VOYAGE VISTA
PROJECT OVERVIEW | UX RESEARCH | UX DESIGN | UI DESIGN | USABILITY TEST | KEY TAKEAWAYS
Sector - Travel & Tourism, Digital travel planning, Hospitality, transportation
UX Techniques Used - User Research, Competitive Analysis, User Personas, Affinity map, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
My Role - UI/UX Design
Project Time - 8 Weeks
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Background
VoyageVista is a travel website designed to provide a smooth and stress-free experience for users planning and booking trips. The website aims to simplify navigation, offer personalized recommendations, and streamline the booking process. I began by outlining the background of travel planning challenges, highlighting the need for a smoother, more intuitive experience.
Problem Statement
After establishing the background, I defined the problem statement, identifying key challenges faced by travelers—overwhelming information, lack of personalized recommendations, and complex booking processes. These insights shaped the foundation for VoyageVista, ensuring a more seamless and user-friendly experience.
Research Goal
With a clear understanding of traveler challenges, I established research goals to shape VoyageVista. I focused on providing smart suggestions tailored to user preferences, simplifying navigation, streamlining the booking process, and ensuring the platform prioritizes user satisfaction for a seamless travel planning experience. My research goals are:
Provide smart suggestions based on user preferences
Make navigation simple and intuitive
Create a fast and easy booking process with fewer steps
Ensure the platform is designed for user satisfaction
UX RESEARCH
Project Goals
To ensure VoyageVista aligned with both business objectives and user needs, I structured the project goals using a Venn diagram. This approach helped balance business goals, user expectations, common objectives, and technical considerations, ensuring a well-rounded and efficient travel platform.
Methodology
Interviews
To gain firsthand insights into traveler preferences and pain points, I conducted user interviews, gathering qualitative data to shape VoyageVista’s design. Guided by a structured interview framework, these conversations helped uncover valuable perspectives, ensuring the platform aligns with user needs and helps to gain qualitative data on their experiences, challenges, and needs when planning and booking trips online. Click on the button to see the interview guide.
Affinity Map
Building on insights from user interviews, I created an affinity map to categorize recurring themes and pain points. This helped me identify patterns in traveler needs, guiding VoyageVista’s design toward solutions that enhance usability and streamline the travel planning experience.
User Persona
To bring my research to life, I developed user personas, representing different traveler archetypes based on interview insights. These personas helped me understand their goals, frustrations, and behaviors, ensuring VoyageVista addresses their unique needs with a user-centered approach.
Pain Points
Drawing from user research and personas, I identified pain points that travelers commonly face.
Overwhelming amount of information on travel websites
Difficulty finding relevant and personalized recommendations
Complicated booking processes with too many steps
Lack of transparency in pricing and hidden costs
User Flow
Building on the pain points and user personas, I mapped out user flows to visualize how travelers interact with VoyageVista. These flows ensured intuitive navigation, guiding users through a seamless journey—from discovering destinations to booking their trips effortlessly.
Exploring
After understanding what users need and how they move through the site, I looked for design ideas and created a moodboard to guide the look and feel of Voyage Vista.
Wireframes
Once I defined the user flows and created a moodboard, I turned those ideas into wireframes. These wireframes helped shape the layout and features of Voyage Vista, making sure the site feels easy and smooth for travelers to explore.
UX DESIGN
Design Solutions
After refining the wireframes, I developed design solutions to address key user challenges. These solutions focused on:
Improve Pricing Transparency: Display clear and transparent pricing information across search and booking pages, including any additional fees or charges.
Simplify Payment Flow: Streamline the payment process by reducing unnecessary steps and providing a seamless checkout experience.
Simple and Intuitive Navigation: Design a user-friendly interface that allows users to easily find what they're looking for, with clear and concise information architecture.
Easy Booking Process: Create a fast and seamless booking process with minimal steps, allowing users to quickly and easily complete their bookings.
UI DESIGN
UI Library Components
To ensure visual consistency and efficiency in design, I built a UI library and crafted components for VoyageVista. This systematic approach streamlined the interface, ensuring cohesive typography, color schemes, and interactive elements that enhance the user experience.
High Fidelity Designs
With the UI components in place, I developed high-fidelity designs, refining the visuals, interactions, and overall aesthetics to create a polished, intuitive experience that enhances usability and engagement for travelers on VoyageVista.
USABILITY TEST
Iterations
Once I finalized the high-fidelity designs for Voyage Vista, I moved into usability testing to understand how users interacted with the visual layout and features. Observing their behavior helped me identify moments of ease as well as areas that needed a second look. Based on this feedback, I made thoughtful iterations to enhance the overall experience—refining visuals, improving navigation, and ensuring every screen felt intuitive and travel-ready.
To validate VoyageVista’s design and functionality, I conducted usability tests, gathering direct user feedback to assess navigation, personalization, and the booking process. These insights helped refine the platform, ensuring a seamless and stress-free experience for travelers.I tested the following-
Tested key user interactions, including search and filtering, booking flow, personalized recommendations, and group trip planning
Gathered metrics on user success, including task completion rate, error rate, time-on-task, and user satisfaction score.
Results
Positive feedback on search filters and booking summary page
Users appreciated profile personalization
Identified areas for improvement to enhance user experience
| Success Metrics | |||||
| Task | Total Participants | Users Completed Task | Completion Rate | Average Time Taken | Findings & Observations |
| Searching for a Travel Destination | 5 | 5 | 100% | 1 minute | Users easily found destinations but suggested an improved autocomplete feature. |
| Applying Filters to Refine Search | 5 | 4 | 80% | 50 seconds | Some users struggled with unclear filter labels. Tooltips were suggested to improve clarity. |
| Completing the Booking Process | 5 | 4 | 80% | 5 minutes | First-time users hesitated at the payment confirmation step. Streamlining needed. |
| Accessing Itinerary Details | 5 | 5 | 100% | 1 minute | Smooth experience overall, but some suggested making itinerary access more prominent on the homepage. |
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Why Choose VoyageVista?
VoyageVista was chosen as the project focus because it offers a unique opportunity to design a travel website that prioritizes user experience and addresses common pain points associated with online travel planning. By creating a platform that provides personalized recommendations, streamlined booking processes, and transparent pricing, VoyageVista aims to revolutionize the way people plan and book their trips.
Reflection
Working on VoyageVista was a transformative experience, pushing me to refine my skills in user research, strategic thinking, and iterative design. Throughout the project, I learned the importance of balancing user needs with business goals, ensuring both practicality and usability. One of the biggest challenges was simplifying complex booking processes without sacrificing functionality. Through usability testing and continuous refinement, I navigated this challenge, creating a seamless experience that enhances travel planning for users.