at home far away - travel site
DESCRIPTION
This is a spec concept design for a travel site. It includes a design brief, interaction model, personas and user scenarios based on user interviews and ethnographic research.TRANSCRIPT
1
Design Brief 1-2
Ethnographic Study Results 3-8
Personas 9-14
Interaction Model 15-18
By: Susan Oslin
August 2009
Table of Contents
“At Home Far Away” Travel SiteConcept Design Studies
Target Users
• Male & Female
• Although the stores are based in Southern California, the website will now be open to all U.S.
• Users that will use the site frequently and “spread the word” to network of family and friends
• Can afford to purchase the products
• Frequent travelers that will actively use the “travel advice” and will hopefully purchase often
• Active users that will help generate site content for “rating & reviews” + help populate the “travel advice”
Business Goals
“At Home Far Away” is a company that has 10 boutiques throughout Southern
California, established in downtown San Diego in 1992, they’ve expanded to
several boutiques in the San Diego region and Orange County, finally opening 2
new boutiques in Los Angeles this past year.
• The company sells travel books & unique, high-end travel accessories (bags + misc. portable products) that “ease” the travel experience.
• They want to now create a website that would allow them to do the fol-lowing:
• Sell directly online their products
• Allow for customers to locate their physical stores and contact them through email and phone
• Provide online content around travel advice (including travel tips, spe-cific destination guides for hotspots around the globe, recommenda-tions for tour groups and travel agents)
• Allow customers to rate and review products, contribute content as part of the “travel advice”
• Allow customers to create and mange an account on the site where they can view their purchase history, profile information, wishlist and “tagged” site content for future reference (like a vacation spot article or travel tip)
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 2Design Breif
Design Breif
SusansHeilaMike
Vern/Fran
CharlenNancy/Mike
BartLouise
Joey
Findings:
Exploratory travelers that traveled the most preferred to deal with real human beings when
researching and booking. Travel rewards that included perks to make travel more comfort-
able were important to this group and a big incentive on what travel services they chose.
Task based travelers rely heavily on the internet for research and booking and carry hand-
held devices with internet access. They too are motivated by rewards programs, but tend
to focus on frequent flier miles and financially based incentives.
Exploratory travelers who use the internet were a lot were more interested in reviews, blogs,
and online communities. Task based travelers tended not to be interested in online com-
munities.
Email as a primary form of communication ranked high for all types of travelers and internet
users.
Response Key
Overview:
Travel took on two distinct types, what we will call exploratory travel and task-based travel.
Exploratory travel was purely leisure or adventure travel for vacation purposes, usually to
somewhere the traveler had not been or was not familiar with and a lot of activity was
planned. Task-based travel had a specific purpose, such as business, or visiting family and
generally the traveler had been there before, was familiar with the destination, and gener-
ally wasn’t planning a lot of extra curricular activity. Consequently the findings of these two
groups were charted separately as the trends tended to differed between the groups but
tended to be similar within the groups.
Lessons Learned:
To do the type of comparison that follows, establishing trends and patterns, requires a well
defined set of questions and consistency in the interviewing process. It was only after a
number of interviews had been taken was it clear the type of data that would be most useful
to collect. Therefor, this study can only be used for qualitative research and only a few very
broad generalizations can be made. This type of qualitative research is great for gathering
ideas and helping to define the problem and project parameters, but no real quantitative
data can be gathered.
