OVERVIEW
Sept. 2022 - Nov. 2022
8-week UX project
THE PROBLEM
As we know, over-tourism could pose threats to natural regions and local culture. We are at the blooming of the tourism industry in the post-pandemic era; how could we change traditional tourism to a more inclusive social, ethical, and immersive travel experience?
After the research, we found the critical priority of most tourists is to experience the unique local culture immersively. We further refocused our design problem to:
MY ROLE
At the research stage, I was responsible for Market Research and conducting user interview synthesis. At the design stage, I contributed to product scoping, user flow, information architecture, prototyping and UI design.
THE SOLUTION
Since we are talking about art experience, it’s hard not to mention designers and artists whose job is to uncover the beauty of the world. They always know the most quiet and beautiful spots of city view, the most intriguing surreal light show, or a friend’s gallery modern show opening. Would you be attracted if these beauty finders designed your NYC trip?
We designed Artour as a platform for New York tourists who are enthusiastic about art to receive customized art & culture tour planning from matched New York-based artists or designers.
ARTOUR
EXPLORE
Get inspired for your trip
from our examples of trips and tours, and get excited!
Find best match trip designer
in our preference filters, and get to know your designers from their backgrounds, experiences, and trip photos!
MATCH
SERVICE
Start with casual chatting
before making any deal. The service is guaranteed with the review system!
DISCOVER
MARKET RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
USER INTERVIEW INSIGHTS
USER SURVEY ANALYSIS
To research the problem space around sustainable tourism, we started with Domain Research to learn about the existing solutions in the market, followed by User Survey and Interviews to uncover user pain points and define user-centric design goals.
- Local residents have a strong desire for activities that support local businesses (87%), ensure resident health (90%), protect natural resources (87%), and preserve cultural heritage (91%) rather than merely catering to the tourists’ needs.
- 26% local residents have interests in tourism careers.
Sources:
St. Kitts Resident Survey Shows Local Desire for Community-Centric Tourism
With the idea of local residents’s contributions and concerns to tourism in mind, we then invited 5 potential users to have in-depth conversations about their traveling experience.
From the insights from previous research, we discovered opportunities to invite locals to be tour advisors that can benefit the local economy and protect culture. We then designed two surveys to get more focused insights. One is for travelers interested in exploring art & design in New York City. Another is for local artists/designers based in New York City. We received 44 responses in total and conducted an analysis.
Next, we drew user persona and user journey to further understand current user experiences and picture a better experience. They helped us define our design probelm and goals.
DEVELOP
USER STORIES
Because of the shorter time scope, we chose to prioritize the Traveler Portal of our product since it introduces our key features and primary goals. After we defined the design goals, we put ourselves in the users’ shoes and wrote user stories so that we could keep the focus on user-centric design. User stories also helped us outline tasks and subtasks and find creative solutions, which fueled our user flow diagrams.
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DELIVER
Design System
FINAL DEMO
PROJECT LEARNINGS
︎Iterative user research is the key.
All the secondary research helped form our understanding of sustainable tourism. Then, the in-depth user interviews guided us to the local guide design opportunities. During our preliminary investigation, we learned a lot about the habits and expectations of tourists. From the more extensive scope user survey, we identified the narrower opportunity of local culture and art trips and connected two groups of users into one solution. At each round of the user research, we brought insights into the following interview guides, which helped us narrow the focus and identify feasible design goals. We eventually found our solution thanks to these iterative processes.
︎Strong branding builds user trust.
To develop our brand identity, a strong visual kit is crucial. We looked up a lot of case studies and conducted user testings to find the best visual elements that can deliver a sense of warmth, trust, and casual vibes. We learned that colors, fonts, all the visual elements are essential to build user trust and producing good memories, aligning with the excellent user experience. They share feelings, experiences, and emotions, which define us as a trustworthy and culturally rich platform, making it more likely to drive users to our app.
