay on the same page for the duration of the trip, making the planning process as effortless as possible, and minimize the room for conflict.
NARROWING THE SCOPE
Staying on the same page
Fundamentally, we wanted to focus on helping the friend group stay on the same page for the duration of the trip, making the planning process as effortless as possible, and minimize the room for conflict.
IDEATE
How can we enhance our solution?
IDEATE
How can we enhance our solution?
JOURNEY MAP
Identifying potential entry points
Based on the personas, we created journey maps that organized our users' planning process.
JOURNEY MAP
Identifying potential entry points
Based on the personas, we created journey maps that organized our users' planning process.
journey map for persona 1
journey map for persona 2
BRAINSTORMING
Crazy 8's and Storyboarding
Kickstarting the brainstorming process with crazy 8's, we then created storyboards to further solidify solution concepts.
BRAINSTORMING
Crazy 8's and Storyboarding
Kickstarting the brainstorming process with crazy 8's, we then created storyboards to further solidify solution concepts.
STORYBOARDS
Speed-dating
Concept validation
Originally, we believed that "targeting conflict" = "resolving conflict"; users, however, didn’t see a reason to use a tool to faciliate conflict-related conversations. Instead, users found it more useful to have a tool that can organize and consolidate different people's inputs. Their goal is to use a tool that can prevent conflicts rather than resolve them.
Speed-dating
Concept validation
Originally, we believed that "targeting conflict" = "resolving conflict"; users, however, didn’t see a reason to use a tool to faciliate conflict-related conversations. Instead, users found it more useful to have a tool that can organize and consolidate different people's inputs. Their goal is to use a tool that can prevent conflicts rather than resolve them.
design
How can we enhance our solution?
design
How can we enhance our solution?
INITIAL DESIGN
Let's visualize this tool.
These features aim to help preserve the spontaneous and fun nature of traveling while making the coordination process easier by keeping all the tricky information organized.
INITIAL DESIGN
Let's visualize this tool.
These features aim to help preserve the spontaneous and fun nature of traveling while making the coordination process easier by keeping all the tricky information organized.
[01] ONBOARDING QUIZ
Collect everyone’s personal preferences
[02] MAP FEATURE
Provide real-time updates about everyone’s location
[03] RECOMMENDATIONS
Nearby activities based on user’s current location
COLD FEEDBACK
We're heading towards the right direction.
We received validation from potential users about the practicality of having these features as mediators during a trip. An echoed suggestion was to simplify our wording to avoid overwhelming our users.
COLD FEEDBACK
We're heading towards the right direction.
We received validation from potential users about the practicality of having these features as mediators during a trip. An echoed suggestion was to simplify our wording to avoid overwhelming our users.
LOW-FIDELITY DESIGNS
Refining our initial design
With the mentioned factors in mind, we refined our prototype to be less wordy and still preserved the core functionalities of each feature.
LOW-FIDELITY DESIGNS
Refining our initial design
With the mentioned factors in mind, we refined our prototype to be less wordy and still preserved the core functionalities of each feature.
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud testing with 8 participants
We had them complete a task of adding an event to the itinerary and invited them to vocalize their think process as we observed and recorded notes. We also invited them to complete an exit questionnaire, helping us measure honest signals and collect user feedback.
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud testing with 8 participants
We had them complete a task of adding an event to the itinerary and invited them to vocalize their think process as we observed and recorded notes. We also invited them to complete an exit questionnaire, helping us measure honest signals and collect user feedback.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Simplifying and finetuning
We synthesized the user behavior and feedback from using our prototype by creating affinity clusters. Our synthesis identified positive echoes surrounding these features' effectiveness.
FINAL SOLUTION
Prototype walkthrough
FINAL SOLUTION
Prototype walkthrough
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Unpack and have fun!
Unpack is an app that makes planning trips with friends easier by helping you stay organized and spontaneous. It considers everyone’s interests and dietary needs when recommending places, and lets you add destinations directly to your itinerary from the map. Collaborate in real-time to keep everyone on the same page, even with last-minute changes.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Unpack and have fun!
Unpack is an app that makes planning trips with friends easier by helping you stay organized and spontaneous. It considers everyone’s interests and dietary needs when recommending places, and lets you add destinations directly to your itinerary from the map. Collaborate in real-time to keep everyone on the same page, even with last-minute changes.
[01]
Share your preferences
Unpack will create smart recommendations according to you and your friends’ personal preferences.