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 4Survey Results
Ethnographic Study: Survey Results
Internet Shopping
Internet Leisure
Internet News
Internet Social Networking
2-3x/wk daily more than 8hrs/day
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
Primary Preferred Method of Communication
Secondary Preferred Method of Communication
Handheld Device
text email face to facephone
text email face to facephone
phone only phone/text/photo iPhoneblackberry
Internet Banking/Financesnever rarely nearly all online occasionally often
Internet Usage2hr/day 4hr/day 6hr/day
Primary Travel Research Method
Secondary Travel Research Method
Method of Travel Preparation
Preferred Method of Purchase for Travel Gear
Travel Gear
Desired Functionality
personal network agent/service literature
laptopaccessories clothing/comfort
blog
hand held w/ internet
fashion weatherprep. articles
or video
Travel Frequency: Exploratory
Travel Duration: Exploratory
1x/1-2yrs 1x/yr 2x/yr 6x/yr 12x/yr
2-3days 1wk 2wk 3wk 4+wks
online
personal network agent/service literature online
reviewsactivities planning photo sharingrewards
in store agent/service phone online
store travel store airport online
kindle
Method of Travel Bookingagent/service phone direct online direct online portal
S
S
S
S
S
S
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
N
N
N
N
N
N
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V S SS SS
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
S
H
H
H
H
H
H
H HH
H
HHHH
N
N
N
N
V
V
V
V
V V
V
N
N
N
N
NNN NN
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 6Survey Results
Ethnographic Study: Survey Results - Exploratory Travelers
Internet Shopping
Internet Leisure
Internet News
Internet Social Networking
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
never rarely nearly all online occasionally often
Primary Preferred Method of Communication
Secondary Preferred Method of Communication
Handheld Device
text email face to facephone
text email face to facephone
phone only phone/text/photo iPhoneblackberry
Internet Banking/Financesnever rarely nearly all online occasionally often
Primary Travel Research Method
Method of Travel Preparation
Preferred Method of Purchase for Travel Gear
Travel Gear
Desired Functionality
personal network agent/service literature
laptopaccessories clothing/comfort
blog
hand held w/ internet
fashion weatherprep. articles
or video
Travel Frequency: Task-based
Travel Duration: Task-based
1x/1-2yrs 1x/yr 2x/yr 6x/yr 12x/yr
2-3days 1wk 2wk 3wk 4+wks
online
reviewsactivities planning photo sharingrewards
in store agent/service phone online
store travel store airport online
kindle
Method of Travel Bookingagent/service phone direct online direct online portal
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
H
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
B
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
H
H
H
H
H
H HH
H
HHHH
M
M
M
M
M
M
M M M
B
B
B
B
B B
B
L
L
L
L
LH
M B
L
L LLL
LL LHM B
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 8Survey Results
Ethnographic Study: Survey Results - Task-Based Travelers
Barriers:
• Complex interfaces that try to do too much can be overwhelming and frustrating. They expect the site to help them clarify their travel planning and the process to be easy.
• Excessive graphics, media, animation, moving parts, anything per-ceived as too fancy (complicated) makes them uncomfortable.
• Inconsistencies between the in-store and online experience.
Profession: Retired CPA and HR administratorIncome: mortgage paid, $96kAge: 65 and 70
Attributes:
• The internet is a compliment to their primary research through their personal network and agents. They like interacting with real people and want that same kind of feel online whenever possible.
• If traveling somewhere new they are likely to speak directly with an agent, however are more likely to book directly online when traveling to a familiar place or cruise line.
• They are very knowledgeable about traveling and need less information than they do ways to make traveling more comfortable or luxurious. They are highly motivated by finding the best deal and the best deal means the best overall experience, not the lowest price.
• To purchase a travel guide, luggage, or other travel gear they are more likely to purchase in the store directly. They will go to the site to browse, review and price compare, put prefer to touch and feel for final purchase. In-store incentives to visit the site are important.
• Staying connected to their loved ones is important and having internet access for email is a requirement to any travel experience.
Frank and Delores are lucky enough to travel around the world nearly
50% of the year. They own 5 timeshares and are ‘Elite’ Princess cruisers. Twice a year they take a 3-4 week vacation
to a distant land or a 2-3 week cruise. They take monthly jaunts for a week or so to resorts in the states as well as
abroad by trading in points from their time shares. Seasoned travelers, they expect to be rewarded for their loyalty.
Service, perks and pampering are key to these old world travelers with traditional values.
Triggers:
• Simple interface, not too many options or details. Choices and processes should be clearly delineated.
• Lots of opportunity to build rewards points with a clear indication of how to do so and what the benefits are.
• Easy way to make comparisons between product offerings and how their offerings compare to competitors.
• Profound level of customer service, the experience of being taken care of and knowing that ‘At Home Far Away’ is one step ahead and providing what they need before they have the need to ask.
