Mobile App Redesign: Yelp for Travelers (STUDENT PROJECT)

Disclaimer: This was a conceptual project, as part of our coursework in the UX Design Immersive Course at General Assembly. This design has not

been endorsed by Yelp nor were any Yelp staff consulted.

To connect people with great local businesses

UX Student Project // February 2015 Rose Kue, Alivia Duran, John Cheung

OUTLINE

I. PROJECT BRIEF II. INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

III. EXPLORING THE OPPORTUNITY

a. Getting to Know the Users

b. Understanding the Product and Market

c. Identifying Yelp’s Current Offerings for Travelers

IV. EXPLORING THE SOLUTIONS

a. Developing the Personas

b. Prioritizing the Features

c. Iterating the Designs

V. NEXT STEPS

The Problem

• People use Yelp to find all sorts of things—especially when they’re on vacation and in an unfamiliar place. Yelp wants to expand their mobile offerings to be the go-to place for travelers planning their trips.

THE BRIEF

Aspects to Consider • Yelp currently has a “Lists” feature tucked away on its website

• Consider how this would compare to TripAdvisor’s offerings

Required Features (Mobile App) • Users should be able to create itineraries with designated locations/services

• Users should be able to “record” all the experiences of their trip

OUTLINE

I. PROJECT BRIEF

II. INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE III. EXPLORING THE OPPORTUNITY







c. Design iterations

V. FINAL DESIGNS

VI. NEXT STEPS

PROTOTYPE

View the Prototype https://marvelapp.com/4j2chh

https://marvelapp.com/4j2chh

OUTLINE

I. PROJECT BRIEF

II. INTERACTIVE PROTOTYPE

III. EXPLORING THE OPPORTUNITY a. Getting to Know the Users






c. Design iterations

V. NEXT STEPS

EXPLORING THE PROBLEM THROUGH RESEARCH

SCREENER SURVEY RESULTS

How often do you travel per year?

What is your employment status?On average, how often do you use mobile apps when you travel?

If so, which ones?

SURVEY

What’s your travel style?

80% surveyed make a basic itinerary but

want flexibility

Essentially, we want to learn about users’ decision-making

style related to travel.

How do they decide where to go, what to do, who does what?

IDENTIFYING USERS INTERVIEWS

From our screener survey we carefully selected a number of respondents that represented a range of potential users with differing backgrounds and interviewed them about their habits, behaviors, pain points and what delights them when they are traveling or planning a trip.

Overheard in Multiple Interviews: “I don’t feel as though I utilize

Yelp to its fullest extent…”

User Interviews followed a general script, so that we

could measure trends

Users shared their current methods of planning trips, but

we had to avoid words like “plan”,

which was a leading question!

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

• Yelp has a more social aspect that includes a friend feed and viewing others’ reviews

• Trip Advisor lets you make in-app flight, hotel and tour bookings, while Yelp offers some of these features it’s not as prominent

• You can filter bookmarks on Yelp, but not Trip Advisor

FEATURE COMPARISON

Using feature comparisions, we looked at various

competitor apps. Similarities with TripAdvisor, as well as its market share, had us focus on

it as a primary competitor.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS TRIP ADVISOR

Emphasis on bookings and reservations

filter option doesn’t work for saved locations

Trip Advisor caters to the more “robust" traveller, one who likes to plan out every every detail, from flights to tours. We wanted to create a travel feature for Yelp that doesn’t overwhelm the curious, flexible traveller.


LAYOUT COMPARISON


ELEMENT ANALYSIS

QUALITATIVE HEURISTIC ANALYSIS

WHAT WE LEARNED: Competitors are lacking in: Clear Navigation and Access

to Relevant Travel Information

WHAT DOES YELP HAVE NOW?

Yelp’s current “Lists” feature is only available on the website,

not the mobile app, and only lets users add places they have

reviewed to each list.

Lists Feature

WHAT DOES YELP HAVE NOW?

Bookmarks Feature

Only 3 Filter Options Map View includes all bookmarks

Found in “More” on app

3 Potential Fall-off points for travelers in current app

OUTLINE

I. PROJECT BRIEF






IV. EXPLORING THE SOLUTIONS a. Developing the Personas



V. NEXT STEPS

PERSONA CREATION

Parker, 35 I want to have authentic travel experiences and check things off my “bucket list”.

Lauren, 26 Traveling with my close group of friends is like a fun project that we can create together.

Luke, 41 I want our family vacations to be as memorable as possible.

