Simpler Travels
An App for Traveling Parents
Traveling Support System
Simpler Travels supports parents on family vacations by reducing financial & physical stress.
Why Are Family Vacations Hard?
Family travel takes up 1/3 of the tourism industry. Despite that, businesses often overlook them:
Basic provisions (e.g. - cribs, high chairs) usually aren’t provided.
Sleeping arrangements are uncomfortable (hotels are rooms shared by people with different bedtimes).
Childcare is rarely available.
This increases parents’ workloads. They lug bulky, awkward equipment, have few breaks, and often end their trip more stressed than they began. This has caused a decline in family travel, predating COVID.
Improving the Problem Space
This was a solo UX Researcher and UX/UI Design project that spanned 4 months.
Discover
Research Plan Creation
Secondary Research
Screener Survey Writing/Distribution/Analysis
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Jobs to be Done
Heuristic Evaluation
Design
User Flows
Sketches
Wireframes
Wireflows
High Fidelity Rendering
Prototyping
Validate
In-Person Guerilla Testing
Participant Recruitment
Remote Moderated Usability Testing
Stakeholder Presentations
My Hypothesis
Most people take vacations to relax. This is hard for parents to achieve because support systems aren’t in place.
If parents’ workloads are reduced, they’ll enjoy their travels more. This will make them more likely to spend money on family tourism.
Surveys, user interviews, and usability testing supported this hypothesis.
Findings - A Sneak Peak
10 Moderated Usability Testers
Ages ranged from 28 - 51
70% women, 30% men
60% had 1 kid, 30% had 2, 10% had 3+
0-4 (54%), 5-9 (33%), 10-13 (13%)
80%
Said they’d use the app if it delivered
things on time
to the right place
in good condition
at a competitive price.
Brand Personality
Straightforward
Fun
Easy
Smart
Helpful
Simple to Use
Getting to Know Traveling Parents
Finding Them
Secondary research uncovered several pain points: affordability, lacking supplies, poor sleep arrangements, and minimal childcare.
I wrote and distributed a screener to find parents to talk to directly.
7 Days
Screener was open
108 Responses
Google Forms
11 Candidates
28-57 year olds living in the U.S.
Parents of 0-13 year olds
Interested in travel
69%
Take family trips at least annually
Surprises
Multiple bedrooms wasn’t the most important amenity.
Pools were more important than babysitting.
2/3 said travel is one of the most important parts of their life
Talking to Them
Eight parents shared their experiences. Struggles between being a couple and a family came up repeatedly.
They shared how important family vacations are, but most were hesitant to go on one any time soon.
One interviewee said “You have this vision that something is going to be super fun. Then you get home and you're like oh my God, I'm so tired. You start to question going places.”
Parents described family vacations as stressful, describing:
carrying heavy, awkward equipment.
spending nearly the same on kids meals as their own.
exhausting themselves trying to prevent their kids from disturbing anyone.
losing exploration time commuting to destinations.
balancing the weight of making core memories with struggling to find things everyone likes to do.
Parents shared intimate highs and lows of family vacations
“Seeing different cultures, trying different food, and expanding their universe is my job. I give them experiences so they can figure out life and who they are.”
— User Interviewee
“The places where something is thought of for you, or somebody makes something easier for you… that's really what makes it special.”
— User Interviewee
Synthesizing Their Thoughts
Parents are worn out from the work of family vacations
Parents need to bond, make memories, and seem amazing while keeping down costs and trying to relax.
HMW brainstorm
How Might We:
Help parents feel supported;
Lessen their workload; and
Give them breaks on family vacations.
What The MVP Addresses
Parents compensate for lacking amenities by
bringing supplies and equipment, and
spending lots of money on restaurants.
Now they can rent gear (e.g. - cribs, strollers) and purchase supplies (e.g. - diapers, groceries) to travel lighter and spend less.
The Competition
There’s no one-stop shop for gear and supplies. I analyzed Instacart, DoorDash, and Babyquip’s visibility of system status, match between system and the real world, and recognition rather than recall.
Instacart did well.
DoorDash had low priority room for improvement.
BabyQuip had high priority issues with reflecting system status and an urgent error prevention issue. Both could be resolved with improved shopping cart interactions.
Simpler Travels’ flows are similar to competitors to reduce cognitive load.
Initial Designs
Guerilla Testing Sketches
I walked up to parents in a Chicago daycare to guerilla test sketches of the app. I found:
People were excited about the app;
Price per count is helpful;
People appreciate a quick experience; and
Shoppers were getting stuck checking out.
Supply Purchasing Key Task Flows
Home
Search/Category
Search Results
Browse & Add Items
Item Description
Shopping Cart
Submit Order
Order Confirmation
Gear Rental Key Task Flows
Home
Calendar
Search Results
Item Description
Shopping Cart
Submit Order
Order Confirmation
High Fidelity Designs
Style Guide
Style choices were made to build feelings of support, trust, and friendliness.
Color Palette
Blue, purple, green, gray, red, and yellow
Slate
Blue is trustworthy and friendly. Purple is encouraging.
Teal
Green is safe and teal is relaxing.
Gray
Gray is supportive and helpful.
Salmon and Honey
Used for error states.
Fonts
SF Pro Text and SF Pro Display are used.
SF Pro
A trustworthy font and the iPhone industry standard.
Font sizes and weights were chosen for ease of readability.
Iconography
Outlined Icons
Outlined icons feel approachable.
Imagery
Photography
Photos feel supportive, friendly, and safe.
Key Screens
Home
Calendar
Item Description
Check Out
What Parents Thought
The research report on the first round of usability testing covers three critical issues, including confusion about:
scrolling;
the app’s purpose on first glance; and
gear delivery.
Other issues were accessibility related (e.g. - too small of images). Iteration resolved UI complaints and:
Introduced scroll bars.
Moved the “How It Works” section to the top of the home screen.
Added an explanation that Simpler Travels delivers and collects gear.
Data Driven Design
The second round had minor issues. Participants had some ideas:
Create user profiles for family members that make relevant packing suggestions.
Name and categorize orders
Compare items side by side
Connect with friends
8/10 participants said they’d use the app when traveling with their family. All test participants liked the simple, straightforward design.
Key Learnings
The first round of usability tests revealed some design shortcomings (e.g. - no scroll bar). Experiences improved dramatically in the second round. Ultimately users were delighted by the concept and execution.
To improve the screener survey:
I’d ask how many days trips usually last for added context.
When asking which amenities are most important, open a text box so people can explain what “other” means to them. Unfortunately I’ll never know what “other” meant to the 14.8% of respondents who selected it.
Travel amenity prioritization in the screener
Future iterations of the app would include family-friendly rides, lodging, and childcare. These would further enhance affordability and accessibility. Parents could focus on bonding and making memories instead of fearing a mountain of work ahead.
“The brand personality is sort of fun, smart, simple. The color scheme and graphics have a sort of young hip vibe for people who travel. People who are gutsy enough to travel with kids, and savvy enough to use an app to get the things they need.”
— Usability Test Participant
“This is a really cool app. I’ve never seen anything like this that’s geared towards helping families of young children travel. Thinking of needs they may have.”
— Usability Test Participant
Use the prototype or press play to watch it in action.