TRIPLY
The Goal
My team and I wanted to design an application where users could save and plan for their next trip with ease and efficiency. Aiming for “set it and forget it” functionality, we set out to create a space where money accumulates while the user goes about their life.
Role and Timeline
6 weeks
Leonel Gonzalez: Project Manager
Rose Pearson: Research Lead
Megan Floyd: Design Lead
Initial Research Gives a Great Starting Point
Surveys
Most target users take 1-2 trips a year.
Many users save for travel by using their savings account, mental notes, and notebooks.
Many target users are uncomfortable using accounts to deal with their money because they worry about trustworthiness.
Interviews
Users believe that travel is worth investing in.
User want an app with convenient filtering, recommendations, and a safe place for all booking information.
Users get overwhelmed by setting goals for travel.
Competitive & Comparative Evaluations
The best competitors are using education and tutorials, have simple but delightful UI, and serve as financial control centers.
Features that don’t work in competitor apps were high fees on investments, hidden fees, and limited account options.
Many of our competitors had booking options available on their site.
A New Persona Leads the Way
Following our initial research, the team was able to identify a person, a professional woman who needed a way to budget and save for trips while planning. She also needed an easier way to identify trips that would fit into any budget.
First Designs
Now that we had a persona, we were ready to start building. We created a user journey map to figure out the features Lily would need.
While we considered a great many ideas for our designs, we decided in the end that they didn’t really add to the overall goal for the application. Below are some of the considerations we made as we began.
How to Track Goal Progress
In order for users to feel they were accomplishing their travel goals, we considered different ways to show the progress they were making.
An Envelope System for Saving
Reminiscent of the Dave Ramsey Envelope Saving System, we wanted to give users a way to track exactly how much money they had in each budget category by keeping their cash tucked away in virtual envelopes.
Profile Page Options
We considered what features should be contained within the user profile, including the ability to retake their personalization quiz and watch how their savings are accumulating.
While many ideas did make the cut in our design but we soon found we needed fine-tuning.
We decided that, because this app would make use of personal account information for budgeting, creating security for our users would be imperative to the use of the site. We needed to research what two-factor authentication entailed.
While we considered that Triply may be a booking app in the future, we needed to clarify and communicate that, at this moment, the app was only for planning and budgeting; users could not book their travel on Triply.
Low Fidelity Usability Testing Gives New Perspective
Positives
Users love that the app does the saving work for them
Users liked that they could save with a group of friends
Users found the app innovative and stress-free
Negatives
Users pointed out logistical issues with booking
Users were confused about how to share a trip with a group
Users had a hard time understanding some of the copy language
Iterations
Create a cohesive settings page
Clarify the “withdraw and go” function
Create a “skip” option in the quiz and account creation pages
Allow users to determine their recurring transfer amounts
Refine copy language throughout the app
Refine navigation buttons and imagery
Mid to High Fidelity
Our mid and high fidelity testing gave us much more to consider for this application and made us consider how far we wanted the functionality to go. What was realistic and necessary in an application of this type.
There were many corrections we made as we closed out these testings and things we considered for the future:
Immediate Iterations
Correct alignment throughout the application
Deciding on a logo
Removing the quiz, legal information, and SSN requirement
Removing unnecessary navigation buttons
Inserting high resolution images to create better visual appeal
Resolve language issues
More…
Future Iterations
Create a feature to set deadlines and due dates
Develop an animated tutorial on how to use the app
Resolve issues with the friend tab-splitting function
A Work in Progress…
While the project remains a work in progress, the team is still very excited to continue developing this novel idea. The hope is to make final iterations and take our application live. We feel that this concept is one that would be beneficial to all those who want to travel but are doing so on a budget.
