Wonderlust- Your Digital Tour Guide

Travel and tourism have always been a serious interest of mine. Almost sixteen years ago, I secured a position with American Express Global Business Travel as a travel professional. I was trained on Sabre how to book airfare, car, and hotel reservations for contracted clients. I really enjoyed speaking with our customers each and every day, learning their stories, and solving their travel problems.

I remember one in particular- the client needed to go to the North of Alaska. I can't remember anymore what small town they were flying into but required a car while they were there. There were also no major hotel chains and none that I could book on Sabre. I investigated online and learned of a small hotel, and called them up. After a few phone calls back and forth, not only had I secured them the three hotel rooms that they needed, I also learned that the hotel also rented vehicles and was able to reserve an SUV for them. Happy customers.

UX Design is similar. Learn the problem, explore the solutions. Perhaps the initial, apparent solution is not going to be the right one. It just requires a little out-of-the-box thinking.

Some weeks ago now, I participated in a "map" challenge. We were supposed to create an app that used a map in some way. As a travel lover, I decided to create a map for tourists who enjoyed learning about new cities. I called it "Wonderlust."

I started by surveying a group of potential users and asked what their main mode of transportation they used when going on vacation. I had 22 respondents. Fifty-four point five percent said they travel frequently, while the other 45.5% said that they travel occasionally. Thirty-one percent said they travel multiple times per year and 77.3% said that they would travel by car when they go on vacation. Seventy-six percent responded that they use Google maps for their choice of navigation.

I also completed a competitive analysis of Google Maps, Waze, and MapQuest.

From there, I completed wireframing.

The idea I had for Wonderlust is that not only could tourists use the map function to navigate their way around a new city, but could also create itineraries and plan out their visit. Each place of interest would have tourist information accessible in the cloud by the application and would be called on and downloaded as needed.

As the user drives through the city, voice narration would alert the traveler of a close location of potential interest, and ask them if they would like to learn more. They may either tap the button saying they would or activate the function by voice command to accommodate drivers.

With the wireframing finished, I turned to create the style tile that would dictate the design direction of the app.

I went with a nostalgic-feeling color palette that is reminiscent of the golden age of travel- the 1950s and 60s, but yet modern enough to be pleasing to the eye. I used a glassmorphism design being careful to balance contrasts to still be able to be accessible to all users.

Once I had a design direction, I worked to complete the mockup designs for the app.