Expedia Group x UW Capstone
Redesigning Expedia’s mobile application to make trip planning seamless and the app a go-to for users.
CASE STUDY
Context: Senior Capstone Project
Duration: 20 weeks Winter 2023 - Spring 2024
Tools: Figma
Team: Lilli An, Claire Surbeck, Anjinee Nair, Daphanie Chan
Problem
In an era of digital abundance, travelers face the challenge of navigating numerous online options for trip planning. Our research seeks to simplify this process and enhance the Expedia platform by uncovering user preferences and pain points, ultimately aiming to provide practical solutions for a more efficient and enjoyable travel planning experience.
Summary
Our research explored travel planning on Expedia, revealing user preferences for collaboration and organization tools like Notion and Google Docs. Challenges included time constraints and limited sorting options. Recommendations for Expedia's enhancement include improved collaboration features, pricing transparency, and itinerary planning tools, aiming to elevate usability and user experience for efficient travel planning.
Impact
01
02
03
Redesigned three core tools—Itinerary, Budget, and Chat—enhancing trip planning in the travel app.
Streamlined collaboration features to be more comprehensive and user-friendly, improving readability and usability for group interactions.
Directly identified user pain points by conducting user research mixed methods
Research Phase 1
We conducted preliminary research by scouring through Expedia’s existing reports about the trip-planning function of their app. The main key points include
Demographic of flyers: 30-45 years-old planning for trips for groups of 3-4 people
Mobile booking is expected to grow shortly (since 2022)
Travelers stick to their well-known or “tried and true” methods
The culture of travelers is shifting to the younger generation with new priorities such as sustainable travel
Research Phase 2
Surveys
This phase involved surveying the general public to gather insights into their experiences with Expedia and travel planning. Leveraging platforms like Instagram, Reddit, and Slack, we distributed our survey widely to maximize outreach.
Using Google Forms, we designed a comprehensive questionnaire covering various aspects of interest.
We received 48 responses, reflecting diverse voices and viewpoints, as depicted in the accompanying demographic graph, providing valuable preliminary insights into our target audience's perspectives.
Analysis
We organized survey data in Google Sheets for quantitative analysis, uncovering trends. Qualitative notes were digitized into Figma's sticky notes, aiding in theme grouping for key insights.
Key findings
Flexible Collaboration: Users prioritize platforms offering adaptable collaboration and strong organization. Notion is favored for its versatility and organizational tools.
Pain Points
Time Constraints: Users struggle to find time to collaborate effectively with others during the trip-planning process.
Itinerary Representation: Concerns exist regarding the representation and detail of trip itineraries, indicating a need for more customizable and detailed templates.
Interviews & Field Observations
Organization Challenges: Navigating and organizing shared travel information repositories, such as Google Docs, can be cumbersome and inefficient.
Using our survey results, we created interview questions and field observation tasks to gain deeper insight into what changes we could make to the app. We conducted nine 30-minute joint interviews and field observation sessions.
Structured interviews prompted comprehensive responses, while field observations involved participants navigating the trip planning process and Expedia app, vocalizing thoughts and reactions. This dynamic approach provided firsthand user experiences, yielding invaluable insights into user behavior and preferences within the Expedia ecosystem.
We prompted our participants the following questions:
Field Observation Task 1
For the first field observation task, please walk us through how you typically plan a trip using your usual trip-planning methods. Specifically, we'd like you to plan a summer trip to Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan, for a group of 4 people with a stay lasting 2 weeks. Take your time and describe each step of your process.
Interview Questions (after Field Observation Task 1)
Can you tell us about the sources of information or tools you rely on when planning a trip?
What factors are most important to you when choosing a destination and accommodation?
How do you coordinate and communicate with others when planning a group trip?
What challenges do you typically encounter during the trip-planning process?
Are there any features or functionalities you wish were available in travel planning apps to make the process easier or more enjoyable?
Analysis
We utilized FigJam once again to organize our findings and extract pains points and key findings.
Key findings / Pain Points
Trip Planning: Users utilized various tools like Google Flights, Chase Travel, and Google Docs, emphasizing collaborative planning and thorough research on affordability, safety, and destination appeal.
Challenges: Users faced hidden fees, unclear pricing, lack of group member response, and app usability issues.
Recommendations
Collaboration Importance: Trip planning relies heavily on tools like Google Docs and Sheets for efficient sharing and organization of itinerary details, such as requirements, transportation, and budgeting.
Field Observation Task 2
Now, let's switch gears and utilize the Expedia app to plan the same summer trip to Disneyland in Tokyo, Japan, for a group of 4 people with a stay lasting 2 weeks. Please navigate through the app and share your thoughts, comments, and any difficulties you encounter during the process.
Interview Questions (after Field Observation Task 2)
How was your experience using the Expedia app to plan the trip compared to your usual trip-planning methods?
Were there any features or functionalities in the app that you found particularly useful or frustrating?
Did you encounter any challenges or limitations while using the app for trip planning?
How would you rate the overall usability and user-friendliness of the Expedia app for trip planning?
Based on your experience, what recommendations do you have for improving the Expedia app or similar travel planning platforms?
Information Sources: Users relied on online platforms, social media, travel blogs, and recommendations for factors like pricing, safety, and authentic experiences.
