The main objective of Travel Buddy was to create a platform that eases users' travel lives with planning, sharing and receiving travel recommendations. Then the question is, what makes Travel Buddy standout from similar services.
How might we design a solution for travel lovers that solve the matters of availability, time saving, and reliability; without cluttering the application UI with information and features?
From 7 user interviews, we synthesised our findings through affinity mapping. We found the trends of pain points, activities, and motivation constructed our personas.
As a part of the ideation process, we started to conceptualise the site map of the application. Existing users are lead straight to login while other are brought through sign up process and continue to the home screen.
Travel destinations, including countries and cities, are inquired from first time registered users to generate suitable information and recommendations. Given that users travel to more than one destination during the trip, other destinations can also be added, and later modified under Setting section.
Review section allows users to skim through places categorised into various sections, and find the most relevant information. Recent viewed places are also made accessible to users. More detailed information and reviews of chosen place are provided separately and briefly, unless users want to explore further.
Plan is generated in accordance with users' travel purpose, stay duration, needs and preferences. In case users have not booked their accommodation yet, they will be referred to accommodation booking platforms. Suggested plans can be modified to better suit users' interests.
