CHENGDU LAID-BACK MAP
A map app that enables tourists to explore the authentic Chengdu laid-back culture, tailoring a tour to users' interests and needs.
Opportunity
We synthesized our insights and started envisioning what we could do to satisfy our users' needs:
1. We could help our users schedule their trips and each day there will be different themes (e.g. traditional architecture trip, tea art trip, culinary art trip, etc);
2. We could select the most essential stops for our users so their trips are not packed with too many activities;
3. We could suggest to our users the optimal public transportation plan for their trips. Since Chengdu has over 15 metro lines, it will be easier to navigate through its metro and bus system;
4. We could provide our users with up-to-date reviews from locals so they could discover things in this very novel place.
Based on these findings, we generate a high-level concept for our product, a.k.a. our HMW statement:
Brainstorming
We started by researching our target audience and possible existing problems. We contributed our research findings to a collective ideation canvas. After rounds of iteration and discussion, we settled on the following ideas:
Provisional Target audience:
First-time travelers in Chengdu
Problems:
1. People do not know where to start researching when planning a trip to Chengdu;
2. Tourists are unable to understand Chengdu's slow-paced lifestyle due to the lack of immersive touring experience;
3. Tourists don't have enough knowledge and information to have an in-depth trip.
"How might we help first-time travelers in Chengdu discover things to do more efficiently while ensuring them a relaxing trip?"
For this project, our goal was to create a high-fidelity prototype for Chengdu Laid-back Map through rapid collaborative design operations.
Validated Persona
By synthesizing our key insights, we developed a validated persona as our user archetype. Some of his key needs are experiencing the local authentic culture of Chengdu or planning a trip without too much trouble. Some of his pain points would be not knowing where to acquire local reviews for particular attractions, etc.
As we progressed further into our product development, we made sure every design choice we made exactly aligned with his needs.
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Tourism in Chengdu
Inspired by the recent social media attraction around a Chinese city called Chengdu. After the first round of secondary research, we knew that this city is most famous for its slow-paced lifestyle, delicious Szechuan foods, rich Chinese culture, and pandas. Chengdu is becoming a city with high tourism potential. We then started ideating what kind of experience we can create for tourists ao they can explore Chengdu with ease.
When creating the primary mind map for our initial ideation, we decided to focus on the keyword "Slow-paced" as it keeps reappearing during the secondary research phase:
UI Sketches
With our main features settled, we started developing UI sketches for each feature. These concept sketches helped us figure out the low-fidelity wireframes for our app. Moreover, it gave us a sense of what our initial user flow would look like.
01. Exploratory Research
Wireframes
We developed these mid-fidelity wireframes to figure out where functionalities would appear, and how the different screens would be connected. We decided to create some more detailed wireframes to experiment with icons and different typefaces.
Final UI Design
Taking what we learned from the wireframe usability testing session, we made some changes to the final design. Changes such as adding an extra affordance/notification to keep the users informed. We also made some adjustments to our UI so it looks more cohesive and coherent. You can also view this prototype on Figma.
What I Learned
I appreciate this project because it allowed me to thrive and grow through a rapid collaborative design operation. Through this experience, I learned to wear multiple hats, manage and delegate work within a team as a designer and a user researcher. I gained a lot of skills regarding high-fidelity UI design, concept ideating, and user flow design.
This was a very enriching experience and our team does want to start considering the future of this product. We will conduct more concept testing and usability testing to make sure this product is actually useful to our target audience. Moreover, as a next step, we wish to develop similar products for cities around the world as this pandemic coming to an end and tourism returning to our sight.
With that being said, if you made it this far, thank you for reading my case study! I’m currently looking for new internship opportunities, and would love to connect if you're hiring for the summer of 2022!
Let's work on something exciting together!
