Category: Projects 4 5 6

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Design for Good : Communication

As part of the project, we had to create some App Store posters, a showreel, and a slide deck to present tot he rest of the group. In order to do all of this, I finished my prototype, retrieved videos of it, and collected all of the brand system into one place.

I began with he research. As shown below, I looked into different communication videos, and how they worked, as well as what I thought (as a first time viewer and therefore consumer) they did well, and what they could do better on. Like most things, what some videos had, others did not, and few and far in-between. It was valuable to do this research in order to help me understand the video, as well as make my own.

I ambitiously planned the video, and whilst it didn’t all go to plan, and it isn’t something that I am the most proud of, considering it was one of my first times using After Effects, I really enjoyed the process and thought what I got out of it was definitely a stepping stone for future projects.

I then moved onto attempting to creating the App Store promotions. Highlighting the key images and functions that my product had, I made sure to make the promotional posters just as bold and bright as the design system itself.

The last part of this section was the showcase slides, which I made on Figma to allow for some short but fun animations that mimicked the way my product was cerated. I wanted a cohesive feel, for everything to go well together, and this allowed me small micro-animations that worked well. (And were, in the presentation, commented on by Tom as being highly valuable tot he presentation of the brand!)

View the whole Miro board here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNCv7uts=/?moveToWidget=3458764575557404741&cot=14

Presentation to the group !!!

I needed to present the products to an audience via a presentation video as well as a slideshow reel. To do this, I used illustrations from my product as well as creating new ones in order produce a slide deck. Below is the script I produced for this!

Script

This is wander 

And it started off with a huge problem. 

The planet. 

And I know what you’re thinking, that’s ridiculous. What I can guarantee your not thinking is about how you travelled here this morning, or your waste and where it should actually go, or even something as small as whether or not you left a switch on in your house. All of these things can amount to so much environmental damage. And if it were 30 years ago, I would tell you not to worry. But between 2020 and 2023 alone, there had been an increase of young people’s interest in the environment by just over 450%. 

To utalise the potential of this interest, it was critical to find an untapped problem space and produce a service worth pushing out. To do this, I set out a clear process to aid my journey. 

Research. This sourced me my issue, and gave me the opportunity to look at Statistics, competitors in the market, and the confirmed the need for the product. 

The user. This included interviews, testing, and asked the most important group of people to the project, what their wants and needs were. 

This was answered with a user flow,

Followed by wireframes, which were continuously tested for the value aspects added to the product. 

A final prototype was then created, 

Before I marketed it to the user. 

What am I even marketing you might ask? 

Well, (read probelm statement) that’s quite wordy. So we can break it down. 

Primarily by aviation. when I conducted my research I found a ton out about our carbon footprint. And if I asked you what contributed to it the most, there’s a lot of answers you can give me. But I think (like a lot of the users I asked) you’d be wrong. Deforestation – just short of 2 billion tonnes a year. Landfill, 4 billion tonnes. Construction 6 billion tonnes. Aviation and human transport? 8 billion tones. 

Short stay trips. Short term trips produce 78% more carbon than a multi destination vacation.

Changing the way we travel. With 82% more travel in 2023, and a 67% increase in sustainable travel searches, now is the time to mirror a users wants as a designer to produce something not only great, but practical. 

But surely there is something already out there that solves this problem? 

No. 

With competitors being noted as ‘hard to use’ ‘untrustworthy’ and ‘flawed’ by the users, there is a major market gap that needs filling. Speaking of how the users feel, who are they? I divided the users up into three different personas, two primary and one secondary, all of which the product 

meets in various elements of its design. 

The wannabe traveller, prioritising an easy user flow, with a trackable aspect. 

the experienced backpacker, someone who wants just as much thrill from booking as they do the journey, with a range of choice. 

the luxury traveller, wants to know what their getting is good, without the hassle. 

I then interviewed an expert. A travel executive named Charlie, who tracks peoples movement through websites and lets the call centre know when to push for a purchase. Charlie helped me understand a lot about how people navigate webpages, a s well as the sheer amount of effort goes into nudging people to actually purchase, and with 82% of carts abandoned, I can understand why! But there were a few other key insights. 

