Coming up with an idea

I have always been curious and adventurous. I particularly enjoy discovering the unique differences and similarities between us humans and with my curiosity I developed a passion for travel. I like to travel often and I believe some things in life we can only learn when we travel. To travel and to not leave behind our misconceptions is akin to going to the gym and expecting to return in great physical shape without working out.

My dream is to live in a world without barriers. Where we are all citizens of the Universe. I believe the best way to break this mental and physical barrier is by giving people the opportunity to travel more and to connect more with each other. The idea of creating an app which connects people came from my own frustration when trying to book travel. I came to find that I shared these frustrations with other travelers I met, and so I decided to focus more on this issue.

Introducing Wayfarer

Wayfarer means a person who travels on foot.

Wayfarer is an app which connects people who love to travel and explore the world with people who are passionate about their local community and are eager to share their culture and experience. Wayfarer wants to change the way people travel. Wayfarer is for everyone who wants to emerge themselves in an experience.

The Problem

Technology has made it so simple to book travel nowadays. You can do it from your smartphone while waiting in a line to pay for your morning coffee. There are plenty of apps in the market that allow you to book a flight anywhere in the world in just seconds. But what happens after you book that flight? What are you going to do when you arrive to your destination? People get frustrated and discouraged by the amount of research that needs to be done before arriving to a new destination. Questions such as “What should I do when I arrive?” “Where do locals eat?” “What should I prioritize?” “Is it safe to walk around at night?” To find the answers for those questions you will have to spend and enormous amount of time researching or asking around for advice.

The new traveler, however, wants more than just sightseeing. The new traveler wants to travel around the world following the steps of a local. They want to experience what is like to be a local in Paris, Barcelona, or Rio without any of the risk-taking or uncertainty. They want to meet someone on the other side of the world that wants to share their love and passion for their city. So the problem here is how to can we make this connection possible?

The Solution

My goal was to take out the middle man (the tour company) and to introduce these two people and let them engage in a transparent conversation which could lead to the ultimate travel experience. The traveler could choose to talk to the Insider (local tour guide) about booking a group or private tour. It’s up to the traveler to decide what he or she wants to do with his or her time with the Insider. The Insider would be there to guide the traveler and to guarantee his time and money won’t be wasted on common tourist traps.

Research

I began my research by getting together a short survey and identifying the most important information I wanted to collect. The questions were simple and to the point as I didn’t want to bore anyone with a 10 page questionnaire. 103 people answered the survey in a 24 hour window. This was enough data to give me a good start. It gave me the direction I needed to dig deeper to find the answers I needed to solve the most common problems.

However, the result of one of my survey questions surprised me. When I asked people “How many times a year do you travel?” Not one single person said that they didn’t travel at least once a year, but 9% said they travel more than 10 times a year.

You can check out my online survey here

I selected 7 potential users who were interested in my research and willing to answer a few interview questions. Again I didn’t want to be disrespectful of people’s time so I kept my questionnaire short. I made notes and asked permission to record the interviews so that I could reference them while continuing my research. Below you can find some key take aways from my interviews. All this information was crucial and helped me further empathize with my user.

Empathy Map

To continue to deeper empathize with my user I created this empathy map. This allowed me to organize thoughts and feelings of what was going on with my users. It was a step towards finding a creative solution for this issue.

Affinity Diagram

Based on my survey and interview results I made this Affinity Diagram to organize my findings. This organization method allowed me to see trends and the relationships in the data. You will find on the Affinity Diagram that I also created a list of features I wanted to possibly incorporate into the app. Some of those features and ideas would go through tests later on in order to design the best solution.

Persona — Lora the explorer

After analyzing my online survey and interview results my ideal user became clear. Lora is a 30 years old fashion designer from New York who travels frequently to various destinations around the world. She is passionate, independent and curious. She loves connecting with people and learning about their culture. Her ultimate goal is to spend less time doing travel research. She is frustrated she can’t connect with a trusted local guide who can help her to build her itinerary in little time. She is also looking for a local insider who can keep her away from tourists traps. Someone who fully understands the essence of the city she wants to explore and is capable to teach her their way of living.

Knowing the competition

When I began my research on the various competitors, I couldn’t find any app which was doing what I was proposing to do. Connecting people from different parts of the world who wanted to share a moment. The curious traveler and the local insider. There are many companies out there offering private and group tours, but what I was proposing was to cut out the middle man and let the communication happen directly between the traveler and the local insider.

I spent many years of my life working in the travel industry, and because I love traveling, I had previous knowledge of the market, but this time I was looking at those apps with fresh eyes. I didn’t want my app to be just another booking tool. I wanted to have a warm feeling. My goal was for it to be the “go to” tool for all travelers and I wanted people to be able to find a friend on the other side of the world. The perfect travel match. I searched for direct and non-direct competition to find out how were they solving problems. Some of the apps I used were excellent but were not touching this particular issue. I wanted to tap on that field and make the world even smaller.

Mid-fidelity Wireframe

Before coming up with colors, typography and images. I wanted to define the information hierarchy of my design. I wanted to put this layout to test to see how my users would process this information without the distraction of visual design and branding.

Visual Design and Branding

To evoke a particular style I built a mood board with pictures. I believed it represented well my target user and gave some brand attributes to it. The words fun, adventurous, curious and friendly were the first ones to come to mind when I thought of Wayfarer.

It was important for me that every aspect of my app be meaningful. From the name Wayfarer (a person who travels on foot) to the colors and the typography. As for the colors I wanted for them to be vibrant, happy, and multicultural. As for typography I was inspired by the meaning of the world Ubuntu. Ubuntu means “a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity.” This typography was the perfect fit for my app.

Prototype and Testing

I performed tests after tests, over and over again during the designing process. It was crucial to get validation from my target users. I wanted to design a product which had the potential to change the way people travel. I wouldn’t be able to achieve this without seeing and hearing what they had to say and what they were doing. So after countless tests I built a final prototype using the screens you see below.

You can also check out this video to see the final result of my work.

What’s next

I intend to move forward with this project, making this prototype a working app ready to be downloaded by any curious traveler. If you are interested in hearing more about this project you can leave a comment or a constructive feedback.

Thank you note

Time is the most valuable existing currency. So thank you for taking the time to read my Case Study.

Paula Barreto