[01]
Share your preferences
Unpack will create smart recommendations according to you and your friends’ personal preferences.
[02]
Discover on the go
With tailored recommendations, according to distance and preferences, you can find outlets to further explore what’s around.
[02]
Discover on the go
With tailored recommendations, according to distance and preferences, you can find outlets to further explore what’s around.
[03]
Collaborative itinerary
Add ideas and activities to a group itinerary, shared amongst your friends, to keep everyone on the same page.
[03]
Collaborative itinerary
Add ideas and activities to a group itinerary, shared amongst your friends, to keep everyone on the same page.
THOUGHTS + REFLECTIONS
There’s still lots to learn.
Building out Unpack was a fruitful learning experience that helped us learn how to identify suitable research methods at different points into the project. We were able to refine our approaches in user-research and understood how to select a method that would extract the key insights we were looking for. Fundamentally, though, our project was limited in terms of who we were able to interview; going forward, our next steps would be to step outside of campus and interview a more diversified crowd to get a better understanding of how practical as well as useful Unpack would be.
THOUGHTS + REFLECTIONS
There’s still lots to learn.
Building out Unpack was a fruitful learning experience that helped us learn how to identify suitable research methods at different points into the project. We were able to refine our approaches in user-research and understood how to select a method that would extract the key insights we were looking for. Fundamentally, though, our project was limited in terms of who we were able to interview; going forward, our next steps would be to step outside of campus and interview a more diversified crowd to get a better understanding of how practical as well as useful Unpack would be.
Easily create and coordinate travel plans with friends while minimizing the room for miscommunication.
TIME
Sept - Nov 2022
12 Weeks
ROLE
Experience designer
Researcher
WITH
Julianna Bolivar
Jennie Lee
Wendy Li
FINAL DELIVERABLE
What's Unpack?
Unpack is a mobile platform that helps friend groups plan trips without sacrificing the spontaneity and fun nature of trips. With Unpack, friends are able to stay on the same page, via prompt updates, and prevent conflicts that arise from miscommunication.
What's Unpack?
Unpack is a mobile platform that helps friend groups plan trips without sacrificing the spontaneity and fun nature of trips. With Unpack, friends are able to stay on the same page, via prompt updates, and prevent conflicts that arise from miscommunication.
Design process
[1] User research
Research
Guiding question
[2] Scope & audience
Qualitative interviews
Narrowing scope
Target users
[3] Define
User flow
Brainstorming
Hypothesis
Key insights
[4] Design
Initial designs
Usability testing
[5] Refine
Mid-fidelity designs
Usability testing
[6] Deliver
Final prototype
Conclusions
BACKGROUND
Traveling as a group's exciting, but it can be prone to conflict.
BACKGROUND
Traveling as a group's exciting, but it can be prone to conflict.
PROBLEM SPACE
Traveling as a group can get complicated.
Travelers lose time trying to decide where to go and what to do while on their trip: generally, users want to keep a degree of spontaneity and be open to adding unanticipated activities to the plan. However, trying to be spontaneous means that a lot of time is wasted on updating the plans to last-minute changes – this problem is especially difficult when trying to come to a consensus as a group.
PROBLEM SPACE
Traveling as a group can get complicated.
Travelers lose time trying to decide where to go and what to do while on their trip: generally, users want to keep a degree of spontaneity and be open to adding unanticipated activities to the plan. However, trying to be spontaneous means that a lot of time is wasted on updating the plans to last-minute changes – this problem is especially difficult when trying to come to a consensus as a group.
DESIGN GOAL
Enhance the communication.
Understanding that there is a large room for miscommunication during group trips, we asked, “how might we create a collaborative and communicative tool to help people plan in a group during the trip planning process?”
DESIGN GOAL
Enhance the communication.
Understanding that there is a large room for miscommunication during group trips, we asked, “how might we create a collaborative and communicative tool to help people plan in a group during the trip planning process?”
USER RESEARCH
Identifying pain points and opportunities.
USER RESEARCH
Identifying pain points and opportunities.
RESEARCH
Understanding the space
We conducted a round of think-aloud testings with college students; after identifying their time and budget constraints, we were able to narrow the problem space to solely the planning aspect.
RESEARCH
Understanding the space
We conducted a round of think-aloud testings with college students; after identifying their time and budget constraints, we were able to narrow the problem space to solely the planning aspect.
Think-aloud testing
Narrowing our scope
We began by conducting think-aloud interviews to understand how users approach travel planning, aiming to refine our focus. We observed their desire for unique experiences that align with their current interests.