Through all of the research, interviews and detailed analysis, I came out with s value proposition.  (Read) This was followed through with a strong brand system, as you can see here, beginning with the creation of the logo, 

followed by colours and a typeface mimicking famous city palettes which followed through onto the apps copy. 

And what is a product without its key features, and how they solve the users needs. 

An onboarding service gives the user all the insight they need. Offering fun animations as well as reaffirming the brands identity. 

Safety was a major concern throughout all of my interviews, and to help aid this issue, Wanderers can’t sign up for the product unless they provide an ID photo, which is checked in an AI operated system, and instantly refers them onwards in their user journey. 

No worried! Unlike any product or service on the market currently, Wander lets the user base their trip completely off of their needs. The date, airport, destinations and duration can all be adjusted and edited in a carefully created search system,

 as well as pre planned trips for the first time Wander’ers.

After selecting or creating a trip, the user can instantly access all information they need, 

With the ability to view each stop, photos of their destinations and reviews, as well as a guide next to the booking button to help further. 

A live booking system tracks the users trip from start to finish, inclusive of tickets needed, and where and when the user should be at any given moment. 

As mentioned earlier, the user has the ability to both create or select pre booked trips. Offering worldwide varieties. 

At any mention of a stop, the user has the ability to add an excursion, easily guided through by icons and added instantly to their cart. 

A key feature of the product, a Wanderer can book instantly with another person simply by selecting ‘share trip’ upon checkout, as well as having the option to create a message board with their friends to guide that previously mentioned 82% of journeys out of the basket and into reality. 

Finally, some users may want luxury. With the option to select your own hostel or hotel, a layer of added luxury allows for indifference, which through research, proved to be a luxury users wants. 

But don’t take my word for it. 

Have some user testimonies instead! The branding functionality, design, and features were all highly rated within user tests. 

The final part of the process was to create meaningful communication. To make the potential users both understand and want the product. Here are 3 of the App Store promotional posters, showcasing features that are unfound in competitor websites, and displayed in the same adventurous and bold way the brand identifies. And if that hadn’t convinced you, have a promotional video to Finish the job! 

Feedback Given

During the presentation I was given some feedback from the Both Tom and Dave. They commented on the graphs and the need for further explanation, as well as some of the emphasis on certain elements. To help communicate this better, I changed some details, adding statsitcs to the graphs, as well as highlighting some key elements that were not previously highlighted prior.

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Design for Good : User testing

To finish off the projects UI, I needed to user test, and to do this, I found some different users, as well as some users who had previously done interviews for me. I wanted a different perspective and to see if they could navigate without any interference from myself.

To do this, I needed some questions for the users to answer, in order to then have them really identify what they like and disliked about he product, as well as tasks for them to complete. I asked for two users to complete the same runs of a product as to compare them, in two different ways. Some were shorter tasks and some longer, however they all connected to help me understand any flaws my product might have.

I asked two of the users to navigate their way to the trip named ‘A Run Through Asia,’ in order to look in depth into the booking and checking out process to understand if there was any faults there that could be addressed. I asked another two users top generate their own trip, and to do this on their own. The final two users I had just go through the app as they wanted, and asked them to tell me what they thought, navigating on their own.

Some of the things I noted can be found below!

  • Movement throughout the app was liked by the user, and without need for interference, the user moved throughout the product from th4e home page to the booking page and onwards within the first 50 seconds.
  • The detailed parts in short and understandable jargon were liked by the user, and could follow through in all aspects if not done already.
  • The prototype made the user unsure, as well as the icon button with the camera, which could be labelled upon entering the ID photo for error tolerance. (This was developed upon below)
  • Minor elements mentioned were really important features to the user, and helps promote the product on smaller levels.
  • The user was able to clearly identify different aspects very quickly, and mentioned this a few times, being able to find the next button to access further flows almost instantly.
  • A fun design was something a persona really wanted, and so for a user to confirm this, some of the value was added to the brand system.

Changes Made to Iterate

I had to, from this feedback, make a slight few tweaks to the design that would allow for a better user flow, and give the user more of an experience when using the product. A good, simple, but really useful example of this is shown below.