Desired Features: Users wanted enhanced collaboration, clearer pricing, itinerary planning, and improved pricing comparison features in travel apps.
Enhanced Collaboration:
Incorporate features that facilitate collaborative trip planning and decision-making within travel apps, such as shared itinerary planning, group chat functionality, and real-time collaboration tools.
Usability Enhancements:
Improve layout, navigation, and overall user experience to minimize confusion and streamline understanding, ultimately boosting user satisfaction.
Trip Planning Pain Points: Challenges include time constraints for collaboration, navigating shared travel information, limited sorting options, and concerns over itinerary representation.
Information Sorting: Users desire more fine-grained affordances for sorting and organizing trip-related information.
Communication: Group coordination used messaging apps, social media, and collaborative tools for planning and decision-making.
Improved Pricing Transparency:
Enhance pricing transparency and clarity in travel apps by providing clear breakdowns of costs, comparison tools for flights and accommodations, and alerts for hidden fees.
Feature Integration:
Integrate useful features like itinerary planning, pricing comparison, and membership program education within travel apps to provide users with comprehensive tools for trip planning and booking.
Design
Ideation- Design Sketches
Using the recommendations from our research process, we brainstormed ideas of what we wanted our frames to look like. We started with a brain dump, then got together and refined our ideas to the following sketches.
Itinerary view: One main page where users can view their saved and books items in a timeline perspective
Calendar view: A comprehensive visualization of the whole trip
Trip creation page: Tailored to facilitate trip creation with focus on collaboration
Wireframing
We transformed our sketches into functioning Mid-fidelity prototypes using Figma
Recommendations
Booking (Hotel, Flight, and Activities)
Insufficient Details on Cards:
Expand card sizes to include more comprehensive information, such as pictures and detailed descriptions.
Unclear Booking Status for Hotels:
Implement a clear indicator, like a prominent green label stating "Booked."
Unintuitive Swipe Functions:
Use a “dog-ear” design to signal tappable areas for revealing more options on cards.
Chat
Confusion with Chat Icon:
Replace the chat icon with profile pictures of group members.
Position the chat function prominently at the top of the page to improve accessibility.
User Testing
Our participants were sat in a separate room with a one-way window while our team sat in the other room and one member prompted our participant tasks.
Similar to the research process, we listed out tasks and potential questions to ask our participants. 8 participants were recruited through Expedia. Pre-conceived questions served as a framework while we engaged in natural conversations with our participants, allowing spontaneous questions to arise during our observations and discussions.
Tasks: User Study Tasks
*Probe them after each task when you observe a certain behavior. What did you do? Why did you do it…?
Create a Group Trip: You want to create a group trip and invite 3 of your friends to collaborate on the trip together.
Ask the user about the 6 icons at the top of the trip page. What do they think they mean/what do they mean to them?
View Flight through Timeline: You want to view your itinerary in a more detailed manner by seeing it day by day. [Ask what they think the difference between the calendar and day-by-day view is and why they would use both]
Find a recommended flight: In the day-by-day view, you want to search for a recommended flight from JFK to GMP. You think it’s a good option so you want to make a comment for it.
Book Cheapest Hotel: Utilize the recommended stays options to book the cheapest hotel available for the trip.
Start Group Chat and Poll: Initiate a group chat and start a poll within the group.
What were your initial thoughts on what the blue button on the bottom right was?
Post Study Questions
How was your experience using the Expedia app prototype? What were your likes and dislikes
Were there any features or functionalities in the app that you found particularly useful or frustrating?
What is your biggest insecurity?
Did you encounter any challenges or limitations while using the app for trip planning?
How would you rate the overall usability and user-friendliness of the Expedia app prototype for trip planning?
Based on your experience, what recommendations do you have for improving the prototype?
What is one thing you could change
Do you see yourself using this app to plan traveling
How often would you use this app to plan your travel experience
Post Study Task
[optional] I will now come into the room with you with a pen and paper we’d like you to describe what your ideal application for this service would look like. Either you can describe it and I draw it, or you can draw it yourself.
Analysis
Notes were taken during the sessions using Google Docs, we synthesized them using FigJam and concluded with key findings listed below.
Navigation
Font Readability Issues:
Increase font size to improve visibility and readability.
Crowded and Overwhelming Layout:
Add more whitespace to simplify and declutter the interface.
Confusing Dashed Lines Around Bookings:
Remove the dashed lines or replace them with a different color for clarity.
Calendar/Itinerary
Difficulty Accessing Itinerary View:
Use larger, more prominent tabs to make switching between calendar and itinerary views easier and more intuitive.
Final Designs
01
Trip Summary
Summarized flights, stays, and activities at a glance
Calendar View: Offers a comprehensive summary of the whole trip
Day-by-Day view: Itinerary view that streamlines trip planning by displaying both confirmed bookings and saved activities on a unified timeline
02
Budget
Track and organize budget with custom categories
A real-time updating budget feature allows travelers to track and manage expenses instantly, making the planning process clearer and providing users with greater financial stability.
03
Chat
Keep everyone up to date with live messages
Including a chat feature within the trip section enables topic-specific communication, eliminating the confusion of cross-platform discussions and ensuring all information is easily accessible in one place