Parker, 35 I want to have authentic travel experiences and check things off my “bucket list”.Occupation: Software Development Project Manager

Education: BA Computer Science from UC Berkeley, MBA MIT Sloan

Location: Oakland, CA

Relationship Status: UnmarriedFrequency of Travel: Takes (1) 2-4 week vacation abroad each year, and 3-5 long weekend trips domestically & abroad

Apps used while traveling: Instagram, Yelp (for domestic travel)

Devices while traveling: iPhone 6, iPad 2

At home: Macbook Pro, iMac Desktop

PERSONAS

How we can serve • Ability to discover and “save”

travel recommendations from friends, research, and locals

• Ability to access information (business address, hours of operation, etc.) online and offline

• Ability to navigate to locations within the app

• Ability to access information about local businesses in English

Needs For Traveling • Quick and easy access to travel

recommendations • Organized information — has

many lists of restaurants, museums, things to do

• Validation of businesses from other travelers, especially friends

• Like to feel independent, as though he had a choice in his travel decisions

Pain Points • Business information is scattered

across too many platforms, based on discovery methods

• Travels to get away from busy worklife, wants to have fun without too much planning

• Gets disappointed when travel hopes don’t get fulfilled (businesses have closed or addresses have changed)

Parker’s Job Story

Parker is a solo traveler in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He wants to find nearby activities to do based on recommendations from his friend.

Parker's Scenario:

Parker just finished lunch at a restaurant on the beach in Sao Paolo, Brazil. He wants to find an activity to do next, based on recommendations from his friend. He remembers that there was an interesting museum in the neighborhood, but doesn’t know how to get there or if they are open. He wants to view his trip itinerary on his phone while he has wifi access at the restaurant, to view the museum and recommended places nearby, then navigate to them offline.

PARKER USER FLOW VIEW LOCATION & MAP ON EXISTING TRIP

Parker's Job Story:

Parker is a solo traveler in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During lunch at a restaurant with wifi, he wants to find a nearby activity to do next and explore the neighborhood, mostly based on his friend’s recommendations.

Parker, 35 I want to have authentic travel experiences and check things off my “bucket list”.

My Trips Page (Reverse Chronological Order)

Scrolls through trip

list

Taps “Trip Detail Page”

Views Trip Detail Pagefilter by: distance from me

Filtered Results on Trip Detail Page Taps

Review Detail Page

View Museum Review Page (hours, location on

map)Taps “back” Views Trip Detail Page

Taps “map view”

Trip Details Page with Map View

Taps into Map View

Expanded Map View of locations on Trip List

Existing Page

New Page

Existing Page with New Elements

KEY ELEMENT YOUR TRIPS

Your Trips (Summary)

Record travel experiences via archive of Past

Trips

Lauren, 26 Traveling with my close group of friends is like a fun project that we can create together.Occupation: Art Gallery Manager

Education: BA Art History, University of Michigan

Location: New York City

Relationship Status: UnmarriedFrequency of Travel: Takes 1-2 week-long vacation abroad each year, and 1-2 long weekend trips domestically & abroad

Apps used while traveling: Yelp, Airbnb, Citimap2Go, Foursquare, Google Drive

Devices while traveling: iPhone 5s, DSLR camera

At home: Macbook Air

PERSONAS

How we can serve • Ability for 1-4 other people to

edit shared travel plans • Quickly add new places to travel

itinerary • Be able to view which friend

added a business to a shared trip • Ability to see map of all

bookmarked trip businesses

Needs For Traveling • Streamlined view and ability to

edit trip itinerary • Find information about

businesses, either via research or recommendations from local residents

• Share travel info and planning responsibilities with her group travelers

Pain Points • Friends live around the globe

and it’s difficult to easily share travel details with each other

• Wants to focus on how fun the trip will be rather than the stress of planning and making everyone happy

• Wants friends to feel equally involved in planning process — no single person dominated the trip

Lauren’s Job Story

For our first trip to Norway, my group of international friends wants to feel like we’ve equally helped to share ideas and make decisions.

Lauren's Scenario:

Lauren is planning a week-long trip to Norway with 4 of her close friends who live across the world. They only see each other a couple times a year, and it’s usually on an international trip to somewhere none of them have been before. They are all fairly easy going, but like to have a detailed itinerary because when traveling with 5 people on a trip things can get complicated. Lauren usually takes the initiative to coordinate the details, and her friends willingly pitch in ideas and help out.

Lauren's Job Story:

When I am planning our trip to Norway I want to be able to share ideas with my 3 friends without cluttering everyone’s inbox so we can compare our options and decide what we want to put on our itinerary.

