Group Travel Made Simple on Kayak.com

Role: UX Designer
Travel Information is everywhere, but it can be difficult–not to mention exhausting–to parse through. Planning a trip for a group lends itself to a special kind of frustrating–the logistics calls, the email chains, the competing interests, the dietary preferences, and much, much more.

In the "post-covid" age, with people itching to get out and explore, creating a positive travel experience is more important than ever. I worked on a feature concept for Kayak.com to make this process easier and more enjoyable for everyone involved.

The Who, What, Where, When, and Why

Date: January 2022
Team: Molly Bogin, Ricky Hoenig
Tools: Figma, Figjam, Google Sheets, Zoom, Pencil & Paper
Sprint Length: 3 Weeks
Final Deliverable: mid-fidelity prototype

Skip the details and see the prototype here.

Project Scope

Business Requirements: Create a feature for Kayak.com that accommodates for group travel, allowing travelers to personalize their itineraries and make informed choices about activities near their destination.

User Challenge: Users need a more organized and straightforward travel planning experience because they’re currently frustrated and overwhelmed with the amount of disparate information.

Emotional Goal: Start the excitement of a trip the moment you begin planning.

Background: Travel in the Context of Coronavirus

Travel, like everything else, exists within a larger context. We can’t discount the colossal effect coronavirus has had on the travel economy. After a 42% drop in domestic travel spending in 2020 and a 70% drop in international spending, the industry is beginning to come back as people pack up to see loved ones and re-discover their wanderlust.
85% of Americans plan to travel in Summer 2022
Americans expecting to
travel during Summer 2022
80% of Americans will travel by car
Americans planning to travel in
their personal vehicles during Summer 2022
46% of Americans plan to fly in summer 2022
Americans planning to fly during Summer 2022

The Competition: Who They Are, and All They Aren't

With an understanding of the challenges, goals, and requirements, it was time to look at who was already out there. I looked at six companies in the travel market space, noting strengths (e.g. recent reviews) and weaknesses (e.g. lack of personalized suggestions) to find gaps in information and areas for improvement within the larger market.
Competitive Analysis MatrixCompetitive Analysis Color KeyCompetitive Analysis: Strenghts & Weaknesses Chart

Key Takeaways:

  • Even direct competitors have yet to design a feature that makes group travel planning easy
  • Indirect and tertiary competitors have stronger personalized recommendations, but they are limited in scope (restaurants on yelp, reels on instagram, etc.)
  • The “save”/bookmark option is incredibly useful in the planning process for keeping track of possible activities, stays, etc.
  • Lists/forums/blogs allow travelers to read directly about other travelers’ experiences

Research Questions

  • What do travelers prioritize when planning a trip?
  • What aspects of travel planning could be altered or iterated on to make for the smoothest possible process?
  • How can Kayak facilitate group travel in a simple, straightforward way?
  • How can the process of planning a vacation feel more personalized to the individual?
Keywords to consider + remember throughout my design process:
Group Travel
Simplicity
Personalization
Ease of Use

Pinpointing the Problem

Methods: First-Person Interviews, Transcript Coding, Affinity Mapping, Jobs to be Done, Competitive Analysis

Research Method: First-Person Interviews

I inherited three interview transcripts from people with recent travel experience. My job was to evaluate the transcripts in order to identify key problem areas and places for improvement within the "traveler-traveling" relationship space.

Interviewee Quick Facts

Michael

31
In a Relationship
Tech-Savvy
Travels 2-4x per year
“I'm typically the one who plans all of our trips, so I have everything planned down to the breaks in between each activity.”

Sarah

32
In a Relationship
Tech-Savvy
Travels every 4-6 weeks
“I read a lot of reviews before I make a purchase or decide to go anywhere. If it's a restaurant or a product, I'll read the reviews and look at the pictures, but honestly nothing beats a local's perspective.”

Richard

34
Married
Tech-Savvy
Travels 12-14x per year
“[My wife and I] both have the travel bug and love to explore new countries. We often backpack and spend a lot of time walking around wherever we are”

A Pause for Concern:

Off the bat, I noticed that all three interviewees fell into similar demographic categories (mid-30s, in relationships, employed, tech-savvy, living in major cities, etc. etc.). In a normal scenario, I would have gone back to the interview stage to diversify my user pool. However, because this was a school project, I moved forward with what I had, accounting for the issue as a point of significant improvement for future.

