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Yijia (Pippa) Lei

Journius - Plan Smart with Your Travel Butlers

A Travel Planning App for International Students in The United States

Branding

Product Design

Mobile App

Project Type

Class oriented project focusing on building a brand for traveling.

  • Individual Project

  • UX Designer

  • Product Designer

  • Graphic Designer

Feb 2023 – May 2023

My Team

My Role

Timeline

Problem Statement

93.5%

Of people would travel during their stay in the United States.

A big portion of students plan their own trips before traveling. However, some factors can be obstacles preventing them from their expectations. Those factors include Time Consuming, Hard to Make A Choice, and Too Much Effort. With the eagerness to improve users' experience before the trips start, a brand Journius is here to help address users' pain-points, fulfill their goals, and improve their motivation.

Nearly 1Millions international students who are currently study in the United States

Project Over view

Journius, a brand focus on providing personalized solution based on the international students' traveling needs. I was responsible for establishing a clear outline for the brand development from reseach to final prototype visulization.

Process
Outcome

There are 31 responses from international students.

SURVEY

Totally 3 interviews conducted.

INTERVIEW

  • Want to get full control of trip planning

  • Have their own personalized experiences

MOTIVATIONS

  • Time consuming in doing research

  • Hard to compare choices and prices

  • Planning within budget

  • Hard to make a choice

FRUSTRATIONS

Research
Key Aha

  • 96.6% of people plan their own trips

  • > 50% of people consider their budget moderate in between $50 and $1,000 per week.

  • People preferred a more completed and easy way to gather information

  • Friends' Recommendation, social medias, and travel agent website are the most frequently used tools.

Persona

Mei Li

24

Student

Young Adult

TASKS

FRUSTRATIONS

MOTIVATION

GOALS

  • Plan trips herself

  • Look for cheaper options for flights and accommodation.

  • Too overwhelming while doing research

  • Time consuming

  • Exploring new cuisines,

  • To visit new city

  • To take a rest from school

  • Want to make the right decision

  • Want to have a personalized trip

  • Try to keep the cost lower

Li Mei is an international student who staved in the United States for 2 years.

She is a travel enthusiast who like to travel once/twice a year, but is restricted by time and money.

Too Much Infomation At Once

  • Flights and Hotels

  • Event that want to attend

  • Restaurants' reservation

  • Tickets of local sites

  • Weather of the destination

  • Flights and Hotels' information

  • Friends' recommendations

  • Influencers/bloggers' notes of relevant trips

Almost Done, and I am Ready To Go!

So Excited abou the trip

Li Mei want to enjoy her Spring break for a week. She want to go somewhere by the sea because she likes the vibe of summer and beach.

  • Taking notes for the gathered insights

  • Type in schedule in a calendar

  • Preparation for what to bring

PLANNING

RESEARCH

BOOKING

Storyboard (Before)
White Spaces

In the desk research phase, the current products(website/mobile app) have distinguished traits in their own fields. However, there are multiple areas that they are uncovered. 

  • Expedia and Priceline provide cheaper prices in booking tickets for hotel, flights, and attractions. 

    • Intermediary between customers and flight/hotel's official website

    • Restricted rules and terms for customer to understand

    • Offers and Deals can be more expensive from the original websites

  • Xiaohongshu, Reddit and Instagram encourage people to post their own story and suggestion of their trips on the platforms.

    • Different categories beside traveling

    • Viewers cannot organize their favorite suggestions/insights

    • Cluttered information

    • Viewers can comment on, like, and collect the posts

    • Difficulty in compare and constract the posts

  • Notes, map, camera, and Splitwise assist people to personalize their own trips in the ways of notetaking, video recording, and budgetting.

    • Jumps among different types of apps

    • Difficulty in remembering things in sequences

PERSONALIZED PLANNING

INSIGHT GATHERING 

TICKET BOOKING

Golden Circle
Naming & Tagline
Branding Design
Workflow
Wireframe

The wireframe and work flow explain how the mobile app work to assist international student travelers. ​

INSPIRATION

  • Inspiration portal covers recommendations from users' responses of the questionnaire

  • It covers insights from other people' post

    • Destination​

    • Hotel

    • Foods

    • Attractions

  • New users use questionnaires to determine their preferences in traveling

  • Affect the inspiration's contents

  • Can be added to collections by the users 

QUESTIONNAIRE

USER PORTAL

  • Calendar

  • Planning

  • Collections

HOME 

  • Recommendation of notes and posts

  • Suggestions based on the responses of questionnaires.

Prototypes

Questionnaire

Home + User portal

Inspiration + Ticket Booking

Future Expansion

  • Flight tickets

  • Hotel tickets

  • Attractions

  • Planned routes

  • Guide

  • Restaurant choices

WHAT MIGHT BE INCLUDED IN THE PACKAGE?

SUPRISE TOUR PACKAGE

  • Users would be able to pick a theme that they are interested in.

  • AI Analyzes the saved preferences for each user

  • Provide a tour package according to the Al analysis and users' choices.

Mei downloaded the app on her phone.

She log-in to her user portal and find some traveling tips from her favorite traveling bloggers/influencers.

She is inspired by the locations/activities in the notes, so she collected the notes into her collections.

Then it is her turn to pick a flight and book it.

She can view her booked tickets or drag the information her collected into the planning panels.

After she finished weiting down her planning notes, she is ready to go for the trip!

Storyboard (After)
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