Why Avandra?

Based on our research, the number of women who want to travel solo is on the rise. Furthermore, female solo travellers face more challenges, especially in terms of their safety. That’s why we decided to focus our efforts on female solo travellers.

We analysed 6 competitors in terms of:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Threats
• Opportunities
• Main user segment
• Main value proposition
• Interesting design solutions
• Business model

Understanding Users

We sent out a survey to potential users .
We interviewed 5 college-educated women who were financially independent.
We designed a script to have semi-structured user interviews. Each interview took approximately 30 minutes.

• To start, could you tell me about yourself? (age, occupation, where you live)
  
• How frequently do you travel alone?
• Describe the last time you planned a solo trip from the initial idea to the final destination.
  
• What was the most important thing you considered when booking that trip?
• Why do you go on solo travels?
• What is the most enjoyable part of your solo travels? Why?
• What is the worst part of your solo travels? Why?
• Do you like connecting with other travelers or local people while traveling?
  
• What is the most important thing that can boost you experience while solo traveling?
• Have you faced any concerns or challenges while traveling alone?
• How do you overcome these challenges?
• What is the most frustrating part of traveling solo? Why?
• Do you currently use any travel-related apps for your travels?
• What is your advice for other women who want to start solo traveling?

To validate our findings of the qualitative research, we designed a survey using Google forms, based on our initial findings to find out more about the larger audience.
We received 49 responses.

Synthesize and analyze

We put all of our findings on the canvas and we started to affinity mapping our findings.The main categories of the affinity map were:

• Demographics
• Travel habits
• Motivations
• Challenges
• Needs
• Solutions

To prioritize pain points of users, we used an impact/effort matrix. These are the main pain points that we decided to focus on:

• Safety
• Financial constraints
• Feeling isolated or lonely

Define

As a young woman who likes to travel solo, I need to have access to the most updated information about my destination so that I can plan a safe and affordable trip for myself .

To help the ideation process, we came up with 34 “How might we...?” questions.

• HMW verify the destination information's accuracy?
• HMW help Jordan enjoys her trip without any negative experiences?
• HMW integrate safety alerts, budget-friendly recommendations, and up-to-date travel details for upcoming trips?
• HMW ensure that Jordan would have a fulfilling experience?
• HMW assist Jordan in emergencies?
• HMW help Jordan to meet other genuine solo traveler's?
• HMW encourage Jordan to feel empowered while traveling solo?

Ideation

Each team member wrote down their ideas.We came up with over 20 different ideas. Below is our top-scoring design solution.

We help female solo travelers find safe affordable trip plans by offering a social media app where they can share & find the most updated information about various trip plans.

We created an IA to map out the whole design.We wanted to help users achieve their goal by providing structure, consistency, and an easy-to-navigate interface.

We designed low-fidelity wireframes with lots of iterations and discussions.Then we turned them into a mid-fi prototype to get ready for usability testing.

We conducted moderated remote usability testing with 5 participants.We prioritized their feedback based on the value/effort of each change.

We chose the “Orbit” design system for our work, which is a design system for travel apps. We confirmed the compliance of the design system with WCAG2 & APCA accessibility guidelines. We decided to build a native iOS app and we adjusted our design system based on this decision.

We believe the reason that we managed to do so much quality work in a short period of time are the followings:

• Effective communication
• Team collaboration
• Task management
• Relying on the right processes and workflows

In my UX project, I designed a user interface from scratch. This was a time-consuming process, and I realized that I could have saved a lot of time by using a design system.

A design system is a collection of reusable components, design patterns, and guidelines that can be used to create consistent and user-friendly interfaces. By using a design system, I would have been able to reuse existing components and patterns, and I would have had a clear set of guidelines to follow. This would have saved me a lot of time and effort, and it would have helped to ensure that my design was consistent and user-friendly.

If I were to do this project again, I would start by designing a comprehensive design system. This would involve defining the core components and patterns that I would need to use throughout the project, as well as creating a style guide to ensure that all of the components are used consistently. Once I had a design system in place, I could start designing the user interface, using the components and patterns from the design system.

By designing a better design system, I could have saved a lot of time on the task. I could have also reused the design system for other projects, which would have saved me even more time in the future.