Jimoto

Timeline

Position

March 2023 - June 2023

UX Designer

Figma / Data Collection / Interviews / Mobile App / Branding / Wireframes / Flowcharts / User Interface / Prototyping

Skills / Tools

Team

Yasaman Baher, Cindy Chiang, Kristy Ung, Natalie Varela

< Overview >

Introduction / Motivation

The COVID-19 pandemic had a revolutionary impact on the world as life was put on a standstill and the global population were forced to be confined to their homes. Following the lifting of travel regulations, a desire to return to normalcy became more apparent and the demand for travel began to increase. Anything from domestic road trips to international flights were not off the table, as people were eager to explore new places and make new memories with friends and families. 

Our motivation is to enhance the value of every trip by creating a seamless, stress-free, and stimulating travel experience internationally, with a particular focus on a community-based and budget-friendly approach.

Task:

Create a start-up application that aims to tackle pain points found within transportation, language, or travel

Goal:

Design a travel application that allows travelers to connect with locals and plan their itinerary stress-free

< Solution >

Final Product

Our mission was to enhance travel by connecting travelers with locals to create lifelong memories while making their travel planning experience stress-free and enjoyable.

Swipe and discover your next adventure

Using our swipe feature, explore different destinations and activities to add to your wish list. Once you book your flight and connect with a travel buddy, you may begin to add activities and begin planning your travel itinerary within the app.

Find accommodations that fit you and your preferences

Planning your next trip within the Jimoto app is made simple with our color indicators which compare prices from a multitude of providers to ensure you get the best price on the market.

Match with a travel buddy and create your dream itinerary

Swipe and match with a travel buddy provided by Jimoto. As a local of your selected travel destination your travel buddy will aid in your travel endeavors!

< Research >

SET Analysis

Conducting a SET analysis helped us gain a better understanding of our assigned theme: language, transportation, and travel. With this, we are able to anticipate risks, seize opportunities, and make informed decisions for long-term success and positive societal impact.

Societal

  • Desire to travel like a local

  • Dependence on technology

  • Influence of social media

  • Increased intention to travel

  • Need for instant gratification

Economical

  • Potential recession in the future

  • High unemployment

  • Increased immigration

  • Inflation

Technological

  • Advancements in transportation

  • Advancements in language translation apps

  • Automation

  • Strong emphasis on AI technology

Before we started with our user research, it was crucial to determine our target audience and our goals as a group

Target Audience

  • Individuals who have limited financial resources OR like to save money

  • Individuals who want to travel like a local

  • Individuals who lack knowledge about various destinations (platforms, culture, language)

  • Individuals who stress about travel research

Goals / Expectations

  • Understand motivations and pain points behind transportation, travel, and language-related experiences

  • Understand the core issues of travel

  • Gain perspective or people’s travel experiences and how they are managed

< Research >

To distribute our survey, we posted on travel subreddits, Facebook groups, and reached out to the UCSD community.

27 Responses

Ages 18-25

Navigation

Transportation

Coordination

Planning

Pain points associated with travel

< Research >

Interviews

From our surveys, we were able to gain 5 volunteers for in-person interviews. Through these we hoped to focus on specific experiences with navigation, transportation, and itinerary building.

Expressed problems with flight cancellations or delays

5/5

Expressed problems with poor communication efforts from airlines

3/5

Expressed difficulty when encountering cultural differences

5/5

< Research >

Competitive Analysis

Researching competitors in the transportation, community, and planning realm, we discovered 6 main competitors in the industry and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses.

< Define Problem >

How might we create a travel application that enables travelers to enjoy meaningful experiences while minimizing stress associated with travel planning?

< Ideation >

Brainstorming

Our initial brainstorming process resulted in our first product idea:

A budget travel planner using Tiktok and local recommendations to create personalized itineraries.

However, we had to pivot our brainstorming and came up with our final idea:

A mobile application that utilizes a swiping feature for users to determine travel destinations and matching with locals

< Design Flow >

The next step in our process was to map our user flow out so we can start visualizing our design process and the interactions that will be included.

< Prototyping >

Low Mid and High Fidelity Wireframes

Onboarding

Traveler and Local Matching

Swipe Iteration

< Design >

After many different iterations, our final product is as shown below with some of the important steps in our UX flow:

Login and Signup

Destinations

Accommodations

Locals Matching

Activity Planning

< Testing >

User Testing

We conducted 2 usability tests to uncover problems, discover opportunities, and learn more about users:

Aspects of the interface were not intuitive

Connecting with a local needs to be safer

Our interviewees expressed their support of the concept of our app, but found that some interactions with our interface were not as intuitive as they would want them to be. In addition to this, they also expressed safety concerns with our local matching feature due to the lack of security within the app. Given the scope of our project, we did not directly get to address these concerns with our app, but believe they are valid concerns that needed to be addressed if time permitted.

< Reflection >

A Unique Learning Experience!

Jimoto was my first experience with a start-up app so an evident learning curve was expected. However, as our app progressed, I found myself implementing many strategies and ideologies that I have picked up from my experiences as a co-owner of a high-end resell store. This experience allowed me to gain a better understanding of the importance of identifying a target audience as well as their wants and needs as users. With this, I found a passion for how design and business strategies interact and how important both are for the success of the business.

The most important lesson I learned throughout the start-up process was to not overcomplicate app ideas and brainstorming. Oftentimes when my group and I were brainstorming we found ourselves trying to add too many features to accommodate everything we want to accomplish.

Given a limited amount of time to complete this project, there are many things that I would have done differently. Given the tight time period, I believe some aspects of our usability testing and prototype iterations were rushed and could have improved on. To allocate more time to other important aspects of our app, we could have set a more strict time constraint on our brainstorming and ideation process as this took up a bulk of our time.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and learned lots that I can apply in my future endeavors in user experience design and research.