• Frank and Delores are planning a 4 week vacation to tour Italy. They’ve booked a package for a portion of the trip through the American Express affiliates at ‘At Home Far Away’ via phone and now want to begin plan-ning their their solo excursions.
• To simplify the online experience, the phone attendant has already cre-ated their account for them and has even confingured some of the basic fucntionalilty according to their preferences. A welcome email has been sent with all the relevant details including a direct customer support num-ber should they need additional assistance.
• They come to the site to first verfiy their itinerary and check the status of their travel awards account.
• Both locactions offer suggested links to related interests such as travel gear, articles and reviews, points of interest near their destination and upcoming scheduled events at the store.
• Delores sees an announcement for a packing seminar and follows that link. The packing seminar is held at their local store, but on an evening when Frank has a conflict.
• Frank sees that the event will be recorded and available online at his leisure and requests to have an email reminder sent to him when the ses-sion is ready for review online.
• Delories decides she would like to go and mingle with other traverlers. She reserves a seat and selects to have an email reminder a few days prior to the event. They both earn awards points for participating.
• Now they decide to browse the books for a travel guide to Italy. They see that there are hundreds to choose from and and glad that like minded travelers have left reviews, and that the store has a reccomended reading list.
• After reading some of the reviews and investigating the traveouge of several of the reviewers, Delores still has a few questions.
• She connects to the online chat and engages in a delightful exchange with a young woman who was just in Italy last year. Delores now is con-fident in her book selection and has also decided to purchase a rail map as suggested by the service agent.
• After Frank and Delores have spent some time with their materials they look forward to returning to the site to purchase their rail pass and earn additional rewards.
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 10Personas and Scenarios
Persona: Retired Jet Setters
Barriers:
• Same old same—she wants something a little special, thought provoking—a unique experience.
• Poorly organized content that is not well tagged, hard to find, hard to get back to.
• Superficial marketing messages, over sell and hyped up content.
Profession: Sociology ProfessorIncome: $85k/yrAge: 47
Attributes:
• Katherine is an information junky, and wants to be an expert on the area she is traveling. She wants to know not only the best lodging, restaurants, and sight-seeing, she wants to immerse herself in the culture and live ‘among the people’.
• She will spend hours on end researching and digging for authentic cultural experiences outside of the tourist routes. She relies heavily on the writ-ings of like-minded people and is happy to take the time to share her experiences.
• Although the internet and technology play an important part of her daily life and in the preparation for the trip, she travels light and wants compact, unobtrusive gear. She’s willing to bring technology with her if it enhances her experience, but not to stay connected to her daily life.
• One who immerses herself in everything she does, Katherine will happily go to the store for purchases and talks, and is equally happy shopping and viewing online. There is as much joy in the planning of the trip as there is in being on the trip so she spends months researching, preparing and planning her trip and looks for as many avenues as she can to absorb information.
• In addition to the scholarly papers she publishes, she is happy to share her insights and experiences with the travel community and writes articles both on and offline. She is also an active contributor to the live presentations at ‘At Home Far Away’.
Katherine, a single mom with a grown son, is a sociology professor at UC San Diego. She
teaches the Fall and Spring semesters and has her summers off. Every summer she takes a 4-6 weeks to explore a
new culture. Although Katherine may spend a portion of her time on an organized tour, she is adventurous and wants
to experience the culture as natively as possible and looks for alternative lodgings and ways to explore. She trusts
her peers and looks for real people sharing their actual experiences. As a scholar she respects the advice from the
experts, but prefers travel advice from those that have ventured off the beaten path.
Triggers:
• Katherine wants to be stimulated and gets excited about planning a trip, but not in any kind of superficial way(excessive media, anima-tion)—simply the allure of a far away culture will draw her in. The mystic of travel is important.
• She wants lots of content and information about the best way to prepare, as well as the destination and culture itself.
• Access to additional resources that ‘At Home Far Away’ is not able to provide is valuable and appreciated.
• A robust community both online and offline. As a single woman Katherine enjoys connecting to the community and would appreci-ate a way to network with other single travelers.
