RouteWise
A user-friendly travel itinerary generator that effortlessly plans seamless journeys for travelers.
RouteWise, meticulously crafted for explorers, simplifies travel planning and itinerary creation. Seamlessly merge destinations on an interactive map, optimizing itineraries for proximity. Bid farewell to planning complexities and embrace efficient, potential-filled journeys. Travel smart with RouteWise.
Problem Space
Frequent travelers need an efficient method for planning complex itineraries, as it can save them more time and ensure a smooth trip.
Problem Background
Nowadays, most travelers would prefer to plan their own trips themselves due to the flexibility of traveling time. In this case, an efficient and seamless itinerary will play a critical role, since traveling to a completely different country without any guidance and understanding of the local language can be daunting.
In order to create a customized itinerary, travelers usually start by gathering information from several platforms and pinning the destinations down on Google Maps. However, it doesn’t generate an itinerary for the users, and the users have to manually create their own itinerary based on the locations they pinned on Google Maps, which is time-consuming and might not have the best ideal schedule. Additionally, through our user survey, we discovered that when creating an itinerary, travelers are fear of missing out on popular traveling destinations. We would like to have suggested destinations popped out on the side when users are adjusting their itineraries. Therefore, the FOMO situation can be reduced.
People who love to travel often find joy in visiting new destinations. Yet, collecting and organizing multiple destinations on a map and creating an efficient itinerary can be time-consuming and challenging. Without a centralized and user-friendly solution, travelers may miss out on optimal routes, time savings, and a seamless travel experience.
Research Insights
User Pain Points
Time-Consuming Planning: 62% of the travelers find the process of planning a trip time-consuming and overwhelming. They often spend hours researching destinations, accommodations, activities, and transportation options.
Difficulty in Organization: 52% of the travelers indicates that keeping track of travel plans, reservations, and important details can be a significant pain point. Users often resort to scattered notes and emails.
Information Overload: Travelers are overwhelmed with a loads of information from various sources, making it challenging to filter and prioritize the most relevant details for their itinerary.
Lack of Personalization: Many travelers desire personalized recommendations and itineraries that align with their interests and preferences. One-size-fits-all solutions fall short.
Decision Fatigue: Choosing between multiple options for accommodations, restaurants, and activities can be mentally exhausting. Travelers often struggle with decision-making during the planning phase.
Supporting Data
All expressed a need for a more centralized planning platform
Feedback
Interactive Maps: The ability to see destinations and points of interest on an interactive map is a highly valued feature. It helps users visualize their itinerary geographically.
Customization: Personalization options, such as the ability to tailor itineraries to specific interests, dietary preferences, or accessibility needs, receive positive feedback.
Desire for Simplicity: Users appreciate a user-friendly interface that simplifies the travel planning process, making it accessible to travelers with varying levels of tech-savviness.
Solution Explanation
Generating a customized itinerary: An app/website that allows users to add destinations to the list and create a customized itinerary based on the traveling length and preference of the user
Saving time to build a time-efficient itinerary: Generating a most time-efficient itinerary based on the locations that the users add to the list.
Personalized Exploration: Begin the user journey with a brief survey to grasp preferences and hobbies, like whether one leans towards arts or sports. This information will tailor pop-up suggestions, minimizing the fear of missing out, and enriching the itinerary with locations aligned to the user's interests.
Lofi & Hifi Mockups
Based on our user research finding that 57% of our participants used a laptop or desktop computer as their primary device to plan their travel itinerary, we initially focused on designing and developing a web app for laptop and desktop devices.
The low-fidelity wireframe stage was crucial in generating and evaluating different interface solutions, particularly for the screens that delivered our core product value. Since one of the pain points travelers experience is becoming overwhelmed with managing the abundance of information they collect on the places they want to visit, it was important to focus on designing an interface that presented users with the most important information they needed for planning their trip without overwhelming the interface and user with visual clutter.
We recognized the importance of photos and visual imagery in the travel experience, and due to having limited control of some of the images that would appear in the product due to the API used for photos, a more minimal design and color palette were used to minimize any visual discord.
Learnings
Product Manager Learnings:
Cheryl Chen
My journey as a product manager has been a rewarding exploration of the art and science of creating meaningful solutions. One of the most profound lessons I've learned is that focusing on the problem space is the most critical part of the journey. By understanding the pain points and desires of our users deeply, we can craft products that truly resonate.
I've also discovered that the ability to break things into smaller pieces before solving them is a powerful skill. It allows us to approach complex challenges with clarity and precision, making them more manageable. In this role, I've come to appreciate the value of user-centricity, always striving to place our users at the heart of every decision. Feedback, whether positive or negative, is a treasure trove of insights, helping us refine our product continually. Effective communication has been another key learning, as it bridges the gap between technical teams, stakeholders, and end users, ensuring everyone is aligned.
Designer Learnings:
Jenny Jin
This project provided a profound understanding of the significance of working within constraints, fostering adaptability in design, and revealed pivotal areas for growth in my design trajectory. Crafting an MVP product under strict deadlines honed my ability to pinpoint essential design processes and principles while ensuring optimal value for our target users.
Embracing flexibility in features and design elements proved crucial in our agile and iterative design approach, emphasizing the importance of anchoring solutions around user needs. Lastly, this experience highlighted the skills I hope to enhance in my design journey, including building upon my visual design skills, communicating about design, and acquiring a deeper understanding of software development to facilitate seamless collaboration and communication with developers.
Developer Learnings:
David Ekunno
The biggest lessons I’ve learned during the Co.Lab experience are how to work in a multi-disciplined team and the usefulness of breaking down big projects into small goals. Working with a Product Manager, a Product Designer and a fellow Developer created a stream-lined process that allows each team-member to focus on their responsibilities and ultimately produce better work. I
learned the roles and responsibilities of a Product Manager and Product Designer, what it looks like in real-time and how to communicate with these Product roles to facilitate understanding of the coding process. We broke down the project into weekly goals and soft deadlines which was a fantastic way to keep everyone excited about the web application, but also not overwhelmed by all that has to be done.
Developers Learnings:
Kate Lueders
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One major takeaway for me was having exposure to the roles of Product Manager and Product Designer where I learned how their unique skill sets blend with those of a developer to create a useful, viable product. I was able to get a glimpse at what it takes to do market research, to conduct user surveys, to break down a product into user stories, and to think about how an application is designed for optimal useability. It was neat to see how all these tasks related to my own as the backend developer where thinking about user experience doesn’t seem to take precedence, but is ultimately the whole point of the product.
I also learned about time management and team collaboration for a development project. Each member has to be honest about their skillset, the expected timeframe of a task, and their opinion on the feasibility of certain features, so the PM can more effectively make decisions and steer the project in the right direction. Pair programming is hugely beneficial as well for solving development problems and maximizing the strengths of multiple developers.
In terms of technical skills, I gained more experience with Flask as a backend framework. It can be extremely flexible, but also leave a lot of decisions for the developer to make, which can make it challenging when designing the routes and database structure. Having a well-planned base from which to continue to iterate off of is so important. Structuring a more complicated relational database than I had done previously was also a fun and challenging task. All of these skills will be useful down the road in my career as a developer and as we continue to develop this product further.