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TRAVELER'S
COLLECTIVE

UX Research Project*

 

Project Content:

User Research, User stories, Open Card Sorting, Tree Test, User flow, Wireframe

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Project Timeline:

01.2019 - 2 weeks

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05.2020 - UI Redesign

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Traveler's Collective is a collective information platform to use for organizing travels.

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Designed for: Tourists, Backpackers, Hitchhikers


Function: Discovery about the travel route and place of the visit


Purpose of the project: To enable travelers to create a collective information pool by sharing information on the travel route.
The information is filled by travelers and local people, besides personal comments, systematically creating information within the guidelines, with the answers given to the preset questions and upvote/downvote votes on these answers. The information and the interaction each city gets determines their recognition scores.


When travelers look for a city, they will instantly know how much information they can find.

SURVEY

Based on the survey results I filled out with 67 travelers from a Facebook group where travelers share their experiences, comments, or hitchhiking announcements, I prepared my questions for the user interviews.

TRAVELING PROCESS

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  • Which means of transportation did you prefer in your travels?

  • If you have used hitchhiking before, how did you choose the hitchhiking spots?

  • If you have hitchhiked before, have you researched the hitchhiking culture of the city/country before?

  • How important it is for you to know the success rate of hitchhiking spots in advance? (How long did previous hitchhikers wait there?)

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ACCOMMODATION PROCESS

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  • Which of the accommodation methods did you use in your travels?
    (multiple choices)

  • At least how long before your travels you decide about your accommodation?

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RESEARCH HABIT

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  • On which occasion do you feel the need to ask questions about traveling on this group? (InterRail Turkey Facebook group)

  • Please pick how you generally reach information about traveling in this group.

  • How often do you share your experiences about the places you went to in the group?

kullanıcı araşt

I formed my personas by interviewing 4 participants who travel frequently. I gathered information about their traveling habits.

  • Can you tell me about yourself?

  • Have you traveled domestically or internationally before?

  • Have you ever traveled just with a backpack before?

  • Can you explain in detail how you planned these travels? What kind of preparations did you make before you travel?

  • What do you look for after choosing your destination? (transportation, accommodation, recreation areas)

  • How and where do you get the information? (FB groups, blogs, apps)

  • Are there any tools or apps that you use especially while traveling?

  • How do you travel? Which transportation types do you use?

  • How did you choose your spot to hitchhike?

  • How did you choose your place to stay?

  • Would you look at the comments about where you will stay?

  • Are the comments important to you? Are you leaving comments too?

  • What kind of problems did you encounter? How did you solve the problems?

  • How did these experiences change your traveling habits?

USER INTERVIEWS

PERSONAS

Persona  #1

energetic, hiker, easy-going,  easy to please, reckless

   needs and goals

He wants to travel and meet new people.

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He does not make other plans besides determining his departure and return dates before he leaves.

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He wants to take care of accommodation, travel, and meals as cheaply as possible.

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   expectations and attitude

He wants to live in the moment during the journey.

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In order to be able to act more spontaneously, he goes on a journey just with his backpack.

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He has no other expectations other than meeting his basic needs during the journey.

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Before visiting, he gets an idea about the city by reading the traveler bloggers he follows.

   motivations

He wants to gain new experiences in the cities he goes to, wants to know in advance whether there will be big events in the places he is going to.

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He wants to meet people from different cultures in the places he visits.

   demotivational reasons

He doesn't want to receive any information that might spoil surprises while traveling.

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He prefers to explore by wandering, rather than looking around on the Internet beforehand.

   experiences

On his abroad trips, he sometimes sleeps at the train stations because accommodation is expensive.

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He sleeps at local people's homes that he finds with the Couchsurfing website.

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He asks what to do in the city to the travelers he encounters or to the locals of the city.

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On domestic trips, he travels by hitchhiking and stays in a tent.

Persona #2

energetic, outgoing, constantly active

   needs and goals

She wants to travel and meet new people, she always has little time, she needs to plan quickly.

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Before starting the journey, she plans the places, and the time she will stay in advance.

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She wants to deal with accommodation, travel, and nutrition as cheaply as possible but safely.

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   expectations and attitude

She wants to be able to change her plans quickly during the journey.

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She hitchhikes with a backpack to travel more economically.

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Since she cannot always find English-speaking locals while traveling abroad, she encounters some problems.

   motivations

   experiences

She cares about the advice of people with similar tastes.

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She likes to document her journey.

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She wants to meet people from different cultures, other travelers, and locals on her journey.

   demotivational reasons

In order to leave comments on the places, she must either love the place or hate it.

