Zeit Travel
A concept project for a time travel website
Timeline
3 months in 2022
My Role
Research
UI/Branding
Prototype
User Testing
Project Type
School Concept Project
How it began…..
As a student at Designlab, we were given concept projects to choose from to complete the end-to-end design process as sole designers while learning the concepts and process of UX design. I chose the Time Travel brief for three main reasons:
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I am interested in innovative technologies that are the first in the market.
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This would give me perspective on how to approach research when a product does not yet exist.
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It sounded exciting and I could be artistically creative!
Background Brief
The brief given explained that Zeit was a new technology of time travel that could take customers back in time. Time travel had been researched and fine-tuned for years and this company would be the first to offer time travel vacation packages. There were strict government safety regulations, 289 destinations, and visitors had to book either 7 or 14 day trips. The headquarters was in Germany, where customers would make their own accommodations to depart from the time travel machine at the Zeit headquarters.
Zeit Time Travel is the first of its kind; there is no direct competitive analysis for time travel, so user research and testing are key.
New technology, where do we start…..
Problems to Address
1
Determine potential user demographic since product does not exist in market
2
Create branding and logo to appeal to demographic of potential users based on research
3
Create an e-commerce website for customers to book time travel packages
Empathize
Addressing the problems…..
Methodologies I used:
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Indirect competitive analysis
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Secondary research
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User Interviews
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Provisional Personas
Why those methods you ask?
Started with Competitive Analysis
Even though the product does not exist, it is still important to analyze what popular travel sites are being utilized and what their strengths and weaknesses are through competitive analysis to examine functionality and features to address problem 3 (creating a website to book trips). After all, we are still creating a site for booking trips…just a lot more adventure!
Competitive Analysis Key Findings
Summary
Zeit is the first of it's kind time travel tourism so there are no direct competitors. There are secondary and indirect competitors that offer adventurous trips/excursions, package deals, and one of a kind experiences that are comparable to what Zeit will offer.
Trends
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Decent refunds
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Customizable packages
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Adventure and extreme excursions advertised frequently
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Sales, good deals, and VIP memberships offered
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Great imagery and videos to highlight trips
Next, I Created Provisional Personas
Provisional Personas helped answer problem 1 (who the users were). After creating hypothetical personas, I would find those demographics to interview and narrow down the true user personas based on real interviews.
Then, I Interviewed Real People
I addressed the idea of adventure and new technology of time travel through user interview questions. I also used image sorting to assess emotional reactions to new, old, adventurous, and risk taking photos to gauge users feelings toward safety and risk. These reactions helped address problem 2 (branding and imagery for the website).
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Interviewed 4 participants
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Frequent travelers
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Ages 25-63
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Questions about their travel booking habits, companies they prefer, experiences with travel packages, pet peeves when planning and how they feel about new technology and adventure
What I heard...
"I'm definitely interested in time travel, but I have to know how it works first." - Participant 2
"I think trusting a company is my priority for something this extreme. Transparency about price and trust." - Participant 4
Interview Key Findings
Participants' Likes
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All participants enjoyed looking at pictures and especially videos about future trips
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All wanted to try new things, explore, discover, and unique experiences
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Participants wanted good deals, but did not trust bundle and save options as best deals
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Culture and history intrigued all participants when traveling
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All preferred trips as couples, but not in groups for ease of coordinating
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*Image Sorting showed favor for outdoor adventure scenes like mountains and monuments for all participants.
Participants' Pain Points
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Overall, participants did not like the logistics of planning details, such as price, times, dates, etc.
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Do not like details overwhelming site pages. They want access to details, but do not want to have to read everything before booking. Too much text = Negative
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Do not trust “bundle and save” package deals. They all felt like they could find better deals themselves
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Do not like coordinating trips for multiple people
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Do not like pop up ads
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Do not like fluctuating prices pressuring you to “buy now”
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*Image sorting showed futuristic images and extreme sports (potentially dangerous) as dis-favorable to all. Participants were not particularly interested in black and white photos.
Putting it all together
We'll start by introducing Chris. Chris is our User Persona designed to keep the user in mind. Chris will be the guiding light while building out all of the features.
Define
Creating a Plan
I created a feature Roadmap to plan the most important features, down the line to what can come later. Given this is a school concept project, it was a good way to learn prioritizing features and therefore understanding timelines. Although the timelines faced were not as realistic as if working on a live team, there were still deadlines, obstacles, and many lessons learned on prioritizing.
With Chris in mind, I started to sketch...
The forefront sketch was chosen because it put the explanation of the technology and the process of time travel before booking which was what users wanted.
And some responsive wireframes of the landing page...
Responsive design was important because many users were avid travelers and always on the go. Mobile booking would be important.
But we needed more than just a landing page...
Site Map
Considering the project brief, I decided the most important goal for the company and user was for a customer to book a trip seamlessly. I also felt it would give me the most experience designing design patterns like filters for booking.
Task Flow
User Flow
Wireframes for Task Flow
Ideate
With the guts out of the way, we needed a little style...
Branding was defined by user interviews and image sorting to understand the users ideas of innovation and history. They loved beautiful imagery and some futuristic design, but nothing too unfamiliar. They were a little uncomfortable with industrial looking technology. They loved the thought of historical places and time travel, but were turned off by black and white photos.
I used historical descriptions and historical locations but modern colored photos. I kept the innovative feel by using color gradients and subtle themes without being too intimidating. Tried to capture the “experience” as opposed to just traveling since experiences were the most valued among all user interviews.
Prototype
Now let’s try it out.….
Test
Testing, 1, 2, 3.….
I did user testing with the above prototype. I tested these tasks:
1. Test the ease and efficiency to find trips of interest
2. Test clarity of navigation for selecting date range to filter trips
3. Watch for pain points, hesitation, and confusion in users
4. Do users have enough information or interest to follow through with booking
With these participants:
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4-6 participants
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20-65 years old
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Frequent travelers who use sites like Airbnb and Priceline
Iterate
Back to the drawing table...
Test
Let’s try that again.….
The changes...
New Design
The new design simplifies the filter system.
Users can search by trip type OR by
date range but do not have to input both criteria
Old Design
The old design was complicated for users to select a trip category and date range. And I eliminated the search function that was confusing testers.
Expand the slide to see all changes
Next steps.….
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Test new prototype
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Build out the rest of the website pages and features
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Send to developers
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Take a trip back in time!
Lessons learned...
Even though this was a concept project, I took the brief seriously and focused on user research. I gained insight into how to approach a new product that has not been on the market before. Keeping innovative ideas secret while still getting users' perspectives was challenging but important.
More search options are not always better, users like simplicity and choices without having to input too many criteria.
Early prototype testing, as well as testing early wireframes, saved time in the long run.
I learned that my creative ideas are not always simple to implement. Working with a developer on my future projects will give me better knowledge, experience, and understanding of what is feasible on different scales of projects.
