MY INSPIRING NEW EXPERIENCES
MY
INSPIRING NEW EXPERIENCES
Currently there are limited online resources for
holidaymakers wanting to book activity based holidays.
The travel industry is saturated with generic holidays offerings
(sight seeing, city breaks and beaches etc..) As fun and relaxing
as holidays are, people find the initial process of choosing
what to do and where to go the most stressful part.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Think Pinterest meets TripAdvisor for the thrill seeker.
My Adventure is an inspirational website for people looking for fun activities
across the world that they can enjoy. We want to grow a community of
adventurers, and empower them to share their photos, experiences and reviews.
Our mission is to... inspire discovery and new experiences
MY ADVENTURE
How do you choose what you do and where you go on holiday?We interviewed five people (male/female ages 21 - 40)
USER INTERVIEWS
“I’ve always loved travelling and trying out
new things, I have bookmarked all my favourite
traveller sites. I also have some Lonely planet
and Time out guides”
“I search on Google
best places to go
white water rafting”
“I’ve seen a program
on TV about zip wires,
I’m part of an fun activities
Facebook group and
asked the community
for information.”
“I go on Pinterest
to get inspired with
images, then Google
the activity, I also
look at Tripadvisor
for reviews.”
“I’ve seen kite surfing videos
on Instagram, it looks
amazing. My friend told me
Cornwall is fun for this.”
USER INTERVIEWS
Surfing
Snowboarding
Climbing Kilimanjaro
Sea kayaking
Cliff diving
Activity I’d love to try
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Base-jumpingCountryside walks
How adventurous am I?
Something I have always wanted to do
Just to try something a bit extreme, a bit scary
Something for charity, to honour my mum’s memory
Television, films and media
Something I’ve seen on Instagram
What inspires me?
White water rafting in Wales
Sky diving in America
Kite-surfing in Cornwall, UK
Worlds fastest and longest zip wire in Wales
Pamplona - Running of the Bulls in Spain
Most extreme activity I’ve done
KEY FINDINGS
People will travel to
a location solely to
take part in an activity
The majority of
adventure travellers
are male (57%)* People rely heavily on customer
reviews and recommendations
If the location is
desirable, people are
encouraged to book
the activity
Adventure travellers
are younger than non-
adventure travellers, with
an average age of 36*
Desktop is more favourable
than mobile/tablet for
viewing holidays
Sites like Thomas Cook, Expedia, Last minute.com
don’t have much information about activities,
its more about hotel, flight etc..
*Source: http://files.adventuretravel.biz/docs/research/adventure-tourism-market-study-2013-web.pdf
Top magazines read by adventurers are
National Geographic, Cosmopolitan,
National Geographic Traveller, Mens Health,
National Geographic Adventure*
✓ In depth guides written
by local experts
✓ Categorised things to do
✓ Bookings.com API
travel + Hotel
✓ Includes a shop for
guides & ebooks
✓ List of events
✓ Wealth of content
✓ Engaging News
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Desktop and mobile website + app
Positioning
Sta travel offers a lifestyle choice to its audience. Since 1979,
they have helped over 2 million travellers a year start their
adventure, offering round the world tours to working abroad.
Website observations
Website is friendly, one stop shop for everything, shows deals,
engaging. Homepage is cluttered, confusing, colours clash
Key Features
Responsive website + app
Positioning
Comprehensive travellers worldwide guide to art and entertainment,
food and drink, film, travel and more. Established reputation, great
signposting, inspiring and updated content.
Website observations
Adverts are distracting, site is a bit dated, text is hard to read
Key Features
✓ E-commerce site
✓ Book flights, Hotels
✓ Book Insurance
✓ Book Tours
✓ Work abroad
✓ Choose Language
✓ Login area
✓ Itinerary
statravel.co.uk timeout.com
✓ Account area
✓ Ability to save favourites
✓ Create and organise boards
✓ Follow users
✓ Messaging functionality
✓ Large amount of user content
✓ Intuitive, intelligent search
✓ Account area
✓ Booking process
✓ Secure escrow payment setup
✓ List, and host an accommodation
✓ Rent an accommodation
✓ Google map API, located pins
✓ Online guidebooks
✓ In depth information pages
INFLUENCERS
Desktop and mobile website + app
Positioning
Know better, book better, and go
better on the world’s largest travel
site. Heavily trusted by travellers
worldwide.
Key Features
tripadvisor.co.uk
✓ Account area
✓ Personalise currency/language
✓ Search by: hotel, rental, flights
things to do, restaurants,
✓ Notifications
✓ Write and see reviews
✓ Huge amount of useful info
Responsive site + app
Positioning
The world’s catalogue of ideas. Find
and save recipes, parenting hacks,
style inspiration and other ideas to try.
Key Features
Responsive site + app
Positioning
Rent unique places to stay from local hosts
in over 190 countries. Belong anywhere
Key Features
pinterest.com airbnb.com
BEHAVIOURS & HABITS
I am active and social-able. I go to the gym 5 days and week, and have a great circle of friends.