Lauren, 26 Traveling with my close group of friends is like a fun project that we can create together.

Existing Page

New Page


Taps search field

Search Page Expanded View

Enters search terms

Results Page

Browses results

Selects location

Review Page for Restaurant

Taps “Add to Trip”

Review Page for Restaurant w/ Added to Default Trip & notification

Taps notification

Default Trip Page

Taps “Search”

Types Trip Name

Choose dates

Tap location field and

enter location

Tap icon to add Trip Planners

Find Friends Page

Tap “Add to Trip”

Select Friends

Create Trip Page (completed) w/ “Friends

Added Notification”Tap “Save

Trip”Trip Detail Page with

location added

Search Page

LAUREN USER FLOW ADD LOCATION TO EXISTING TRIP

KEY ELEMENT TRIP DETAILS

Trip Details Page

View trip items on custom Yelp map

Local SuggestionsLauren needs to know

who added the item to the trip

Multiple filter options for trip items (i.e, date

added)

Luke, 41 I want our family vacations to be as memorable as possible. How we can serve

• Make trip planning process easier between Luke and his wife

• Provide Luke with ability to access his trip information offline

• Integrate friends and local parents’ reviews

• Luke and his wife should both be able to edit travel plans

Occupation: Senior VP, Bank Risk Assessment

Education: MBA, Columbia University

Home Life: Lives with wife (Julie, 38), son (Ryan, 7)

Relationship Status: Married with one 7-year-old son

Location: Short Hills, NJ

Frequency of Travel: International trip once every 2 years, domestically 4-5 times a year

Apps Used While Traveling: Tripit, Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor

Devices used while traveling: iPhone, iPad, PC

At home: PC

Needs For Traveling • Quick access to planning and

viewing travel information across devices and workstations

• Kid-family activities that his family can do nearby, as plans and moods change

• Sharing favorite photos and video with friends and loved ones

• Ability to share travel plans

PERSONAS

Pain Points • Difficult to identify activities that

the whole family will enjoy • Travel information currently

saved everywhere, mostly e-mails

• Wife doesn’t have easy access to travel information

• Hard finding trusted reviews from other parents and friends

Luke’s Job Story

I want to be able to fill my family’s first trip to Orlando with kid-friendly activities that everyone can enjoy. I want to enjoy my time with my family, not stressing out about what to do next.

LUKE USER FLOW ADD LOCATION TO NEW TRIP

Luke's Scenario:

Luke and his wife are taking their son Ryan to Sea World for the first time. Many of their friends have taken their kids their and had a good time, but Luke is nervous because he knows that unless he fills the day with activities, Ryan will be bored. Trusting his friends’ advice, he opens up bookmarks in the Yelp app and browses places his friends had visited. He finds and saves a well-review attraction to a new itinerary for their trip, and shares the itinerary with his wife to keep her up-to-date.

Luke's Job Story: When I'm traveling, I want to be able to fill my trip with kid friendly activities so that my son is happy and therefore, me and my wife are happy.

Luke, 41 I want our family vacations to be as memorable as possible.

Taps “More” More Page Taps “Bookmarks”

Bookmarks (auto filters: Friends)

Browses “bookmarks”

Selects “Discovery

Cove”

Review Page for Discovery Cove

Taps “Add to Trip”

Review Page for Discovery Cove w/

Added to Trip & notification

Taps “notification” Create New Trip Page

Types “Trip Name”

Choose dates

Tap location field and

enter location

Tap “icon” to add Yelp

FriendsFind Friends Page

Tap “Save Trip”

Create Trip Page (completed) & Friends

have been added notification

Tap “Add to Trip”

Select “Friends”

Trip Detail Page with friend and location

(Discovery Cove) addedExisting Page

New Page


KEY ELEMENT CREATE NEW TRIP

Edit Trip Details

Luke needs to be able to share

travel information with his wife

Proposed Features Problem BeingSolved Luke Lauren Parker

TOTAL

INSTRUCTIONS: Enter Must, Should,Could, Won't for each feature, per user/You're measuring whether this feature iscritical for your user's Minimum Viable

Product (will it stop him/her from using theproduct?)

