Beyond Tourism

January 2017 - April 2017

Beyond Tourism was project proposed by Artefact (a design firm based in Seattle) for the UW Pixel Project Design Challenge. During the 8 week period, our team (spitball.) was asked to produce a clickable prototype for an existing travel company to help travelers find volunteer opportunities in a new city. There were no other specifications, and the final deliverable is a result of research and feedback from designers at Artefact during review prior to the final presentation.

Through this project, my fellow teammates and I deepened our understanding on 'what is meaningful travel’. Travel is synonymous with vacations, relaxing and having fun, so the thought of volunteering was a incredibly foreign thought.

Real Impact

Deepen your connection to the communities you visit through volunteer opportunities and organizations rated by Charity Navigator. Whether it’s a couple hours to a few days (or your entire trip) you will make lasting impacts that will truly make a difference.

Research

To learn about our target users' travel and volunteer habits, our team created a 20 question survey with Google Forms. Overall, we analyzed 37 of 52 respondents, as some were filtered out of the survey by the initial question: "Are you interested in volunteering?". This was done to focus on the core purpose of the project. One question we should have asked respondents who were filtered out was: 'If not, what would motivate you to get involved?'. That said, here are some of our most relevant results: 

Additional important information also included that most individuals traveled in groups or with family who decided the destination for them. Unsurprisingly, most participants preferred not dedicate an entire trip to volunteering, but were interested in volunteering for a short period of time. Several participants indicated concern about "voluntourism" and wanted their time to be impactful on the local community.

Based on our research, we chose to integrate our design with TripAdvisor. While Expedia was also a popular choice, TripAdvisor has existing categories for experience-oriented adventures and already encourages users to explore. We believed a volunteering tool could be seamlessly integrated with TripAdvisor's existing framework and provide a positive experience for target users.

Persona

The majority of respondents were women in their early 20's, due to posting our survey to Facebook. However, we were still able to craft a persona that we felt reflected an aspect of potential users.

Design

Based on our user research phase we took Julia into consideration and made quick sketches of our wireframes and interaction flow. This gave us the opportunity to design the most efficient and logical pathway for users so that it would be easily understandable for first time and returning users.

Information Architecture

For the purposes of this project, we focused on designing the left side experience ('Search' function) because we assumed it would be the method users would most likely interact with.

Wireframes

Utilizing existing TripAdvisor web design elements, we integrated new features to promote volunteering and while also incentivising users to take action. This one done through a points system, which rewards users for participating and posting a review.

We received the following feedback after presenting to designers from Artefact:

• Give users the option to sort their searches by more than One Day/Whole Trip

• Add in a "call to action" - such as Sign Up Now

• Why should users get involved?

• What happens if fields are not populated?

• It would be nice to see a ranking of the organization from an external source

• More specifics about activities

• The point system progress bar was confusing

Deliverable

Due to time constraints and scheduling, we were not able to conduct full usability tests. However, we applied patterns and color schemes from TripAdvisor to emulate its existing visual design for a seamless experience.

Becky and I created the following mockups based on the feedback we received. Some changes included making the points system more visible and closer to the 'Write a Review' button, and using Charity Navigator's rating index to show potential volunteers how trustworthy an organization is. The concept also features an in-depth filter options to sort through volunteer opportunity results, further incentivization through a points program and considerations for a vetting process so that travelers know they are spending time on a honest and reliable organization.