2024
WanderSafe app design
UX/UI design
Project overview
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Project: WanderSafe App
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UX/UI and branding: Greta Rainyte
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Timeline: 3 weeks
For this project I’ve designed an app that empowers solo female travelers to travel alone with confidence. The scope involved designing onboarding pages with a bank level security checks, AI powered trip planner, community page where women can meet each other during their trip, and also a page where users can find holiday stays and emergency accommodation.
Problem
100% of surveyed women, are concerned about their safety whilst traveling. Women also experience loneliness as a result of being afraid to meet new people while on holiday. Unforeseen cancellations of holiday accommodations and multiple apps to plan a one week holiday leave women stressed.
Target audience
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Women
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18-35 year olds
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Solo travelers around the world
User survey
To better understand the target audience, I have conducted an online survey with 10 users. Here are my key takeaways:
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100% of surveyed woman between the ages on 18-35, don’t feel completely safe when traveling solo.
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The survey also showed that most people like to meet new friends when abroad. Most common places are hotels/hostels, pub crawls, bars and group trips.
User interviews
I’ve asked some of the survey participants to do a 1-2-1 interview in which I understood the users even further. Here are my key takeaways:
Majority of participants want to make connections abroad whilst traveling, and a few prefer to be alone and disconnect from people.
All of the participants said that they prioritise safety over exploring behind the touristy area.
Many participants would also like to organise their travel plans all in one place, receive reminders, ect.
Users would be extremely happy if the new app also offered free emergency accommodation.
Competitive analysis
After the user interviews I wanted to understand the competitors.
Overall, there are various apps which help travellers meet new people, make travel plans and offer accommodation. However, many are unreliable as they don’t do enough background checks on users who are creating the accounts, this results in bad reputation as it happened to the Couchsurfer.
Analysis shows that there is no identical app to WanderSafe and therefore it has a lot of potential to be a “one stop shop” for solo travelers.
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Personas
Based on earlier research I was then able to create the user personas.
User Stories and User Flows
Then, based on the Personas I created the user stories and user flows.
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Sitemap
Moving on onto the next stage, I’ve started by creating a sitemap.
Sketches
Once the app structure was complete, I created some sketches.
Low-fidelity wireframes
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Branding
Logo
I focused on 2 main keywords which were safety and connection. I wanted the logo to represent travel and connection as the word Safety is already in the brand name. I moved onto digital brainstorming as I wanted my logo to be a Wordmark. I picked the typeface Vindea, it felt feminine and had aspects of connection. In the word “Wander” letters e
and r are connected representing unity, whereas rest of the letters are separate, representing solitude. However, this alone didn’t feel like a solution so I added a plane icon to represent travel which is then clearer to the user that this brand is associated with safe travel.
I then created a colour palette and a mood-board as well as chose a typeface for the interface.
Colour palette
For the colour palette I chose Purple as a primary colour and Green as a secondary.
Purple - alternative colour to pink to represent femininity, it is also a colour of sunsets which can be associated with seaside travels.
Green - the colour of nature and it also evokes positive feelings.
Overall this palette will bring to mind the feelings of familiarity, sisterhood and calmness.
Interface font
For the interface I chose to go with simple yet versatile font Open Sans.
Moodboard
Mockups
I created mockups for user testing.
User testing
Notes from user testing:
Insights
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As intended swiped right to read more about the app.
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User was triggered by the long time gap in the diary which was initially made for the users to explore how they can add diary entries, however for one user it triggered an idea (Read Suggestions for improvement 3.).
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During the initial user research many users said that they would look into booking an emergency hotel room. When asked if they would consider free accommodation, it was unclear for them how would it even work and if it was 100% safe, knowing bad reviews of couchsurf and even airbnb. I created the “Rooms” UI screen and it was very favorited by the testers and said they would trust it.
Suggestions for improvement
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National ID in verification process made users to stop and say “No I wouldn’t do that”. They suggested to insert a reassuring statement of why it’s needed and then they would be happy to upload the National ID as the reason was valid.
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Even if all the events are free I would still like to see that it is free on the card without needing to click on it as well as financial expectations.
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User saw a gap in their diary which triggered discomfort and panic, as a result the user thought that it would be nice to have an AI that could suggest activities based on their diary entries and location.
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Send push notifications throughout the trip like Citymapper app does when traveling.
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Add button to share the holiday schedule.
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Name the “Friends” section “Community” as it would be more clear of what to expect when tapping on it. Move the messages to community section too as the top right corner icon wasn’t clear.
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On the “Rooms” screen. Instead of just having “3 Rooms” add “3 rooms available”. Users were a bit confused.
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As well as emergency accommodation it would be nice to have vetted long stays to book prior to the trip.
Feedback
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“This app made me feel safe as if I had a little trip companion who is with me at all times (in a really good way). I absolutely see myself using this app and paying for it. It gives solutions to my problems and it just makes sense!”
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Users felt safety whilst using the app which was the purpose of this app. It made users feel more confident in solo traveling.
Positives
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Seen the slogan first, users thought it was reassuring and really liked it.
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Loved the idea of Q&A type of walkthrough, it made them want to sign up. “Ok I want to sign up!”
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Planner calendar was the biggest success. “Oooh…, I have tickets in here too! My “OCD” is loving it!”.
Splash screen
Start screen
Intro screen
The sign up process is lengthy, so to keep the users engaged, I created some visuals that users can follow throughout the sign up process.
National ID
During the interviews users were hesitant to provide their National ID details, but said that a reassuring statement would help them to feel safe and provide those details.
New visual.
Location
New visual.
Home
Originally there were 5 menu segments but after user interviews it showed that the messaging icon was not needed at the top right corner so for cleaner design I’ve moved the user profile at the top right corner.
Created more space between the tabs so it’s easier to select the desired one.
Users also wanted to see a price for each activity which I added inside the cards.
Trip planner
Trip details
Users wanted to be able to share their daily schedule with family members therefore the share button was added.
AI feature. After users expressed that they would like to see suggestions of activities, AI can do it by looking at similar activities that the user already has and suggest events tailored to them.
Updated and aligned the timeline with screen edge, also created more space for the cards and other information.
Community
Originally named “Friends” which was slightly confusing for the users, now named community as it presents the page contents better.
Rooms
Added option for holiday stays as this would give another advantage for the users, meaning they wouldn’t need to look for accommodations on other websites.
Based on user feedback I’ve changed the text to make the message clearer.
This was a successful project and received a lot of positive feedback. Saving time, minimising the cognitive load of planning and overall empowering women to travel solo.
Next steps
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Look for ways to enhance the app with extra features.
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Look into ways that that AI could be used in other aspects of the app, not only in the planner.
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See how I could expand the target audience to include other age groups.
What I would change
The app could be too intrusive for some users and I would like to do a further research on that.