Transcript Coding + Affinity Mapping

Sarah, Michael, and Richard each had their own quirks–I could’ve read pages about Richard’s backpacking trips through the mountains or Sarah’s family vacation disasters–but I parsed through the details to find the most useful qualitative data for this particular project. What did they find enjoyable? What was frustrating? What, if any, consistencies existed across the three interviews?

To find out, I coded the transcripts hierarchically and leveraged affinity mapping to synthesize key pain points into actionable insights, which guided me towards a problem statement.
Process of Analysis: keywords used to determine themes, synthesized into takeaways
Example Scenario:
All the interviewees sought out travel information from a combination of blogs, reviews, friends, and locals
Example of keywords factoring into the theme, "suggestions from others," which become a takeaway about relying on others' experiences when travel planning
Image: Example of qualitative data synthesizing process from keyword to takeaway

Quote

“When I find myself in a foreign city with limited resources and time, I'll often Google things near me and visit places based on reviews and general interest. I've been burned a few times by doing that, but sometimes it works out”
becomes

Insight

Researching methods of transportation, food options, and activities takes a lot of time and often results in uncomfortable or disappointing results

Quote

“I would rather [competing company] suggest things based on my interests, my profile or my previous experience. Kind of like the way Amazon always bundles packages together or tries to sell you items based on your buying history.”
becomes

Insight

Travelers want to feel seen and cared for by travel sites: a personalized experience, with less individualized decision-making, and more tailored suggestions based on prior activities or stated interests

Jobs to be Done (Or, more fondly, JTBD)

With insights about the overall travel planning experience, it was time to dig into specifics–the micro moments of stress and frustration travelers face. Leveraging Jobs to be Done allowed me to meditate on specific moments in time and make a couple assumptions–acknowledging, of course, that those assumptions are not fact. With all of this in mind, I created outcome statements, which explore the problem areas brought up in the interviews in greater detail.

List of Jobs

  • Related Jobs: buy plane tickets, find and book a place to stay, pay for public transit or a rental vehicle, choose activities, etc.
  • Social Jobs: keep positive attitudes among my peers, interact with locals, make sure each person in the groups’ needs are attended to, find food for everyone (no matter the dietary restrictions), etc.
  • Emotional Jobs: choose activities + destinations that people will enjoy, manage my stress while planning, take care of my wellbeing while traveling, account for various pandemic needs, etc.
  • Job Performer: individual planning a trip (me! or you!)
  • Main Job: plan and attend a trip with a group of people (friends, family, coworkers, etc.)

Job Stories
(Example Statements)

  • When I am planning a group vacation within a specific budget, I want to find the best available activities and accommodations within that budget to maximize the enjoyment of the trip
  • When I am organizing a trip for a large group with various (and often conflicting) schedules, I want to be able to easily communicate with all the members throughout the planning process so that people don’t cancel at the last minute
  • When I am choosing activities for a group vacation, I want to take into account everyone’s interests and comfortability so we can do activities that we all find enjoyable
  • When I arrive at my destination, I want to spend as little time as possible dealing with technicalities so that I can maximize time spent enjoying the activities we planned.

Problem Synthesis

The three methods of analysis uncovered three main problem areas to focus on:
  1. Travelers want a centralized source of information when planning a trip
  2. Travelers want personalized suggestions from which to choose when planning their trip
  3. Travelers want to be able to book trips for groups with minimal anxiety and frustration
User Needs
+
Stakeholder Goals
User Needs + Stakeholder Goals determine the Problem Statement

Problem Statement

Travelers need a centralized source of travel information with personalized recommendations and the ability to plan travel for groups in one place with minimal anxiety and time spent.

Ideation + Prototyping

Rapid Sketching, User Flow, Low-Fidelity Wireframing, Mid-Fidelity Wireframing

Rapid Sketching

With insights to draw upon from the research stage, I ran three rounds of Crazy Eights
(8-minute-8-frame user flow rapid sketching) to generate a variety of feature concepts.
I love that this technique pushes me to think creatively quickly,
without too many constraints or enough time to overthink.
The rapid ideation rounds yielded many great ideas, including a cool "Search by Photo" feature and "Kayak Blog," but we tabled those for the time being to prioritize the idea that best fit the needs of our users and business interests: the "Group Trip Dashboard."
**NOTE: In a non-school setting, this would have been an important stage to engage and bring in other designers, researchers, and engineers. Working across teams would shed light on how viable, accessible, and costly each of these options would be, on top of bringing in a diversity of perspectives. **

