VoyageVault
Roles
Designer, researcher
Methods
Visual design, prototyping, user research, user analysis, task analysis, risk analysis
Tools
Figma
Background
Travelers often report that the most significant challenge they face is navigating the overwhelming amount of information and choices available when planning a trip. Searching for travel accommodations, attractions, rentals, lodging, and special offers requires considerable time and effort. Moreover, the presence of numerous specialized travel apps, each catering to a specific need, can add to the confusion. This fragmented approach overlooks the importance of personalized trip planning. To address this issue, there is a need for an app that consolidates a wide range of travel requirements into a single, user-friendly platform.
Research
Research Objective
Travelers often face the cumbersome task of creating their own itineraries, which requires extensive time and effort. This process involves searching multiple websites and reviewing feedback from other travelers. There is a clear need for an AI-based solution that can generate personalized itineraries tailored to each user's specific needs and interests. Our research aims to identify the challenges travelers encounter when using trip planning applications and to evaluate the user experience and effectiveness of incorporating an AI-driven itinerary planning feature into a travel app..
Research Methods
To achieve our research objective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 participants who have varied age ranges and significant travel history (averaging three trips per year). The interviews were conducted via Zoom and lasted between 10-15 minutes each. With the participants' consent, the interviews were audio-recorded, and detailed notes were taken,
We prepared a set of 12 key questions to maintain focus on the interview objectives, with additional probing questions asked as needed to gather more in-depth insights. After the interviews, key points from the notes and audio recordings were compiled and organized into an affinity diagram for further analysis.
Research Findings
Budgeting
Finding affordable options and sticking to budgets is difficult.
Logistics
Aligning activities and managing bookings is time-consuming.
Collaboration
Coordinating with companions and satisfying group preferences is challenging
Discovering Destinations
Hard to find unique, authentic spots beyond tourist traps
Current Methods
 • Recommendations from friends, family, and blogs dominate travel advice
 • Heavy reliance on Google, travel sites, and social media apps like Instagram and TikTok
Desired Features
1. Personalized Suggestions
Tailored activity ideas with room for spontaneity

2. Filtering & Bundling
Search by date/price and book everything in one place

3. Group Tools
Shared planning and communication features
Preferences & Current Travel Apps
Itineraries
Day-by-day plans with flexibility for spontaneity