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She doesn't trust someone's venue advice unless she knows their taste.

She did detailed research for routes and camping sites before her trip to Europe with a caravan. By creating an account for the caravan trip on Twitter, she shared the whole travel process every day.

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She planned a hitchhiking trip to Greece on a solo backpacking trip. When there was no one stopping, she started the ask around and learned that the hitchhiking hand gesture was something offensive in Greek culture and that there was no hitchhiking culture there.

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She travels by hitchhiking on her domestic trips.

Persona #3

calm, detailed planner, easy-going, musician

   needs and goals

She wants to plan for his hobbies.

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She has little time, she needs to make detailed plans in advance.

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Evaluates accommodation, travel, and restaurant options on price/performance criteria.

   motivations

She cares about comments when it's about safety or quality.

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She wants to be informed if there are places or events related to her hobbies.

   demotivational reasons

She doesn't like being guided.

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She doesn't like to leave comments.

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She doesn't like to be critical, she just wants to experience it.

   expectations and attitude

She wants to get to know the culture of the city she is traveling to, but she only wants to experience what interests her.

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As she attaches importance to quality, she takes into account the comments on TripAdvisor when evaluating venue options, but never leaves a comment because she doesn't want to look critically while experiencing it.

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She uses apps such as Blabla car and Airbnb if it can be cheaper or more convenient, pays attention to comments because she cares about security.

   experiences

On short-term domestic travels on busy routes, she took passengers with Blabla car and traveled by someone else's car in the past. She leaves comments on passengers and drivers.

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She only asks the locals she personally knows about their opinion on where she is considering visiting.

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She regrets that she lost so much time trying to visit every museum in the past, now she just goes to museums that will attract her attention.

Persona #4

energetic, spontaneous, self-indulgent, backpacker

   needs and goals

Since he has little time, he has to determine the schedule in advance.

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His priorities during the research phase are to learn logistical details such as transportation and accommodation.

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He can accommodate anywhere as long as it is comfortable.

   motivations

He wants to know about the local people's comments on technical details such as transportation. 

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He wants to be informed if there are festivals and events on his destination.

   demotivational reasons

Doesn't want to be guided.

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He doesn't leave comments unless his experience is too good or too bad.

   expectations and attitude

While doing research, he only takes into account the necessary comments, he does not like to read travel blogs.

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He doesn't like to be restrained or guided during the trip. He can change plans at any moment, however he wants.

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When the travel plan does not take place exactly as he wanted, he can leave it halfway and return.

   experiences

When he was a student, he made long trips in Turkey by hitchhiking.

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Once on a Georgia trip, he waited a long time before figuring out that the train was already canceled. He didn't realize that because the announcement was in Georgian. After that realization at late hours on a winter night, he couldn't find a place to stay so he was forced to make a quick return to Turkey.

OPEN CARD SORTING

card sorting

Behavior

Before my visit, I research the city's hitchhiking
culture  2 

I usually don't leave comments on the services
I received  1-3-4 

My comfort isn't a priority when I'm planning  1 

I only care about technical or useful comments  4 

I use Blogs, Youtube, Forums, Ekşisözlük while I research  1-2-4 

Comfort and quality is important to me  3-4 

I ask for advice in Facebook traveling groups   before I go for a hitchhike 1-2 

I wait on the highway when I'm hitchhiking 
 1-2-4 

I don't make detailed plans  1-2-4 

I believe that advice about traveling is restricting me  3-4 

I take advice from locals on my way  1-2 

I check the comments before picking a venue
  1-2-3-4 

I pick logical spots from the map to wait when I'm hitchhiking  1-4 

  • After creating my personas, I created cards based on what they said during interviews and did Open Card Sorting myself.
     

  • I've grouped some cards together with the persona numbers to show who said what and who said the same thing on the interviews.

Problems

My train was canceled, I waited for hours cause   the announcement was in Georgian 4 

Once I waited for 4 hours for hitchhiking  1 

The hostels were expensive, so I slept outside without the proper equipment  1 

Sometimes dangerous people stops for me when I'm hitchiking  1 

Since I don't have internet when I'm abroad, I'm facing problems  2 

I don't like being guided on how should I travel 
 3-4 

Motivation

I plan together with my travel companion  2 

I'd like my experiences to be adventures  1-2 

I don't want to spoil the moment by looking critical on my experiences  3 

I always response when someone asks for information on something I know of on Interrail Turkey Facebook group  1-4 

I'd like to meet new people while traveling 1- 2-4 

Expectation

I want my trip to be full of surprises  1 

I just want to enjoy the moment and don't want to think about anything else  1-3-4 

