Background
We love discovering new places, tasting new flavours and forging memorable experiences. However, travel planning is not always fun where there is an overwhelming amount of information, and just so little time to create a plan that makes sense.
Say hello to the Holicay marketplace that connects you to local travel planners and wanderlust enthusiasts who are eager to share their travel experiences and itineraries.
Holicay allows users to explore and buy experiences made by others. Users can also plan their own trip from scratch or customize an itinerary from an existing travel guide in the community.
Roles
While the platform was live, there were areas for improvement in the user experience. Holicay was also in its infancy hence we also focused on methods to generate leads and create brand awareness.
We assumed the following roles:
- User Experience (UX) Designer
- Interaction (IxD) Designer
- User Interface (UI) Designer
- Visual Designer
- Business Developer
- Social Media Marketer
Deliverables
UX/UI Design:
- Competitive analysis
- Personas
- User journeys and task flows
- Site map
- Low-fidelity wireframes
- High-fidelity mockups and prototypes
- Usability tests and findings
Business Development & Social Media:
- Lead magnets
- Ad graphics & collaterals
Project Specifications
Duration: 6 months
Tools:
- Figma
- Photoshop
- Illustrator
- Meta/Facebook Ads
Problems
After the initial UX audit, there were some UI/UX and business issues which came to the surface. Holicay’s positioning in the market had to be made clear such that prioritisation of the features could happen. Once the necessary features were prioritised, the design and copy could follow suit. Here were the key concerns:
- Navigation was unclear.
- Search, sort, and filter tools were unclear. There was also no way to filter by country or the type of travel.
- Lack of tools or pages to help users find out more about specific countries and types of adventures.
- The cards for paid and free itineraries were the same and it was difficult to distinguish the two unless the user clicked to see the itinerary page.
- The planner page was not intuitive. Seeing as it would be a core function of the platform, the user experience had to be improved.
Solutions
After identifying the key problems, our goals for the project became clear:
- Introduce a cleaner information architecture.
- Implement a new Search results/Explore page.
- Introduce an Adventure/Theme Feature page.
- Introduce a new design for the itinerary cards.
- Redesign the Planner page with a more intuitive Interaction Design.
Research
Since Holicay already had an existing website, we spent some time examining the site map and seeing areas for improvement – from calls-to-action (CTA) to information architecture.
Following that, we placed emphasis on the competition space in order to understand how other products are addressing similar issues. I also conducted one-on-one interviews would help me understand users’ journeys and specific issues the app, specifically the planner, would need to address.
Findings
The findings from the competitive analysis and user research can be seen from this video which was presented to the client.
Visualizing a User-Centric Experience
Low-fidelity prototype testing allowed me to better understand how users expected to complete the tasks I was focusing on. By studying their behaviours — and more importantly, having a dialogue with them about what they expected and when — I knew which adjustments needed to be made to lay the foundation for a more fully realised high fidelity prototype.
Setting Holicay Up for Growth
With the new platform ready, we also strategised ways to acquire users. We ended deciding to create a lead magnet – a valuable piece of content – to generate leads to our website and to create an email list.
Being a young startup without funding, we had to work within the constraints and with limited resources. Nonetheless, within a week, we were able to garner about 200 quality leads with an average customer acquisition cost of $1.92 SGD.
Lessons Learned
- We learned the impact of providing value first and fostering relationships with your first 1000 users. We brainstormed and toyed with a ton of growth-hacking ideas and we’re excited to try some of those methods in the future.
- The importance of empathy and user research was reinstated after working with Holicay. The opportunities and ideas which arose during the research phase was integral to the success of this project.
- A lot can be discovered from competitive analysis and research. In this day and age, it’s difficult to be the first-mover. Thus, it’s exceedingly helpful to learn from others’ successes and failures.