ZEIT

Your next adventure is in the past…

Most people doubted it, but the day has come– time travel is finally here!

After many years of ongoing debates, 280+ destinations of the past have been approved for time travel, and they’re only commercially available through a Germany-based company called ‘Zeit’. This life-changing experience is now at the tip of our fingers! Or it would be if only Zeit had a website…

Background

Overview

Potential customers are unfamiliar with the concept of time travel and have little knowledge of the company, possibly leading to skepticism

Problem

Zeit lacks a strong brand identity that effectively showcases its unique ability to combine contemporary and classical experiences

Project Goals

Empathize

Zeit and its product are both brand new and, therefore, unfamiliar to users. Due to how innovative the concept is, research was the most essential phase of the project! It helped me understand users’ current processes and pain points and in turn design solutions that are intuitive and user-centered.

Let’s Find Out…

Understand what’s important to people when it comes to booking a vacation and how they weigh these factors

Research Objectives

Determine how users build a sense of trust and loyalty toward unfamiliar tourism companies

Understand the process of successful online booking.

Research Methodology - Gaining Understanding!

Before deep diving into the project, I conducted secondary research to become familiar with the industry— including trends and tourism leaders’ strengths and weaknesses. Based on this information, I felt prepared enough to move on to user research and have quality conversations.

Conducted user interviews to really understand users’ current vacation-planning process and the things that really matter to them!

User Research Findings

Moved beyond the vast sea of users and onto the human using the product.

Empathy Map

Did this by grouping research findings through an Empathy Map, where I felt I really knew the users. Based on this, I created the user persona

Meet Sam!

“I want to go on a vacation that fits my budget and is so good that I can post nice pictures/videos on social media for friends and family to see. I hope to spark interest in those who see my post!”

Define

Now that I understood the users, I aligned the user, business, and technical goals of the project and identified intersecting goals.

Let’s get down to business!

Brainstorming solutions for user frustrations through Point of View (POV) & How Might We (HMW) statements

How might we….

Zeit’s competitors lacked price transparency and some overwhelmed users with unwanted information

Competitive Analysis

Now that I understood the users’ pain points, I analyzed what features and design patterns Zeit’s competitors were using and where they were lacking. I also conducted a competitive analysis measuring the usability level of each site. Based on these findings plus the synthesized research, I created a feature roadmap detailing the features the site should have and their respective priority level.

Fueled by the results from an open card sort, I structured the website's navigation and determined the optimal placement of content within it.

Information Architecture (IA)

Once it was clear what features were of utmost importance, I decided what the IA would look like by making a sitemap, which was driven by an Open Card Sorting exercise using the tool UXTweak.

Ideate

Created task and user flows based on the user research results. The task flow focused on ‘booking a stay’, a shared goal between the business and its users. This helped me visualize how their process and decisions affect the screens that they interact with and which ones are of utmost importance to complete their task.

User Flows

I made a Product Requirement sheet based on user flows, site maps, and select design patterns. This served as a checklist of necessary UI elements needed to solve user concerns. After this sheet was done, I began the wireframing process where iteration was constant and based on mentor and colleague feedback.

Wireframing

Prototype

Visual Identity

Interactive Prototype

Test

I wanted to know if the design solutions were actually solving the users’ problems as intended. To tackle this, I conducted a usability test and iterated accordingly!

Usability Test

All participants vacation at least once per year through OTAs.

Usability Test Results

“Professional, crystal clear, and easy to navigate!”

- users during usability test

Affinity Mapping

Post-Iteration Design

Takeaways

Throwing perfectionism out the window

This was my first case study and, as such, it came with many challenges that served as a source of growth. The most important learning has definitely been becoming comfortable with being in a state of constant work-in-progress. Whether it was while doing research, sketching up lo-fi-wireframes, or prototyping hi-fi designs, I was always receiving feedback from mentors, colleagues, and research participants. This helped me understand how amazing it is to have to iterate! It only means I’m closer to creating a solution that users and businesses both enjoy. It isn’t being in a constant state of “work-in-progress”, but a constant state of “growth”.

“Great design is the iteration of good design”

- M. Cobani

User Persona