Iteration 1: Rapid Sketch

Rapid Ideation Sketch: Feature Concept Draft 1

Notable Features

  • Dashboard with trip details, members, favorited stays + activities (7)
  • Add friends/group members by email (3)
  • Favorite stays + activities throughout planning process (5-6)
  • Group chat through dashboard directly in app (8)
  • All group members have access to trip details and the ability to add/change info throughout planning process

User Flow: From Idea to Implementation

Using the baseline structure from the initial sketch, I created a user flow to flesh out how a given user would move through the new feature. This brought to light specific areas in need of work:
  • The new feature must be built into the existing Kayak design framework
  • Based on the current app, it is more natural for users to choose their destination and dates before adding members (making this order of information easier to learn)
  • Each stay and activity card must lead to individual information screens (like on Yelp or TripAdvisor) so that users can parse through descriptions, pictures, and reviews before favoriting any specific options
  • Making final travel decisions early on about a group trip is contradictory to the nature of the feature. I added a "choose later" option to every choice in the flow so decisions feel less binding, without creating an empty dashboard.
User Flow: Group Dashboard Feature Expanded

Iteration 2: Low-Fidelity Wireframe

Feature Revision: low-fidelity wireframes

Edits, Changes, Additional Features

  • Existing Kayak design as base for feature
  • Suggested activities + stay cards now boast ratings from both locals and travelers: implemented this split review section from an earlier ideation concept, allowing users to gain multiple perspectives. Nothing beats the local opinion on where to find the best taco or falafel wrap!
  • "Add Note" feature available to all group members within dashboard, under favorited stays + activities, on individual cards (e.g. "no vegan options here")
  • Option to add flights from group dashboard

Iteration 3: Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

Iteration 3: Mid-Fidelity Prototype

Next Steps

Shortcomings, Observations, Places to Improve, Questions

Shortcoming: Testing

This feature needs to be tested. From start to finish. Because the project was part of a school assignment, we did not perform testing, but to move forward and continue iterating, it would absolutely need to go through usability tests.

‍

Testing Method Suggestions:

  • User Surveys (phase: research)
    Long-form interviews shed light on specific issues faced by travelers. Creating and sending out a survey directly after to see if those issues were quantitatively validated by a larger population of users would only have strengthened the final product–and if invalidated, would have given new direction to the project.
  • Guerilla Testing (phase: low & mid-fidelity design)
    ‍    Does the average person understand how to use the feature? Does the order of screens make sense? Do users feel frustrated along the way? Would they be likely to use this feature if it were actually developed by Kayak.com?
  • Contextual Inquiry (phase: research & mid-fidelity prototype)
    ‍    What do users currently need or want that they aren't getting from the Kayak app in particular? Does this feature answer any of those needs? Many of those needs? Does it create new, more problematic needs?
User Testing Example: Upon showing my prototype to an outside individual (male, age 70, moderately tech-savvy), he asked whether the feature should have a screen that requires the user to input the number of guests before giving a list of stay options.
Responding Thought Process:
This could have been an obvious oversight on my part, but groups often don’t know at the start of planning a trip exactly how many people will attend. Perhaps this should be a feature that can be altered later, or have an option labeled “I don’t know yet.” Either way, this is a prime example of why it is necessary to user test, rather than create in a vacuum and send out into the world.

Shortcoming: Missing Additional Screen

In theory, the screen detailing a particular stay, destination, or activity will include basic information (location, contact, price, etc.), reviews with a separate sections for locals + travelers, and photos. Presumably, each of these pages will also include a section of recommendations based on that activity, stay, or location.

Questions to Consider Moving Forward

  • Does it makes more sense to label the 'forward' button (for moving through screens) “next” or “continue?"
  • Does it make sense to have “stays” and “activities” be bookable when first moving through the flow? Or is it better to “favorite” (as a form of bookmarking), but only be able to book upon looking later?
  • Is it possible to implement “traveler” vs. “local” reviews in a reliable way?
  • How feasible is this feature under a given budget? What aspects could most easily be removed or altered?
Thank you for reading. For any queries or interest in working with me, shoot me a message!

Click here to go back to the top of the page