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Mockup of Ecotravel app on mobile and desktop website

Ecotravel

Giving users the information they need to make informed
sustainable travel choices

OUTCOME        High-Fidelity Prototype and Investor Pitch Presentation 

       SCOPE        11 Week Project - Team of 5 Designers (Remote- UK, Greece, India)

  MY ROLE        Primary: Scrum Master/Project Manager and User Research

      TOOLS         Miro, Figma, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator 

Please Click below to view the final investor pitch deck.  

My Role and Contributions

My primary role was Project Manager/Scrum master and User Researcher, however I also contributed to the UX/UI design, pitch presentation and was the video editor.  My contributions included:

  • Implementation of an adapted Agile Scrum project management technique, with continuous planning, organisation and scoping for a remote, globally distributed team of five designers. 

  • User interviews and surveys, market research, data analysis, affinity maps, and took part in usability testing. 

  • Information Architecture, user flows, wireframes and hi-fi screens of two flows through the app in Figma, working with the team design system. 

  • Worked on the final pitch presentation (Slides, Script, and video editing)

The Problem

Consumer demands are changing as the prospect of severe climate change edges closer. Our research has shown the desire for sustainable travel options is increasing amongst consumers, despite tourism-related pollution looking set to increase 25% by 2030. The change in tourism caused by the pandemic is the perfect time for a shift in the industry, however there is currently a lack of reliable information and convenient ways to find sustainable tourism options.

The Solution

Ecotravel is an all-in-one sustainable tourism app that will allow users to easily discover sustainable accommodation, activities and local transport around their chosen destination, and receive alternative suggestions by AI. Users will also be able to track their emissions, set goals to lower their impact and receive points as they hit targets.

User Research

Alongside desk research looking into the current sustainable travel market, we set up user interviews and an online survey to capture first party data. From this research we gathered quantitative data from 28 responses on the google forms survey, and qualitative data from three user interviews. 

Affinity map diagram from research

Unexpected challenge - 'The flyer's Dilemma' 

When we started the project, looking for ways to lower carbon emissions, travel to holiday destinations was our initial target. However air travel is engrained in modern day life, and currently has few affordable and convenient alternatives that are viable for the average person. This was especially important to our users who viewed cost and convenience as their main blocks to sustainable living. 

The way forward

This issue caused us to shift focus slightly. Both online surveys and in-person interviews aligned in showing us that users wanted an app to help them vacation sustainably (87% would an app for this purpose) with the focus being on accommodation options, activities and local transport options (each chosen by 63% or more of our participants). Other key needs was an understandable and quick scoring system for sustainable options, a carbon tracking system that did not require a lot of effort, and goals and incentives. 

With the data from the user interviews synthesised into an affinity map and, with survey data analysed, we created the persona of 'Sam' to personify these needs. 

Ecotravel persona of Sam

User Flows and IA

At this point, we had a solid understanding about the direction the app should take in order to meet the users key needs and how it could tackle key sustainability issues. Using our competitor analysis as a precedent for successful app layout, we moved onto user flows. The following flows for 'accommodation' 'Footprint tracker' and 'Home' were created after multiple rounds of iteration and team feedback. Breaking the app up into smaller flows made it less overwhelming and easier to understand, whilst also including more detail and making it ready to split up across the team, ready for development into wireframes. 

We distilled the user flows down into an easy to understand sitemap of Ecotravel, ensuring that each team member knew what they were going to work on for wireframing, before reforming to create a hotspot prototype ready for usability testing. 

Ecotravel Pitch Presentation

Voice Over (By Order of appearance):

Lavina Chhabra, Andreas Andreadis, Steeve Royce, Alex Bacoyannis and Ryan Oliver

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