Low effort/essential Secondary Tertiary Primary

Itinerary supports “holes” Must Must

Bucket list/checklist Could 2 Could 1 Should 4 7

Multiple editors on itinerary Must 4 Should 2 Must 5 11

Share itinerary with friends (via email or in-app) Should 3 Must 3 Must 5 11 Lauren # Luke # Parker #

itinerary supports lodging details Could 2 Must 3 Could 3 8 Must 3 4 5itinerary supports in-country transport details (i.e.

train tickets, metro information) Could 2 Must 3 Could 3 8 Should 2 3 4integrate flight dates / car rental / main mode of

transport Must 4 Must 3 Could 3 10 Could 1 2 3

access to itinerary and saved locations offline Must 4 Must 3 Must 5 12 Won't 0 0 0

0

Low effort/nice to have 0

itinerary supports weather & currency info Won't 0 Could 1 Won't 0 1

find specific venue within one click Should 3 Could 1 Must 5 9

0

High effort/essential 0

Itinerary supports POI details Should Must Should 0

automated categories important to individual user Should 3 Could 1 Should 4 8

itinerary supports at a glance or overview Should 3 Should 2 Must 5 10

ability to see where friends have been(map?) Should 3 Should 2 Should 4 9

modify itinerary on the go Should 3 Must 3 Must 5 11

itinerary supports multiple people’s schedules Could 2 Must 3 Could 3 8

multiple countries/cities within one itinerary Could 2 Must 3 Must 5 10

top 10/location service Must 4 Could 1 Could 3 8

0

High effort/nice to have 0

itinerary supports budget info Could 2 Could 2 Could 3 7

ask for rec’s from people nearby Could 2 Could 2 Won't 0 4

scrapbook/album feature Should 3 Won't 0 Could 3 6

save a few pics from trip Won't 0 Could 1 Should 4 5

traveler classification Could 2 Could 1 Won't 0 3

cross reference reviews with other sites Won't 0 Could 1 Won't 0 1

verify true reviews Could 2 Won't 0 Won't 0 2

delegate tasks on itinerary Could 2 Could 1 Won't 0 3

72

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION

We conducted a feature prioritization for each suggested feature, then scored each one using the MoSCoW method for each user persona. This helped us quantify each feature and

make objective decisions about which ones to cut.

APPMAP

Launch App

Splash

Selection

Main Nav

Nearby Search Star Nav More

Write a Review

Photo or Video

Check In

Bookmark

Add to Trip

Check In Bookmarks

Review Check-ins

Talk

Create New Trip

View Trip Detail

Add Friends

to Trip

View All Trips

TripsNearby &

Friendly Feed

Monocle

Photo or Video Trips

Find Friends

About Me

Notifications Bookmarks

Review My Feed

Messages Add a Review

More About Me

FriendsAdd a Business

Photo

TripsCheck into a

Business

Restaurants

Bars

Coffee & Tea

Delivery

More Categories

Home Search

Results

filtered by distance

Directions

Call

Message the

Business

More Info

Explore the

Menu

Results

filtered by distance

DESIGN ITERATIONS STORYBOARDING

We storyboarded around one of the

personas…

DESIGN ITERATIONS STORYBOARDING

…and compared it with storyboarding of another

one, directly on top

This allowed us to directly compare feature differences and validate

DESIGN ITERATIONS LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPES

Then we tested our app sketches on paper with users

Laying it on top of a phone allowed users to envision the

features, to scale

We used Illustrator, Omnigraffle, and Axure to create Mid-Fidelity

Prototypes

DESIGN ITERATIONS MID-HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES

We used Marvel and Axure to test on phones and from web browsers

DESIGN ITERATIONS HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPES

Testing gave us enough feedback to continue iterating and refining

design elements

Confusing copy, cluttered layout, and shading were replaced

Filter types and the placement of text were changed

DESIGN ITERATIONS PROTOTYPES

Lo Fidelity Mid-High Fidelity High Fidelity

OUTLINE

I. PROJECT BRIEF










V. NEXT STEPS

NEXT STEPS

Navigation

My Trips

My Trips

Miami Beach, FLTrip 1

8/11/15 - 8/16/15


8/11/15 - 8/16/15


8/11/15 - 8/16/15

Current Trips

Past Trips

Sidebar

Tab

• Further testing with diverse users, including Yelp Elite

• Further integration of Bookmarks and “My Trips”

• Seamless web integration designs

• Explore cross-referencing opportunities with other review sources

• Research global markets

Some of our recommendations for changes to the website

Disclaimer: This was a conceptual project, as part of our coursework in the UX Design Immersive Course at General Assembly. This product has not

been endorsed by Yelp nor were any Yelp staff consulted.

UX Student Project // February 2015 Rose Kue, Alivia Duran, John Cheung

Thank you!

Mobile App Redesign: Yelp for Travelers (STUDENT PROJECT)

Design

Transcript of Mobile App Redesign: Yelp for Travelers (STUDENT PROJECT)