Sustayable app
- Fictional Case Study
UX/UI/Research/Usability test
Sector: Travel and private sector
Project time: 9 weeks
Background/hypothesis
Travellers want to reduce their environmental footprint when planning and booking trips. There is demand for a platform of sustainability focused information for travellers, providing booking options and insights into the trip's environmental impact.
My role
As part of a team of three I took on the roles of: researcher, strategic planner, UI designer, prototype designer, moderator for user interviews & usability testing. We all contributed equally in all parts, what set me apart would be my ability to focus on the goal, keep the team moving forward and make sure we had time for each stage of the design process.
The design process
EMPATHISE
Research and domain exploration
- Interviews to gain insights into a traveller’s attitudes, motivations and challenges related to sustainable travel.
- Competitive research
- Literature review
DEFINE
Affinity mapping to structure and categorise findings
Key Insights
- Users struggle to identify sustainable travel options.
- Sustainable travel is perceived as expensive and inconvenient.
- Sustainable options would be chosen if they were clearly presented and financially viable.
- There is no centralised, user-friendly platform to integrate all sustainable travel options.
- Some users prioritise speed and comfort over sustainability.
Problem statement
“Travellers seeking sustainable alternatives face a lack of viable options and coordinated information to minimise their environmental footprint when planning and booking trips, posing a critical challenge to preserve the planet's current state.”
IDEATE
NUF-test (new, useful, feasible) - laid the ground for sketching out concepts.
Sketching
Guided by Don Norman’s three levels of design - visceral, behavioural and reflective. A lo/mid-fi prototype was produced as an MVP (minimum viable product) to validate the findings with real users.
PROTOTYPE AND TEST
Usability testing (3 participants)
The usability testing focused on:
- navigation efficiency
- feature completeness
- overall user satisfaction
- identifying usability barriers
Findings
- Filter options needed to be improved
- Clearer UX copy and better integration of sustainable features
Information Architecture
Task and user flow
Lo/Mid-fi prototype with annotations
Updated Lo/Mid-fi prototype
Solution
Enabling the user to explore low-impact transport and eco-friendly accommodation alternatives - the Sustayable app provides a combination of inspirational staycation packages with an effective transport planner.
Challenges
Extracting existing information from other platforms provided by different companies and actors.
Outcome
The Sustayable app concept “Travel and Stay Sustainable", encourages staycation by providing the traveller with sustainable travel packages locally in Sweden. This serves as a pilot that can in the future be adapted for any country.
Knowledge gained and next steps
- Produce a hi-fi prototype of all views
- Run a usability test on more user flows
- Scan the market for investors and acquire funding
- Contact possible collaborators and suppliers in accommodation and travel to see if integrations are feasible
On the other hand it must be acknowledged that our research showed that there are already many similar apps out there and the main challenge of getting information out of partly competing businesses might be a show stopper.
Hi-fi prototype - created as an idea of what the final product could look like