• Well organized content presented in easily digestible levels of de-tail.
• The Fall semester is starting up and Katherie wants to finish docu-menting her recent trip to Africa. She logs into her account to update her travelouge. There are several reviews she wants to write about guides she hired and tucked away treasure they brought her to.
• When she finishes her reviews and uploads some of her photos, she pokes around the travelouge to see where other travelers have gone and learn about their experiences.
• There are a few like minded adventure travelers she has met through this service and she likes to keep up on their recent posts. Ken is cur-rently in Peru and Katherine becomes intrigued by his posts. She does a search for Peru to see what other travelers have to say. Some pretty interesting people and excursions are found, she tags and save them to her favorites.
• Peru is sounding pretty good for next Summer’s trip. She moves over to the affiliates section to see who has excursions to Peru. Overseas Adventure Travel has a backpacking trip to Machu Pichu that includes an optional Amazon River tour. These are tagged and saved to her favorites.
• Using the context sensitive sidebar external links, she goes about researching Machu Pichu and the Amazon River.
• Getting very excited now, she goes back to ‘At Home Far Away’ and searches for camping, hiking, and canoe/kayak equipment. She sees that both Ken and several others have reccommended a resaonably priced all weather sleeping bag.
• Too early to make purchases for next years trip, she tags and saves it to her favorites. Remembering that her friend Alex is preparing for a 2 week river rafting trip down the Colorado river, she sends him a link to the sleeping bag and invites him to create a profile so he too can share his adventures.
• Before leaving the site, Katherince submits an application to give an in-store presentation on preparing for safari.
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 12Personas and Scenarios
Persona: Scholarly Explorer
Barriers:
• Stodgey, boring design and static content.
• Barren community content, lack of community participation.
• Difficulty in retracing steps, or retrieving previously viewed or tagged content.
• Anything that is perceived as time consuming or not immediately obvious.
Profession: Marketing DirectorIncome: $120k + bonusesAge: 32
Attributes:
• It’s important for Daniel to stay abreast of advances in technology and to be active in online communities. When he finds a useful site or application he likes to exploit it completely and share it with his communities—to be the first, most, best, biggest, etc.
• He expects sites to be smart, data driven, and for technology to be taken advantage of. If data is collected in one place and useful in another, he expects there to be a connection. An unsophisticated use of technology is a turn off, he won’t be impressed and likely not to engage.
• As the marketing director, he is expected to be the one in the know at his company and people look to him for information, so he likes to share in real time his travel experiences—outcomes from business meetings, conferences, etc. Consequently and out of habit, he also enjoys sharing in real time his personal travels with friends and family.
• With such a busy schedule Daniel has little time to do research when planning travel. He wants information to be centralized, his findings stored and easily accessible when needed.
Daniel, engaged to be married to Fiona, is a marketing director for an advertising agency. He travels
for his business two to three days a week, one to two times per month. An early adopter, Daniel is always looking for
the next best thing in everything he does. If he could, he’d put his whole life into his iPhone, so is always looking for
iPhone apps to make his life easier. He and his fiancé, an international installation artist, are always on the go so stay-
ing connected while mobile is critical. If they can’t take it with them, it’s of little use. Daniel also travels abroad several
times a year in support of his Finona’s installations.
Triggers:
• Use of best practices and current trends i.e. ‘smart’ forms, auto complete searches, cross referenced tags between areas within the site, and pulling of live data from other sources where appropriate.
• Sleek, smart, forward thinking design, not just visually but also the experience and interaction.
• Use of mobile apps to enhance the site experience.
• Ways to gain recognition in the community and ease of sharing with friends within and outside of the ‘At Home Far Away’ com-munity.
• Daniel just got out of a client meeting in Manhattan. • If traveling somewhere new they are likely to speak directly with an agent, however are more likely to book directly online when traveling to a familiar place or cruise line.
• They are very knowledgeable about traveling and need less informa-tion than they do ways to make traveling more comfortable or luxuri-ous. They are highly motivated by finding the best deal and the best deal means the best overall experience, not the lowest price.