I am hard working, and finished University with a first in Sports Science. I have a smartphone,
tablet and desktop. Social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and
Pinterest. I have a personal email account which I use and read actively.
GOALS
I have worked so hard at university, I wants to treat myself to an adventure holiday.
I feel a bit lost as spent the past 5 years working towards a goal and now its completed,
I want a new challenge.
Ultimately I wants to... be inspired about where to go, and what adventure
/ activity to do.
PERSONA 1 - ANDY JOHNSON
“As soon as I achieve
a goal, I then want to
go and beat it, or find
something else that
challenges me even
more, I’m constantly
looking for my next
adventure.”
ABOUT
Single | post graduate | 26 years old | lives in London
I’m in my mid twenties, I have no brothers or sisters, and my parents live nearby. My flatmate
is my best friend and we’ve always wanted to do something really fun and try a new experience.
FRUSTRATIONS/DOES NOT WANT
✕ Generic holiday websites like Trivago, Expedia
✕ Commercial locations for the tourist
✕ Areas where there is nothing to do
✕ Over priced activities
DOES WANT
✓ A fun/safe activity that I can be proud of
✓ Information about the activity and location
✓ Reviews and photos of area
The post graduate thrill Seeker
BEHAVIOURS & HABITS
I have been taking surfing lessons for the past 3 months, and really want to combine
this with my adventure. I have a smartphone, tablet and laptop. Social media accounts:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Active on email.
GOALS
I’ve got a desire to travel to Australia and go surfing, and meet some new friends.
Ultimately I wants to... be inspired about where to go, and what adventure
to do. I would also love to meet some friends on my travels.
PERSONA 2 - ADRIANNA ROSSI
“I crave an experience
to remember,
something I can be
proud of and brings me
happiness, more than
just another holiday.”
FRUSTRATIONS/DOES NOT WANT
✕ Generic holiday maker websites
✕ Unrealistic photos of the location
✕ Areas where there is nothing to do
✕ Over priced activities
ABOUT
Single | Care-worker | 22 years old | lives in Spain
I live with my parents and have 3 brothers. I’m time rich, and have some savings to spend on
travel. I am open minded, ambitious, and love new experiences. I have been to America once,
and really want to explore the world. I love water based activities
DOES WANT
✓ To experience a fun activity abroad
✓ Make new friends
✓ Information about the area I’m going to
✓ Safe activity
✓ Good reviews from other travellers
The curious friendly traveller
I’ve just woken up and Brian (my flatmate) and I have finally
decided to book our adventure. We’re excited and have spent
months saving up and we’ve both got one month off in August.
My friend on Facebook has just told me about a new website
called My Adventure, never heard of it but it looks like the perfect
site as we haven’t yet decided what to do or where to go.
I land on the homepage, and it encourages me to create an
account, I do this and personalise our interests, it gives us
recommendations of places/activities we’d like to do.
We spend an hour looking through different things to do, we
particularly love the idea of going rock climbing in New Zealand
so we bookmark this one in our favourites. There’s loads of
information of here that is useful, even a link to AirBnB to find
accommodation. Next step is book the travel arrangements!
End result: Rock-climbing in New Zealand
Finished my care work shift, got home and feeling a bit down
as its been really stressful at work recently. I decide this evening
I am going to start looking into holidays to cheer myself up.
I Google ‘adventures and activities’ and ‘My Adventure’ comes
up 3rd in Google. It sounds interesting so I click on the link.
It asks me to sign up, but I don’t want to as I’m always sceptical
about giving away my information and don’t like receiving
spam. I do look through the site, and as I know what I’m after
so I choose Surfing in Australia, and there’s a few places to
choose from. I opt for Bryon Bay as have heard this is a hotspot
for surfers.
I read all the information, I especially find the reviews helpful,
and look through the gallery. I’m definitely interested so I save
this page in my research bookmarks.
End result: Surfing in Australia
Features used:
on-boarding, personalisation, search facility, saving to favourites
Features used:
Search facility, looking through gallery and reviews, weather API
USER BASED SCENARIOS
Andy Johnson
Sat 23rd June, 09.30Adrianna Rossi
Mon 30th June, 09.30
Minimal viable product
The key outcome of this exercise determined
less is more. Instead of offering a booking site,
My Adventure at its core service will offer inspiration
and information. This will be a responsive website,
an app may be developed at a later stage.
The following features will be included:
✓ Search functionality including geo location
✓ Extreme level module
✓ Gallery and videos
✓ Log in area
(sign up with Facebook)
✓ On-boarding process
✓ Content personalisation
✓ Ability to add favourites
✓ Google maps
✓ Write and read reviews
✓ AirBnB API
✓ Newsletter sign-up
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION
CONTENT PERSONALISATION
We know from previous research, that content personalisation
is highly successful for giving the user an optimum experience
and helping them get information that’s relevant to them.
Think of sites like Netflix, Facebook, BBC News.
We want to be able to recommend locations, and activities that are suited
to user’s interests. By introducing an on-boarding process straight after signing
up, we ask them a few rounds of questions so we can deliver content that is
personalised for the user. The user also has the option of updating and adding
more personalisation information at any time they want by visiting
the personalisation sections.
