PLOT
CONTEXT -
Plot, is an AI powered travel planning app built to eliminate conflict in groups while planning a trip. It accounts for your travel preferences, assigns roles within a group, provides a place to collate research and make flexible plans using AI. It aims to solve communication based conflicts, the overwhelm from social media recommendations, and the limitations of spreadsheets.
GOAL - To understand how people travel, identify causes of conflict, and find (digital) ways to avoid conflicts over logistics.
SCOPE - Competitive Research, User Interviews, Wire-framing & Prototyping, UX Research, UI Design, Branding
TIMELINE - 15 Weeks (Jan - May 2024)
PROTOTYPE - Coming soon.
RECOGNITION -
︎︎︎DNA Paris Award for UX Design
︎︎︎Creative Communication Award for UI/UX Design
GOAL - To understand how people travel, identify causes of conflict, and find (digital) ways to avoid conflicts over logistics.
SCOPE - Competitive Research, User Interviews, Wire-framing & Prototyping, UX Research, UI Design, Branding
TIMELINE - 15 Weeks (Jan - May 2024)
PROTOTYPE - Coming soon.
RECOGNITION -
︎︎︎DNA Paris Award for UX Design
︎︎︎Creative Communication Award for UI/UX Design
PROBLEM DISCOVERY
I asked ten people how they explore the place they live in and how they explore new places. While conducting interviews, I discovered several pain points. Users wanted to do more things in the city they live in but felt resistance after the pandemic. They want to get out of their comfort zone and try new things. Users felt pressure to do things because of social media. Users consistently struggled with conflict while traveling with other people. Users wanted travel to feel more personalized.
LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
I chose two directions to explore deeper. One being avoiding conflict while traveling in groups and the second being maximizing exploration in the city you live in. I made three prototypes for the first and 2 for the second and interviewed 8 people to conduct a qualitative analysis.
FEEDBACK
1. Travel in Groups
- Users wanted to see how much nuance and flexibility the AI generated plans could have.
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Users wanted more information to make better decisions.
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Users wanted to see how the preferences set at the start play a role later.
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They felt these features would work well together.
2. Maximizing Exploration
- Users were concerned that the features felt like something Google would eventually offer.
- Users who didn’t use a calendar or like collecting places they want to visit felt that the features would not be helpful to them.
MID FIDELITY PROTOTYPES
Users unanimously found the prototypes related to group travel more compelling. They strongly suggested combining the various features into one comprehensive product. Based on their feedback, I combined the 3 prototypes with additional voting features, plan builders and preference setting.
USER FEEDBACK
Users felt that the budgeting and logistics aspect could be added later and the focus could be on the experiential aspect. They felt that the organization and navigation was confusing. Users loved the personality trait discernment and wanted to see it reflected deeper in the UX of the product.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Users wanted these features combined with better organization. They also wanted to see their preferences reflected in the planning process.
FINAL PRODUCT
The final product is called Plot. The word Plot has multiple connotations - like plotting a path, a story, a plan or a journey. All that implied travel and stories. This product understands what kind of travel you are, what your priorities are, helps you collate your research in one place, allows voting and uses AI to generate plans based on what you’re looking for. Travelers who want alternative plans can generate new itineraries to suit their needs. It focuses on planning itineraries and the experiential aspect without budget, stay or travel.
PROBLEM REFRAMING & FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
The key problem for the product to address is reducing tension and resentment while planning and traveling in a group. For this product, I approach this by ensuring 3 things -
1. Transparency about expectations and preferences
2. Making sure everyone’s preferences are accounted for
3. Making sure this is reflected in the planning process
The core of this product is making sure that everyone in the group, no matter what style of travel, feels seen and considered.
VISUAL DESIGN
The logo is 4 outward pointing arrows referencing travel and exploration from a rooted center. The colors are simple and the visuals emphasize images of places over any additional styling. The illustrations and cheeky copy add personality to Plot, which I imagine being used for promotional collateral.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
1. Type A organized planner's journey (Vicky's Flow) -
This person sets all their preferences, meticulously makes their profile, adds activities by tagging them so it’s easy for other people to vote and makes thoughtful itineraries for each day.
2. Type B laid-back user's journey (Shaurya's Flow) -
This person may or may not make a meticulous profile, they have a few things they really want to do but aren’t too fussy. They like laid back plans and make less packed itineraries for themselves and meet the rest of the group for meals.
TYPE A PLANNER’S FLOW
SETTING PREFERENCES
In this stage you can set your pace of travel, what is important to you on a trip, what you’re best at on a trip and your top categories of activities. This stage helps discern what kind of traveler you are and gives you a role based on what you like.
GROUP PAGE
On this page, you can see everyone’s style of travel, how they like planning, their top priorities, preferred pace of travel and an analysis of the group.
ACTIVITIES FLOW
To add an activity you can either paste a link or add a Google Maps location. Tags like how important an activity is to you and how long it takes to see it will help other group members decide whether to vote for it or not. You can also add a comment on why you want to do that particular activity.
AI powered recommendations help suggest activities based on your top interests. They can be disabled at any point.
The map differentiates AI recommendations from your inputted research so you can decide accordingly.
ITINERARY BUILDER
The AI powered itinerary builder gives you a customized editable plan based on what you want the day to look like. You can type in a description or use any of the tags. Users can move activities around, add activities and discuss changes in comments.
TYPE B PLANNER’S FLOW
ITINERARY EDITING
Users can duplicate a plan and make slight changes to suit their needs to make a new one. Activities can easily be deleted. The editing features include ‘Time Slot’ additions for open exploration instead of fixed itineraries to suit spontaneous travelers. Plot ensures that everyone gets a chance to make a plan that meets their needs.
COMMON FLOWS
VOTING FLOW
You can vote on the Activities Page as you scroll but if you need more information, you can click on an activity card to get more information.
REFLECTIONS AND NEXT STEPS
The next steps for this product would be to add budgeting and logistics features to make travel planning seamless and conflict-free. I would like to enhance the micro-interactions and strengthen the branding.
This project started with a question and took form from insights from users. Hours of interviews and feedback made this product happen. Testing my assumptions at every stage was incredibly rewarding. I want to understand communication and social dynamics better. It feels increasingly relevant in today’s time when so much of our social interaction is online.