Wander
Where travel meets people
Wander
Wander is a travel app that acts as a bridge by closing the gap between passionate travelers and welcoming hosts. It transcends the conventional role of a booking platform by artfully crafting havens where travelers can reside unitedly, cultivating a distinctive atmosphere of closeness rather than the conventional lodging choices.
Product Goals
Enhance Your Travel Experience
Discover Exciting and Unexplored Destinations
Helping individuals locate ideal accommodations for unforgettable vacations, with a focus on shared family spaces rather than traditional rentals.
Forge Meaningful Connections
Enable travelers to connect with like-minded individuals, fostering new friendships based on shared interests and aspirations to cultivate special relationships.
Project Requirements
The client has tasked me with expanding travel horizons to uncover new and undiscovered destinations across the globe. Contrary to popular belief, each city and town on Earth possesses unique characteristics waiting to be explored and appreciated, offering invaluable lessons to every discerning traveler.
Our objective is to facilitate individuals in discovering accommodations for their journeys, particularly those embarking with newfound friends or family members, all conveniently gathered under one roof instead of opting for conventional property rentals.
Our platform aims to connect travelers with suitable lodgings while fostering opportunities for them to forge friendships with like-minded individuals who share similar interests and aspirations. Through our services, strangers can congregate, form valuable bonds, and relish the distinctive encounters that each destination has to offer.
Target Audience
The target audience involves a wide population of people who like to travel and meet new people.
To gain insight into my users' objectives and challenges, I collaborated with key stakeholders to brainstorm and develop innovative solutions.
I brainstormed and organized ideas to tackle various challenges and engage key groups including retirees, college students, young professionals, and families to deepen our understanding.
For retirees: We aim to inquire about aspirations they've longed to pursue but haven't yet (building profiles).
For college students: Our goal is to support them in gaining deeper insights into different cultures.
For young professionals: We strive to offer diverse choices tailored to their individual interests.
For families: We work towards ensuring that the preferences of all family members are taken into account.
With an enhanced understanding of my user's challenges and goals, I thoughtfully developed two user personas paired with two empathy maps.
I aimed to develop a better understanding of my users' objectives, requirements, interactions, and actions. Drawing upon the insights and concepts derived from my "How Might We" statements, I crafted two distinct personas: the Traveler and the Host. These personas served as invaluable tools whenever I sought to gain a fresh perspective and reevaluate my initial concepts.
The first user persona is the traveler and the second one is the host.
Redesigned Content:
With my user personas at the forefront of my mind, I delved deeper into the user journey to gain a comprehensive understanding of my user's experiences. Aligning these insights with the business goals centered around comprehending a traveler's decision-making process when selecting a destination and arranging accommodation, I meticulously crafted six distinct stages that map out the entire journey:
Profile Creation
Consideration Phase
Decision-Making
Booking & Payment
During Travel
Post-Travel / Vacation
Within each of these six stages, I identified a series of nuanced steps that the user would navigate, capturing the essence of their actions towards completing a specific task. These steps encompassed various touchpoints shedding light on the user's emotions and thoughts as they progressed through the journey. This holistic approach allowed me to view my users from a fresh perspective, enabling me to refine my user flows effectively.
Taking insights gathered from every step and touchpoint outlined in the user journey map, I leveraged them to navigate the user flow. Crafting a user flow diagram became my next step, aiming to visually capture the tasks and choices the user undertakes. This detailed diagram delineates the content encountered at each stage, the decisions to be made, and the outcomes delivered to the user. To refine the representation of the user flows, I sought input from four key stakeholders, ensuring clarity and alignment in the decision-making process.
User Flow
After mapping out the user flow, I sought to explore indirect competitors to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of established solutions. I conducted a comparative analysis between Sonder and Airbnb to delve into the design nuances catering to their respective user bases. Through this investigation, I found the following insights:
Sonder:
Utilizes icons and informative details to enhance user understanding of essential information for each location.
Incorporates a map feature with search filters for easy navigation across different destinations.
Offers comprehensive information about each listing, including images that highlight amenities and services.
Provides pricing ranges, facilitating user decision-making through filter options.
Airbnb:
Clearly outlines house rules supported by illustrative icons for quick comprehension.
Showcases property photos alongside a map display for location reference.
Lists cancellation policies and cleaning fees upfront to manage user expectations.
Details sleeping arrangements and policies regarding free cancellations before the check-in date.
By scrutinizing these key features of both platforms, a clearer picture emerges regarding their offerings and user experience strategies.
After mapping out the user flow and evaluating indirect competitors, I delved into a brainstorming session, where I sketched out ideas using a method known as Crazy 8's.
Continued Crazy 8s
Continued Crazy 8s
Taking inspiration from the ideas brainstormed using the crazy 8s technique, I developed a storyboard to vividly depict a user scenario.
For this storyboard, I created a narrative centered around a fictional character named Cristal. This storyboard served as a platform for structuring my ideas into cohesive stories that showcase Cristal's journey towards achieving her goal.
User Flows: Animal Shelter Account Creation
Revising the initial concepts I depicted in my storyboard, I proceeded to develop wireframes in order to test my paper prototype. Building upon the insights gained from illustrating Cristal's journey through storyboarding, I crafted paper prototypes to evaluate the ideas generated during the "crazy 8s" brainstorming session. Subsequently, I conducted testing to gather feedback and identify areas for enhancement based on user insights.
The test results revealed a preference among users for a more prominent helper text view and additional details concerning the hosts. In response to this feedback, adjustments will be made to provide enhanced information on each booking destination.
After conducting paper prototyping testing on my design solutions, I utilized insights gathered from my sketches and test results to create low-fidelity wireframes using Figma. The initial user interaction involves inputting their career, hobbies, interests, and goals to set up their profile. This data serves to enhance the app experience by enabling users to connect with others who share similar interests. Once this stage is done, users proceed to create their profile and undergo a background check for identity verification. Upon completing the onboarding process, users land on the home page to enter their trip destination. Subsequently, users can explore search results, message the host, and even opt for a video chat. Following the conversation with the host, users finalize the booking by making a payment and receiving a confirmation.
Low-Fi Wireframes (Version 2021)
I categorized the survey results, listing all prevalent responses underneath specific categories. This approach enhanced my empathy mapping process, enabling me to immerse myself in the user's mindset and gain a deeper understanding of their perspective.
User Testing
I developed a fully-functional, low-fidelity prototype of the flows utilizing Figma. Subsequently, I enlisted participants from my target user group for further testing.
Key Findings:
All users appreciated the clean aesthetics and organized information layout.
66.7% of participants indicated that they could comprehend and navigate through the user flow effectively.
Similarly, 66.7% of users expressed a desire to access the host's profile and more detailed information about them during the interaction.
High-Fi V1 2021 - inquiry for more
After my first round of testing and taking the feedback, I designed my high-fidelity
Using Figma, I took the feedback from my first round of testing and designed new screens, the Host profile. This includes the hosts biography, the list of places they manage and option to contact the host, identify verification checkmark and reviews to give more users insight on other guests experiences.
Revamped High-Fi V2
Same experience but improved UI and UX. Inquiry for more information.
Thanks for listening!
Contact me for more info if you have any questions!