One user commented on being unsure of whether to click or swipe, so I made both actions possible within the product. The branding system was really important to the users when interviewed, and all of them spent triple the amount of time on the second page, this was due to the attempt to understand the negative illustrations and wordier copy. I changed this to be simpler, removing the illustration to keep the theme light and airy. The Images were seen as ‘downhearting,’ and a bit too much focussed on the negatives by the lecturer, and so I changed them to feel more like the brands later system.

The onboarding process was already good and strong, however, certain eleemnts stuck out to me as congusing during user testing.

View more changes, and the Miro Board here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNCv7uts=/?moveToWidget=3458764575557071086&cot=14

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Design for Good : Developing ‘Wander’

In order to build a strong design system, I needed to use the research I had made in order to put together all different aspects of a concept I had gone into great depth of research about. I had to make sure to include everything I had learnt, because something clearly important to a brand was how they advertise themselves. I was told by both lecturers that a brands user or persona that they were trying to hit doesn’t always have to be vast in number. I had developed 3 personas, however just because 3 is a good number doesn’t mean two couldn’t be a primary persona and one slightly less important.

Attempt One

When I had developed my first brand system, it had intended to hit 3 personas all at once – luxury travellers, well rounded professional travellers, and wannabe travellers. It was really difficult at first to try to make room for these 3 overwhelming personality types, even with the affinity map and value proposition already set up. To combat this, I used my research to create a brand system that included everything these 3 potential users would want.

I began by creating sketches of a few things I had wanted to include, and from this, springboarded to my final prototype design. I wanted to go for something fun and adventurous, to allow for a newbie backpacker to feel comfortable – not something sharp and almost daunting. The user interacted best with colourful, bright, and fun branding – not always simple, but willing to work within different examples of the system – something adaptable.

The users wanted a fun and creative onboarding system, and a lot of the projects that I took the users through to show them as competitor research included bright and bold illustrations, especially with icons and different screens. I had already had laid down a really strong design for the logo, which included different elements mentioned above, and so I based this off of the colour scheme and style I had chosen.

I used the typefaces below:

I knew I wanted to use Montserrat, because on its own it is a very strong font to use, as it has a great depth of weights and can be used very versatile within the product. I also chose to use Benne (the bottom font), so that there was an air of luxury throughout, due tot he research I had done on different types and their relevance.

However, after a conversation with both Dave and Rob, I chose to try and develop on this, as Benne as a font didn’t necessarily fit in with the rest of the designs, especially when I had moved the project onto a real prototype. Because of this, I chose to change it up a bit and see where it would take me.

Attempt Two

I changed the different typefaces to Montserrat, so that there was only one cohesive type being used throughout the system, editing minor details such as the weight of the font and where those were placed throughout the platform. I used brighter photos, editing them to match the colours I finalised on for the brand system!

Testing the System

Naturally, I wanted to test the system before I took the prototype any further. Because I had built in styles it was quite easy for me to change typefaces and fonts, but I didn’t want to have to replace different images and illustrations, so I thought it best to review them before I moved further on with the process. To do this, I brought back my five original user interviewees in order to establish what they liked and disliked, what could be changed and what they felt value in throughout the design. This was mainly because all of them ticked my target market, but also because they had previously been interviewed about the different brand systems before, and so they would have a good grasp at what they liked and disliked regarding this.

  • Joey stated that she likes the idea of the buildings within the logo, and thinks that it is fun and different, and not something you see often, but that the footprints don’t really fit the solid colour theme of the illustrations – and maybe to put them on a coloured background.
  • Catherine mentioned that she likes the illustrations, that she thinks they work really well within the colour scheme and make the product stand out against tother platforms. However, she did think that the colours were too pale against the bright white background, and putting this against my research, I chose to change this to a slightly paler grey.
  • Holly stated that he really liked the colours I have chosen they remind her of an italien little houses with a nostalgic sense. She also mentioned that she likes the different letter work, how I’ve done different letters that arn’t in the actual word WANDER, the ‘C’ and the ‘L’ for different examples.
  • A comment that stood out from Ollie was this: ‘Maybe try adding a different like outline to the letters, that could make them stand out more?’ After giving this a go, I found that it looked a little bit off, and placing the structures within a box almost defeated the purpose I was going for.