Lonely Planet Works
Lonely Planet, the ultimate travel companion, sparks wanderlust in adventurers with their expert advice and captivating content. They promote responsible travel while unveiling hidden gems and immersive experiences. Lonely Planet remains the go-to source for adventurers, ensuring that every journey is filled with excitement and unforgettable memories.
Context
My Role
Lead Designer
UX Researcher
Visual Designer
Client - Conceptual
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is a travel guide book publisher. Founded in Australia in 1973, the company has printed over 150 million books.
Duration
April - May 2023
Tools Used
Lonely Planet's Challenge
With the rise of remote work, there has been an increase in the number of individuals who opt to travel and work remotely from destination to destination known as digital nomads. Popular travel guide publisher Lonely Planet currently does not dedicate any of its web presence to digital nomads, despite being a brand known for helping globetrotters around the world enjoy their lifestyle more by simplifying travel in helpful and meaningful ways. Our team set out to help Lonely Planet understand the traveling needs of digital nomads and design solutions to address them.
What is a digital nomad?
A digital nomad is an adventurous soul who embraces the freedom of a location-independent lifestyle. Armed with their trusty tech gadgets and a passion for exploration, they work remotely while traversing the globe. These modern-day adventurers rely on laptops, smartphones, and a reliable internet connection to earn a living and connect with clients or employers. With the world as their playground, digital nomads embody the perfect blend of work and play, living life on their own terms while embracing the thrill of constant discovery.
Discovering Our User
Our team embarked on user interviews, crafting a collaborative script to understand the adventurous mindset of this untapped audience. Zoom sessions with digital nomads and frequent business travelers revealed valuable insights, which were meticulously tagged and coded using Dovetail. Affinity mapping in Figjam helped us identify key trends, like the importance of work-play boundaries. We discovered pain points centered around logistics and the lack of a comprehensive platform. Existing options for this group were limited and expensive, and we recognized the potential for Lonely Planet to fill the gap with a dynamic and trustworthy app, leveraging their renowned expertise in travel to service these users and enhance their brand.
Meet Jordan!
Jordan is an adventurous digital nomad with a passion for authentic experiences and reliable work solutions while traveling. With goals of finding safe and social workspaces, making meaningful connections, and managing logistical challenges, Jordan became the driving force behind our design process. Placing Jordan at the center and focusing on the highs and lows of their current journey allowed us to explore this problem space effectively.
Charting the Course
During the design phase, our team leveraged the insights gathered from our research to create a clear and comprehensive design plan. We began by sketching out rough wireframes and user flows, mapping out the different steps that users would need to take to achieve their goals within our app. We then moved on to creating high-fidelity mockups and prototypes that would allow us to test and refine our designs with the help of real users. I personally took the lead in creating an effective user interface and dynamic visual design. I also developed a comprehensive style guide, designed the layout and functionality of the wire frames, and established a clear hierarchy across the main sections of the website utilizing appropriate typography and color choices. Having the most experience with design tools on my team meant that I also ensured that our designs were pixel perfect and effective representations of the teams vision and Lonely Planet’s brand.
The Ideation Process
Our initial sketches laid the foundation for our app's design, focusing on key features essential to our user. Early sketches prioritized orienting the user, welcoming them with a map showcasing nearby locations in an assumed unfamiliar area. Taking inspiration from other travel apps, we implemented horizontal scrolling card carousels aligned with the pinned locations, eventually grouped by type- cafes, restaurants, bars, and co-work facilities. Consistency was key, reflected in the footer navigation and square images throughout the app. To enhance usability, we added a floating search bar and chips on small cards to display available User reviews served as the primary source of information provided on our chips, akin to how Uber Eats crowd-sources restaurant and driver reviews. We also included a legend to clarify the sourcing process and added a heart icon to our location cards for users to save favorite locations in their profile's favorites tab. amenities.
At this point, we hit a road block in our design. During the discover and define stages of designing Lonely Planet Works, we identified user safety as a key concern, with two of our five interviewees expressing it as a determining factor in where they decide to work while on the road. However, when it came to sketching and wireframing, we struggled with how to display this information and how to source the data. We also had concerns about the liability of a potential client like Lonely Planet in the event of a user ending up in a dangerous situation. As a result, we decided to focus on work-specific amenities and user reviews instead of implementing a safety designator in the app, which proved to be beneficial. Our app was now more focused with a clear path to mid and high fidelity prototyping.
Utilizing Strong Branding
For our style and visual design, I focused on colors used by Lonely Planet across all their products. Their print media and websites utilize varying shades of blues to convey hierarchy and structure, with yellow accents. Frequently a darker blue on a white or light blue background was utilized as their call to action, and the Benton Sans font with a five percent kerning served as their typographical element. We did not deviate from this scheme, except in instances where we needed to convey a message that was universally accepted by typical web conventions. An example of this is noted when clicking the heart icon to favorite a location. The heart fills red to give feedback to the user.
Our Digital Journey: The Adventurous Prototype
Our map now included pins and icons that were easy to comprehend, while the frames were fleshed out in a way that aligned with our user flow.
The main goal was to create a path that would enable our usability testers to locate a five-star coffee shop that provided wifi, power, coffee, and food.
To offer another way to achieve this, we added a secondary flow that would allow users to utilize the search feature instead of scrolling through the carousels.
Forging the Path
Armed with a functioning prototype, we began usability testing that mirrored the adventurous spirit of digital nomads. Users effortlessly found the desired coffee shop with amenities and left reviews. However, initial confusion with the review feature highlighted the need for clearer design cues. Some users faced minor challenges in locating favorited locations within the profile section, indicating areas for navigation and layout refinement. These insights drove our commitment to create a seamless user experience, ensuring our app became an indispensable companion for digital nomad like Jordan and their journey.
The original profile page, which felt incomplete to some users.
Improvements and Next Steps
After receiving valuable feedback from our usability testing, we were able to take action and iterate on our design. We created a new flow that made it easier for users to access the reviews section of the app by adding cues under the star rating. Additionally, the size of some of the icons that users had trouble clicking on were increased, such as the favorite icon and search bar.
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This project was for my UX immersive through General Assembly, so it was a two week sprint. If I had more time, I would have focused on the layout and design of the reviews page. While I feel it is effective, it would work better if it reflected the overall design and layout of the app. I would also address the profile and favorites section of the app using a similar approach- our usability testing showed that it felt incomplete, and I agree. Users like Jordan need something that is quick and easy, they want to find work efficiently and in the moment, so streamlining the process is paramount to reflect those needs.
Bon Voyage!
After conducting thorough usability testing and incorporating all the actionable feedback, we were able to create a polished and well-functioning final product that successfully addressed Lonely Planet’s problem space. The visual design was carefully crafted to be clean and simple, aligning with Lonely Planet's brand identity, while providing an effective solution for digital nomads seeking remote work opportunities while traveling. With its intuitive user interface and streamlined user flow, our application enables users to quickly and efficiently find coffee shops that offer amenities such as wifi, power outlets, coffee, and food, with a social element that featured real user reviews. I am pleased with the outcome of this project and the success we achieved by meeting our goals. Feel free to check out the working prototype for this project on figma.