Think-aloud testing
Narrowing our scope
We began by conducting think-aloud interviews to understand how users approach travel planning, aiming to refine our focus. We observed their desire for unique experiences that align with their current interests.
Semi-structured interviews
Identify pain-points
Next, we conducted semi-structured interviews with college students about their group travel experiences. We identified a common preference for spontaneity paired with a flexible itinerary.
Semi-structured interviews
Identify pain-points
Next, we conducted semi-structured interviews with college students about their group travel experiences. We identified a common preference for spontaneity paired with a flexible itinerary.
TAKEAWAY 01
Didn’t want to pigeonhole into the most-visited museums... wanted to find underrated museums
TAKEAWAY 02
Appreciated that the articles had tags for each museum, regarding the type of content + the price range
TAKEAWAY 03
Picked back-up museums in-case of unexpected circumstances
TAKEAWAY 04
Added notes about each of the museums he was interested in
Key takeaways
Pain points echoed
The main insights we gathered from our user interviews were the following:
Key takeaways
Pain points echoed
The main insights we gathered from our user interviews were the following:
People approach traveling from 2 perspectives: "have a plan" and "be spontaneous",
Users maximize their traveling experience by planning flexibly.
Conflicts occur when friends try to compromise on a group itinerary.
GUIDING QUESTION
Focus on the planning process
With the key takeaways, we established our direction for this project: how might we support college students in planning for short-term, budget vacations?
GUIDING QUESTION
Focus on the planning process
With the key takeaways, we established our direction for this project: how might we support college students in planning for short-term, budget vacations?
SCOPE AND AUDIENCE
Narrowing our direction to our target users' needs
SCOPE AND AUDIENCE
Narrowing our direction to our target users' needs
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
How should we target these problems?
We did a walk-the-wall exercise to identify any patterns we saw amongst our interviewees. Then, using these extracted insights, we did a reverse assumption exercise to help us reframe the problem.
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
How should we target these problems?
We did a walk-the-wall exercise to identify any patterns we saw amongst our interviewees. Then, using these extracted insights, we did a reverse assumption exercise to help us reframe the problem.
Walk-the-wall exercise
Reverse assumption exercise
Takeaways
Empathizing with our users
We, as the designers, carried our own opinions about traveling, so these two exercises allowed us to find echoes of certain concerns and also see the problem from a new light: this helped us eliminate biases and maintain an open mind as we continued to ideate the solution.
Takeaways
Empathizing with our users
We, as the designers, carried our own opinions about traveling, so these two exercises allowed us to find echoes of certain concerns and also see the problem from a new light: this helped us eliminate biases and maintain an open mind as we continued to ideate the solution.
persona 1
persona 2
NARROWING THE SCOPE
Staying on the same page
Fundamentally, we wanted to focus on helping the friend group stay on the same page for the duration of the trip, making the planning process as effortless as possible, and minimize the room for conflict.
NARROWING THE SCOPE
Staying on the same page
Fundamentally, we wanted to focus on helping the friend group stay on the same page for the duration of the trip, making the planning process as effortless as possible, and minimize the room for conflict.
IDEATE
How can we enhance our solution?
IDEATE
How can we enhance our solution?
JOURNEY MAP
Identifying potential entry points
Based on the personas, we created journey maps that organized our users' planning process.
JOURNEY MAP
Identifying potential entry points
Based on the personas, we created journey maps that organized our users' planning process.
journey map for persona 1
journey map for persona 2
BRAINSTORMING
Crazy 8's and Storyboarding
Kickstarting the brainstorming process with crazy 8's, we then created storyboards to further solidify solution concepts.
BRAINSTORMING
Crazy 8's and Storyboarding
Kickstarting the brainstorming process with crazy 8's, we then created storyboards to further solidify solution concepts.
STORYBOARDS
Speed-dating
Concept validation
Originally, we believed that "targeting conflict" = "resolving conflict"; users, however, didn’t see a reason to use a tool to faciliate conflict-related conversations. Instead, users found it more useful to have a tool that can organize and consolidate different people's inputs. Their goal is to use a tool that can prevent conflicts rather than resolve them.
Speed-dating
Concept validation
Originally, we believed that "targeting conflict" = "resolving conflict"; users, however, didn’t see a reason to use a tool to faciliate conflict-related conversations. Instead, users found it more useful to have a tool that can organize and consolidate different people's inputs. Their goal is to use a tool that can prevent conflicts rather than resolve them.
design
How can we enhance our solution?
design
How can we enhance our solution?