• To purchase a travel guide, luggage, or other travel gear they are more likely to purchase in the store directly so in-store incentives to visit the site are important. They will go to the site to browse, review and price compare, put prefer to touch and feel for final purchase.
• Staying connected to their loved ones is important and having internet access for email is a requirement to any travel experience.
• The internet is a compliment to their primary research through their personal network and agents. They like interacting with real people and want that same kind of feel online whenever possible.
• If traveling somewhere new they are likely to speak directly with an agent, however are more likely to book directly online when traveling to a familiar place or cruise line.
• They are very knowledgeable about traveling and need less informa-tion than they do ways to make traveling more comfortable or luxuri-ous. They are highly motivated by finding the best deal and the best deal means the best overall experience, not the lowest price.
• To purchase a travel guide, luggage, or other travel gear they are more likely to purchase in the store directly so in-store incentives to visit the site are important. They will go to the site to browse, review and price compare, put prefer to touch and feel for final purchase.
• They are very knowledgeable about traveling and need less informa-tion than they do ways to make traveling more comfortable or luxuri-ous. They are highly motivated by finding the best deal and the best deal means the best overall experience, not the lowest price.
• To purchase a travel guide, luggage, or other travel gear they are more likely to purchase in the store directly so in-store incentives to visit the site are important. They will go to the site to browse, review and price compare, put prefer to touch and feel for final purchase.
• Staying connected to their loved ones is important and having internet access for email is a requirement to any travel experience.
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 14Personas and Scenarios
Persona: Savvy Business Traveler
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 16Interaction Model
Findings:
Exploratory travelers that traveled the most preferred to deal with real human be-
ings when researching and booking. Travel rewards that included perks to make
travel more comfortable were important to this group and a big incentive on what
travel services they chose.
Task based travelers rely heavily on the internet for research and booking and
carry hand-held devices with internet access. They too are motivated by rewards
programs, but tend to focus on frequent flier miles and financially based incen-
tives.
Exploratory travelers who use the internet were a lot were more interested in re-
views, blogs, and online communities. Task based travelers tended not to be
interested in online communities.
Email as a primary form of communication ranked high for all types of travelers
and internet users.
Introduction:
The site is designed based on the initial business goals and the subsequent re-
search to back those goals. In order to reach the business goals of developing
a strong community and active use of the site to promote sales, certain offline
characteristics were determined necessary. Our research concluded there are
two main types of travelers, exploratory, and task-based. Exploratory travelers
and more likely to develop a strong relationship with the site. These travelers still
rely heavily on various travel agent services and real person interaction. Conse-
quently we felt that affiliations with these types of services and strong ties to the
in-store experience would be key in developing loyalty.
Features:
Merchandise
Trip Planning
User Account
Travelogue
Mobil Application
‘At Home Far Away’ Travel Site 18Interaction Model
Interaction Model
Mobile App
Overseas TravelAdventure
Rail Pass
Amex Travel
Webcasts*In-person*
*
TravelCompanion*
ExcursionReviews
*
Trip Planning
MemberSubmissions*
How-to/Tips Articles
and Videos
ExpertTravel
Articles Affiliate TravelPlanning Services*
PresentationCalendar
Shipping
Returns
Security/Privacy Policy
Customer Service
Live Chat
Internal LinksRelated Content
External LinksRelated Content(aggregated and
filtered RSS)
Shopping Cart
Context SensitiveNarrowing
Auto Suggestw/ photos
Staff
ContactCareers
AboutStore Locator
Sizing Guide
AttributeRanking
RateReview*
Sort by:datebest
worstuseful
MerchandiseReviews
*
Clothing
RecommendedReading
*
Accessories/Gear/Gadgets
Specials(clearance)
Books,Maps andTravel Guides
Merchandise
FeaturedItems
Photos
Blog/Tweets
Recommend: Restaurants
HotelsActivities
Travelogue*
Itinerary
Rewards
TaggedContent
WishListOrder History
and Tracking
My Account
GlobalSearch
FeaturedMemberTraveler
FeaturedArticle
SearchTrip Planning
SearchTravelogue
SearchMerchandise
atHomeFarAway.com