User Interviews
With our provisional target audience in mind, we started conducting user research. Through user research, we wished to achieve the following objectives:
1. Figuring out if there's a demand for our product, a.k.a. if they want to experience Chengdu's slow-paced lifestyle.
2. Understanding what are the general needs and frustrations of tourists when they are at their travel destinations;
3. Figuring out their key behaviors such as what kinds of activity they prefer doing or favorite way of transportation.
We then interviewed 8 target audiences and categorized our interview findings and attempted to find patterns to generates a high-level concept (HMW statement) for our product:
Main User Needs & Frustration
By investigating our interview findings, we found out that there is a demand for our product since people generally yearn for a slow-paced lifestyle. Moreover, Chengdu advertises itself as a laid-back city, we think it would be appropriate to make an app to guide people to explore that aspect of Chengdu. The list below shows other key insights that would contribute to our final product:
1. People love to see things they do not normally see in a big city (e.g. traditional architecture or cultural practices);
2. People generally prefer doing less activities when they are traveling;
3. People usually plan their trip in advance but often do not know where to start;
4. The lack of information prevents tourists from having a pleasant trip (e.g. attraction opening hours, rush hours, things to explore, or local reviews).
Welcome to Chengdu
With our onboarding experience, users can have a comprehensive understanding of Chengdu culture and our service content
Itineraries & Attractions
Users can choose from three themed trips. For each trip, we provide them with essential attractions suggestions and navigation plans
Highlights & Reviews
We provide our users with the latest information they need to know about one attraction, as well as its local reviews
Collectibles
Users can unlock unique collectibles by visiting various attractions. Each collectible has a specific connection with its corresponded attraction
A map app that provides tourists with essential attraction suggestions, optimal transportation plans, helpful local reviews, and most importantly, a memorable touring experience in Chengdu.
03. User Research
04. Synthesis
"How might we help first-time travelers in Chengdu discover things to do more efficiently while ensuring them a relaxing trip?"
05. Concept Visualization
06. Early Development
07. Final Design
08. Reflection
Product Features
The Product
Project Overview
Why Chengdu?
Do you like pandas? If your answer is yes, then Chengdu is a place for you. As the largest giant panda protection and breeding center in the world, almost all the giant pandas were born here. This southwestern Chinese city recently gained its attraction as people started discovering its rich yet unique culture. From its delicious culinary art to its unique teahouse culture, besides giant pandas, there are many other things to see in this city.
Moreover, Chengdu is most famous for its laid-back lifestyle, when you walk on the streets, you will be amazed by Chengdu's easygoing and relaxing atmosphere. Needless to say, Chengdu has a huge tourism potential and we want to use this opportunity to motivate tourists to visit Chengdu and to explore its rich culture.
Background Information
Achievement
Users will be able to see all the attractions they've been to and craft their personalized map as a memorable souvenir
MY ROLE
SKILLS
TOOLS
TIMELINE
February - March 2022
4 weeks
User Research
UI Design
UX Design
Prototyping
Collaboration
Lead UX Designer
User Researcher
Prototype Developer
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Zoom
Mural
Slack
User Storyboard
We developed a user storyboard to contextualize how users would interact with our product in a real-life scenario. This storyboard depicted our users' key pain points and how our product could help them solve their pain points. It helped us envision what specific features we could implement into our product.
Features
Based on our user research findings, insights synthesis, and the concept we visualized, we decided to chose the features below and develop them into high-fidelity prototypes:
1. An onboarding experience to let our users know our service content and Chengdu's laid-back culture;
2. A three days, three themes approach to ensure that users can have an in-depth trip in Chengdu;
3. A guiding system that provides all the information our users need to know regarding one attraction (i.e. local reviews, attraction highlights, and navigation options);
4. An achievement mechanism to motivate them to visit the essential attractions we selected for them;
5. A slow-mailing postcard that records the places our users had been to so they can have a delay of gratification.
Itinerary Design
When designing a map, the most essential element of it was its route. Through extensive secondary research, we were able to design three routes that had three different themes for our users. In addition, we also took time researching what are the optimal transportation methods when going between each stop.
Don't Forget Your Souvenir!
Users will be able to print out or save their very own achievement map as a souvenir. They can keep it as their personalized souvenir since this postcard records the places they've been to and everyone travels a different route. In addition, users can also send this postcard through a service called slow-mailing, this service provides our users with a delay of gratification. By the time when they receive the postcard, they will recall the relaxing time they had in Chengdu.
02. Concept Ideation