Mobile App and Website: Passport Pal
a website and app to plan and save for vacations with friends and family
Role | Team Lead, Visuals, Interaction
Project Duration | July 2024
Project Vision
Passport Pal is a mobile ap to connect travel buddies together to plan and save for shared trips.
Challenges
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Provide a linear process to add a trip and connect with travel companions to organize logistics
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​Have an intuitive interface where users can not only track their progress on saving for a trip, but manage the booking of all necessary components
Kickoff
In this project, I used a goal-oriented approach which was effective. I utilized qualitative research methods which I found to be most useful. I began by asking some initial key questions:
"What is the product and who is it for?"
"Will this product be useful/utilized by its market?"
"What challenges could we face moving forward?"
"What do our primary users need most?"
Meet the Users
Primary
Name: Sherry
Age: 38
Education: MS
Occupation: Researcher
Goal: "To be able to track my saving towards my girls trip next year, and make sure everyone is on track and the vacation is planned without issue."
Frustrations: "With so many people involved and so much to plan, it’s hard to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything."
Sherry goes on a girls' trip with her high school friends every other year or so. It can be challenging to make sure everyone is able to save enough, and then making sure that all of the hotels, transportation, excursions, etc. are all planned, that someone’s taking care of all the details.
Primary
Name: John
Age: 45
Education: Bachelor's
Occupation: Office Worker
Frustrations: "There are so many household expenses to take care of before fun can come in, but I still want to be able to travel with my family."
John has three kids and lots of household expenses. He would like to be able to see what money he has that can be set aside for travel budget after the necessities are taken care of, and get some advice for how he can work towards reaching those vacation goals sooner!
Goal: "To have some way of managing my family vacation."
Preparing the Journey
I constructed a basic user flow of what a start to finish journey would look like adding a new trip. This helped in understanding ways users can interact with the product as well as allowing me to see a navigation path.
Paper Wireframe for mobile app
Paper Wireframe for website
Wireflow
After sketching out some paper wireframes and thinking through the preliminary flow, I reviewed what was necessary, unnecessary, and needed improvement. I then moved onto digital wireframing and low-fidelity prototypes.
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View the low-fidelity prototype for the app here.
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View the low-fidelity prototype for the website here.
Iterations
After creating the low-fidelity prototype, I performed a usability test to determine the flow, what worked, and any issues to address and solve during the next set of design iterations.
Shared trip page.
There should be a shared trip page for users to plan and check off if items have been booked.
Planning categories.
Would be nice to have different categories for what the user needs to save for.
Notifications.
It would be nice to have notification settings so the user can get reminders weekly to put money aside to save.
Wishlist.
It would be nice to have a wishlist to add destinations if the user isn't ready to plan the trip just yet.
Addressing Challenges
linear process
This app is designed to be used by anyone, whether the user is planning for a family vacation or a solo adventure. Anyone can easily navigate through the pages to set up their travels, add travel companions, and keep an organized list of what needs to be booked and what has been taken care of already!
intuitive interface
Everything in this app is designed to be easily understandable. Finding where to create a new trip, adding traveling companions, editing monthly expenses is all easily identified and at the user's fingertips.
Style Guide
Takeaways
I enjoyed this project a lot, it's something I could see myself using frequently when planning vacations! I love to travel and Passport Pal would be extremely helpful in managing my expenses to make sure I have enough for all my adventures. Being able to connect with others to plan trips together is a great idea, I often travel with friends and we're booking hotels, transportation, activities, etc. as a group - having one place to mark down what's been taken care of would save so much time and effort!