USER FLOW DIAGRAM
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23
4
# Key pages are highlighted
1. Homepage 2. Create an account 3. Results 4. Location details page
SKETCHES
I decided to start with the four key pages below as these are integral steps
in the user journey. These were tested as paper prototypes.
KEY PAGE WIREFRAMES
The feedback from the sketches was then used before creating the wireframes.
HOME PAGE
1. My Adventure logo
2. Main menu
3. Create an account / login
4. Image slider of adventure
5. Search box
6. Popular location boxes
including an image and title
7. View more location boxes
8. Footer, latest event, tweet
and social media links
CREATE AN ACCOUNT
1. Sign up with Facebook API
2. Basic info, name, password,
email etc..
3. Top 5 favourite activities
4. Top 5 favourite locations
5. Extreme level slider
6. Sign up button
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4
5
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8
6
7
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2
3
5
4
6
KEY PAGE WIREFRAMES
RESULTS
1. Username and photo
(if signed in)
2. Search results text
3. Refine results, including
keyword, location, activity,
review rating, most
popular & extreme level
4. Back to home button
5. Results boxes, image,
location and activity title,
star rating & extreme level
LOCATION DETAIL
1. Image of activity
2. Location / activity heading
3. Extreme level indicator
4. Share / add to favourites
5. Introduction text
6. Google map
7. Photo gallery
8. Traveller reviews
9. Traveller stories
10. Image of traveller & quote
11. Suggested adventures
12. Back to results
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USER TESTING
The wireframes were tested to three users as a click-able prototype.
User task 1: Starting from the homepage, create an account on My Adventure, load a photo and fill in all the details
User task 2: Find an activity / location you like
User task 3: Choose three adventures you really would like to go on and save these to your favourites
AFFINITY MAPPING
Feedback was then gathered, and presented below as an affinity map.
Trends were identified and each user was associated with a coloured post-it note.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED
These are the summary points from the Affinity mapping exercise.
Activity/location page
- Remove travel stories and traveller quote,
confusing and not important for users
+ Like to see nearby accommodation, link to AirBnB
+ Like to see useful information, out of peak season,
local amenities etc.
+ I would like to see recommended locations from the
community within a location
Positioning
+ Add a strap-line to the logo to help position the brand
Photos/Media
+ Show video content
+ Include Instagram, page link to follow
+ Users and companies photos, like TripAdvisor and AirBnB
Navigation
- Remove favourites and personalise if not logged in
- Remove review rating from the refine results options
Sign up process
- Form too long - make it smaller
+ Introduce on-boarding steps for personalised options after sign-up
- Remove text ‘choose 5 activities/locations’, choose any number
+ Show location drop-down
+ Add sign up with Google Plus login as well with Facebook
Personalisation
+ All home page content to be personalised
+ Once signed in, keep search-box but remove banner carousel
Footer
- Remove latest event, tweet and social media links from the footer
+ Add a newsletter sign-up option
HOME PAGE - REVISIONS
Before
After
1
Key revisions
1. Add a strap-line to the logo
to help position the brand
2. Remove favourites and
personalise if not logged in
2
CREATE AN ACCOUNT - REVISIONS
Before
After
A B
DC
E
Key revisions
1. Form too long - have
personalisation on-boarding
process after signing up
2. Show location drop-down
3. Do not need to choose
five activities/locations,
choose any number
1
3
3
2
RESULTS - REVISIONS
After
Before
Key revisions
1. Remove review rating from
the refine results options
2. Using the full width of
the web page to show an
extra column of results
2
1
Before After
INFORMATION PAGE - REVISIONSINFORMATION PAGE - REVISIONS
Key revisions
1. Remove travel stories,
confusing and not important
for users
2. Include useful information,
out of peak season, local
amenities etc.
3. Include video content
4. Add Instagram account
to follow
5. Link to AirBnB accommodations1
5
2
3
4
INFORMATION PAGE - ANNOTATED
The most important page for the
user has been identified as the
activity/location information area.
So a lot of time was invested in
providing the best experience possible
1. Share / add to favourites
2. Sticky menu
3. Top areas / how to get there
4. Guide price, best season
5. Extreme level for user
6. Overview of adventure
7. Google map showing pins
8. Media slider (videos / images)
9. Follow us on social media
10. Live weather / current time
11. AirBnB top accommodation
12. Getting around / traveller tips
13. Before you go advice
14. Write or read a review
15. Suggested adventures
16. Back to top, as long page
17. Back to results button
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MY DISCOVERY
Its clear after this entire process,
users want two things from My Adventure.
1. To get inspired about where to go and what to do
2. Access helpful content to inform them on potential adventure
It was insightful that users were more interested in practical
information like local area, amenities etc. and found travel stories
to be not as useful. Content personalisation seemed to be very
popular with the audience group I worked with as well.
This project has taught me that user testing is vital to providing a
successful, engaging user experience as you cannot presume people
want something you think they will like.