INITIAL DESIGN
Let's visualize this tool.
These features aim to help preserve the spontaneous and fun nature of traveling while making the coordination process easier by keeping all the tricky information organized.
INITIAL DESIGN
Let's visualize this tool.
These features aim to help preserve the spontaneous and fun nature of traveling while making the coordination process easier by keeping all the tricky information organized.
[01] ONBOARDING QUIZ
Collect everyone’s personal preferences
[02] MAP FEATURE
Provide real-time updates about everyone’s location
[03] RECOMMENDATIONS
Nearby activities based on user’s current location
COLD FEEDBACK
We're heading towards the right direction.
We received validation from potential users about the practicality of having these features as mediators during a trip. An echoed suggestion was to simplify our wording to avoid overwhelming our users.
COLD FEEDBACK
We're heading towards the right direction.
We received validation from potential users about the practicality of having these features as mediators during a trip. An echoed suggestion was to simplify our wording to avoid overwhelming our users.
LOW-FIDELITY DESIGNS
Refining our initial design
With the mentioned factors in mind, we refined our prototype to be less wordy and still preserved the core functionalities of each feature.
LOW-FIDELITY DESIGNS
Refining our initial design
With the mentioned factors in mind, we refined our prototype to be less wordy and still preserved the core functionalities of each feature.
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud testing with 8 participants
We had them complete a task of adding an event to the itinerary and invited them to vocalize their think process as we observed and recorded notes. We also invited them to complete an exit questionnaire, helping us measure honest signals and collect user feedback.
USABILITY TESTING
Think-aloud testing with 8 participants
We had them complete a task of adding an event to the itinerary and invited them to vocalize their think process as we observed and recorded notes. We also invited them to complete an exit questionnaire, helping us measure honest signals and collect user feedback.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Simplifying and finetuning
We synthesized the user behavior and feedback from using our prototype by creating affinity clusters. Our synthesis identified positive echoes surrounding these features' effectiveness.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Simplifying and finetuning
We synthesized the user behavior and feedback from using our prototype by creating affinity clusters. Our synthesis identified positive echoes surrounding these features' effectiveness.
FINAL SOLUTION
Prototype walkthrough
FINAL SOLUTION
Prototype walkthrough
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Unpack and have fun!
Unpack is an app that makes planning trips with friends easier by helping you stay organized and spontaneous. It considers everyone’s interests and dietary needs when recommending places, and lets you add destinations directly to your itinerary from the map. Collaborate in real-time to keep everyone on the same page, even with last-minute changes.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Unpack and have fun!
Unpack is an app that makes planning trips with friends easier by helping you stay organized and spontaneous. It considers everyone’s interests and dietary needs when recommending places, and lets you add destinations directly to your itinerary from the map. Collaborate in real-time to keep everyone on the same page, even with last-minute changes.
[01]
Share your preferences
Unpack will create smart recommendations according to you and your friends’ personal preferences.
[01]
Share your preferences
Unpack will create smart recommendations according to you and your friends’ personal preferences.
[02]
Discover on the go
With tailored recommendations, according to distance and preferences, you can find outlets to further explore what’s around.
[02]
Discover on the go
With tailored recommendations, according to distance and preferences, you can find outlets to further explore what’s around.
[03]
Collaborative itinerary
Add ideas and activities to a group itinerary, shared amongst your friends, to keep everyone on the same page.
[03]
Collaborative itinerary
Add ideas and activities to a group itinerary, shared amongst your friends, to keep everyone on the same page.
THOUGHTS + REFLECTIONS
There’s still lots to learn.
Building out Unpack was a fruitful learning experience that helped us learn how to identify suitable research methods at different points into the project. We were able to refine our approaches in user-research and understood how to select a method that would extract the key insights we were looking for. Fundamentally, though, our project was limited in terms of who we were able to interview; going forward, our next steps would be to step outside of campus and interview a more diversified crowd to get a better understanding of how practical as well as useful Unpack would be.
THOUGHTS + REFLECTIONS
There’s still lots to learn.
Building out Unpack was a fruitful learning experience that helped us learn how to identify suitable research methods at different points into the project. We were able to refine our approaches in user-research and understood how to select a method that would extract the key insights we were looking for. Fundamentally, though, our project was limited in terms of who we were able to interview; going forward, our next steps would be to step outside of campus and interview a more diversified crowd to get a better understanding of how practical as well as useful Unpack would be.