People I personally know can give me better recommendations  2-3 

Frequent travelers like to share information,even if I don't know something they'll tell me  1 

I'd like to know if there'll be any interesting event in the places I'm traveling to  1-3-4 

I'd like to travel  spontaneously  1-4 

I'd like to know if the people I found on Blabla car are trustworthy enough to travel with  1-3 

Group #1

Spontaneous

My train was canceled, I waited for hours cause   the announcement was in Georgian 4 

Once I waited for 4 hours for hitchhiking  1 

The hostels were expensive, so I slept outside without the proper equipment  1 

Sometimes dangerous people stops for me when I'm hitchhiking  1 

I don't like being guided on how I should travel 
 3-4 

I'd like my experiences to be adventures  1-2 
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I'd like to meet new people while traveling 1- 2-4 

I want my trip to be full of surprises  1 
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I just want to enjoy the moment and don't want to think about anything else  1-3-4 
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Frequent travelers like to share information,even if I don't know something they'll tell me  1 
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I'd like to travel  spontaneously  1-4 

I wait on the highway when I'm hitchhiking  1-2-4 

I don't make detailed plans  1-2-4 

I believe advices about traveling are restricting  3-4 

  • A different mode can be selected from the profile settings for those who want to wander spontaneously and for those who love surprises.
     

  • If the spontaneous mode is active, the places maintain their mystery while the traveler searches for different locations.
     

  • Content can be shown with icons so it can attract attention without spoiling the surprises.
     

  • Users can look at the activities, venues, or hitchhiking details associated with their interest in the environment of their current location.

Group #2

Researchers

Before my visit, I research the city's hitchhiking culture 2 
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My comfort isn't a priority when I'm planning  1 
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I only care about technical or useful comments  4 

I use Blogs, Youtube, Forums, Ekşisözlük while I research  1-2-4 

Comfort and quality is important to me  3-4 

I pick logical spots from the map to wait when I'm hitchhiking  1-4 

I'd like to know if there'll be any interesting event in the places I'm traveling to  1-3-4 

Since I don't have internet when I'm abroad, I'm facing problems  2 

I plan together with my travel companion  2 

  • The type, number, and score of all entries can be displayed on the map or in the summary section of the city for quick reading.
     

  • Services can be filtered by comfort scores.

Group #3

Comments

I usually don't leave comments on the services I receive  1-3-4 

I ask for advice in Facebook traveling groups   before I go for a hitchhike 1-2 

I take advice from locals on my way  1-2 

I check the comments before picking a venue
  1-2-3-4 

People I personally know can give me better recommendations  2-3 
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I'd like to know if the people like I found on blablacar are trustworthy enough to travel with  1-3 

I don't want to spoil the moment by looking critical at my experiences  3 
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I always respond when someone asks for information on something I know of on Interrail Turkey Facebook group  1-4 

  • Even though travelers care about comments while doing research, they don't share information about the city out of the blue. (Survey)
     

  • By using the call for help as a motivating factor, collective information about the place can be created.
     

  • The call for help can form the basis of communication between users.

TREE TEST

TREE TEST

Hitchike

Transportation

City Info

Profile

  • With the cards I created from my Features List, I completed the Open Card Sort with 10 users who travel frequently.
     

  • After seeing the Similarity Matrix, I created 9 Tasks and did a Tree Test with the same 10 users. 

FEATURE LIST

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  • Search for a city

  • Create general information request about the city of Tessaou

  • Find the nearest hitchhiking spot

  • Search for reported hitchhiking spots in city X

  • Post info about bicycle rental in Eymir lake 

  • Find cheap local transport for city X

  • Upvote/downvote a given advice about transportation in Istanbul

  • Create an information request to find the nearest hitchhiking spot

  • Give keywords about the contents of the A museum

  • Share the link to the site containing "Istanbulkart sales points" information

  • Share where you last hitchhiked

  • Enter the amount of time you wait at the hitchhiking spot

  • Enter the cancellation information about the train in city X

  • Question the frequency of train cancellation

  • Enter your address

  • See all the useful information you have given so far

  • Reply to the information request notification for your city

  • Switch to Spontaneous Navigator (limited information) mode

  • Mark your hobbies in the list below

  • You earned the Culture Conqueror badge in Istanbul with this museum

  • Find the most helpful list of city A

  • Enter your last name/username

  • A list of your past travels

  • Get the most useful information on top

  • View the up to date reviews 

WIREFRAME

I created the first stages of Eylül's trip planning with her friend and the spontaneous trip feature.

WIREFRAME
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