Most Popular Travel Apps
Airbnb, MakeMyTrip, Apple/Google Maps, Booking.com
Overview of the VoyageVault App
Are you tired of navigating multiple websites to curate your perfect travel itinerary? Look no further. Introducing VoyageVault, an AI-powered personalized travel companion designed to elevate your trip planning experience. VoyageVault aims to address common challenges faced by travelers, including budgeting, scheduling, organizing, and discovering new places. By integrating AI, the app provides personalized recommendations, making trip planning more efficient and enjoyable.
Key Features
VoyageVault simplifies the travel planning process by offering an all-in-one platform that creates unique and personalized itineraries based on your specific needs and preferences
1. Personalized Itineraries
After logging in, users answer a few questions that prompt the app to generate a tailored itinerary
2. Centralized Information
All the information you need about your destination is located within the itinerary, including transportation, travel tips, places to go, and more
3. Comprehensive Booking
Users can view all their bookings—accommodations, flights, restaurants, activities, and more—directly within the app
Design
Risk Analysis
We identified risks in the app VoyageVault and the mitigations applied to ensure a seamless user experience.
User Needs & Requirements
Identified user needs include concise and organized information, efficiency, holistic views, versatility, and easy information retrieval. These needs translated into product requirements such as a centralized landing page, AI-generated text summaries, self-efficacy representation, customizability, and note-taking/export features.
Ideations
Brainstormed features included AI-generated text summaries, self-efficacy visualizations, customizable dashboards, and efficient information retrieval tools to aid advisors in understanding students holistically and efficiently.
Analysis
Task Analysis
A detailed task analysis mapped out an advisor's experience using SeeDegree, identifying physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects to improve the user experience.
Physical Task Analysis
Emotional Task Analysis
Cognitive Task Analysis
Risk Analysis
A risk analysis identified potential issues, such as inaccurate student information and misinterpretation of reports, and developed strategies to mitigate these risks.
Wireframes
Customizable data graphics show self-efficacy and importance for the group-level report
Our initial concept for the individual report. The left panel shows the student’s demographic information, the AI-generated summary of the student based on the survey, as well as the self-reported strengths and areas for improvement for the student.
Analysis
Usability tests were conducted with five advisors to evaluate the prototype. Participants completed tasks using the Figma prototype, and feedback was gathered on their experiences and suggestions for improvement.
The usability tests conducted on the initial prototype highlighted several important insights into its functionality and user experience.
Participants encountered challenges with navigation, particularly in finding their way back to the home screen or accessing specific resources for users, adding and viewing charts, sharing and archiving pages, and recording and exporting notes.
Despite these usability issues, participants generally expressed positive impressions of the product. They appreciated features such as the notes section and the ability to view both group and individual reports.
To enhance usability, participants recommended improving navigation cues and design elements and providing clearer instructions for features like note-taking and exporting.
The findings from the usability tests were used to further refine our prototype.
Research Findings
The research findings from our user interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis have provided valuable insights for improving our initial prototype for the SeeDegree advisor-side interface.
Key Findings
Advisors need a holistic view of their students.
Importance of understanding students’ self-perceptions, challenges beyond academics, and overall sense of belonging.
Need for the prototype to go beyond simply displaying raw survey data.
Implementation Suggestions
Incorporate AI-generated student summaries that synthesize survey responses and identify key themes.
Integrate self-efficacy metrics prominently within student profiles to provide advisors with a deeper understanding of students’ confidence levels in different areas.
Information Presentation and Customization
Importance of clear and organized information architecture, with easily accessible tabs for individual and group reports.
Allow advisors to prioritize the data they find most valuable for understanding their students.
Enable advisors to tailor their experience to their individual advising styles and student needs
Usability Test Findings
Clear Navigation and Information Presentation
Implement a prominent and consistent navigation bar across all pages to ensure users can easily return to the main page.
Enhance the notes feature by allowing advisors to access and reference past notes within individual student profiles.
Individual and Group-Level Reports
Adopt a more positive framing, using terms like “opportunity for growth” instead of “weaknesses.”
Replace circular confidence vs. importance graphs with a more universally understood thermometer format.
Additional Functionalities
Add an export button for individual reports to allow advisors to easily share reports with colleagues or students.
Incorporate a dedicated “add notes” button within individual profiles to enhance clarity.
Propose a zoom function for graphs in group-level reports to address concerns of small text size (not implemented in the prototype due to Figma limitations).
By incorporating these refinements based on user testing, we aimed to create a more intuitive, user-friendly, and informative experience for advisors utilizing the SeeDegree platform.
Final Design
Dashboard
The redesigned dashboard serves as a central hub for advisors, offering a clear and organized starting point for their advising tasks. A prominent navigation bar is consistently visible across all pages, allowing advisors to easily return to the dashboard and access other sections of the platform. The dashboard's well-structured layout includes sections for quick statistics and a schedule of upcoming meetings, providing advisors with an overview of their student advisees at a glance. This design facilitates efficient navigation to specific student data, streamlining the advising process.
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Individual Report
Individual student reports are designed to give advisors a holistic understanding of each student. Upon accessing a student’s report, advisors are presented with a concise AI-generated summary at the top of the page, synthesizing the student’s survey responses and highlighting key themes. This allows advisors to quickly grasp the student’s overall sentiment and situation. Below the summary, the report includes student demographics, self-reported strengths and opportunities for growth, and self-efficacy metrics displayed in a visually appealing thermometer format. The terminology “weaknesses” has been replaced with “challenges” to encourage a more positive framing of student development areas. Additionally, the notes feature has been enhanced, allowing advisors to create, store, and access past notes directly within the student’s profile, eliminating the need to navigate to a separate page and streamlining the information retrieval process.
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Overall Self-Efficacy
The overall self-efficacy view displays both the importance and confidence for each domain. The design has been revamped from circular graphs to bar-shaped "thermometer" graphs, providing a clearer comparison between confidence and importance across domains. Additionally, resources for each domain are accessible via a dropdown menu, making it easier for advisors to explore relevant support materials.
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Notes Feature
Based on user testing feedback, a notes feature was added that allows advisors to take notes directly within a student's report during meetings. New notes are automatically tagged with the meeting date and the student's name for easy reference. Additionally, these notes can be accessed through the individual reports database, streamlining the process of reviewing and managing student information.
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Group-Level Report
In response to feedback on information presentation, the group-level reports page now offers advisors greater control over the data they view. A customization feature, accessed via a chart editor pop-up, allows advisors to tailor the display to the specific needs of their advisee groups. For instance, an advisor might choose to focus on self-efficacy in critical thinking or explore areas where students report needing the most support. While the current presentation of graphs and charts is maintained, future iterations of the SeeDegree platform could include interactive features that allow advisors to delve deeper into specific data points, pending further user research and development to ensure an intuitive, user-friendly experience. The group-level report also retains the ability to export data, enabling advisors to share reports with colleagues or external stakeholders.
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Resources
The resources section offers advisors a curated list of student support services and relevant materials, all conveniently located within the platform. Usability testing results guided the optimization of navigation to ensure advisors can easily access and utilize these resources to better support their students. The specific resources available will vary depending on the university or institution using SeeDegree, providing tailored support based on institutional needs.
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