Overview
This project was part of a Masters’ program offered by the faculty of the Specializing Masters in User Experience Psychology at poli.design and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. The task was to complete a project under the theme “The future of travel”, and in our case, more specifically “the future of group travel”.
Masters’ Degree project (Conceptual)
5 months
Role
My role was to help my team with UX research (competitive audit, ethnography interviews), UX/UI design in terms of creation of user flows, wireframes, and design and usability testing. This project was part of a Masters’ program offered by the faculty of the Specializing Masters in User Experience Psychology at poli.design and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.
How might we enhance efficiency in planning a trip for a group that includes different actors?
Research
To kickstart our project, we first aligned on the research methodologies crucial for the UX process. We conducted interviews with 12 individuals aged between 18 and 30, who had prior experience traveling with friends. Questions revolved around decision-making in trip organization, motivations, expectations, planning processes, group dynamics, tools used, and the impact of COVID-19 on travel. After gathering data, we analyzed it by debriefing individually and collectively, identifying patterns and common concepts to create two personas.
In summary, Alex, a travel enthusiast with limited time, relies on someone like Jessie to plan group trips post-pandemic. Although not heavily involved in planning, Alex desires a quick and efficient means of communication with group members.
On the other hand, Jessie aims to travel to meet new people, experience different cultures, and enjoy life with friends. As the primary organizer, Jessie needs streamlined communication for real-time feedback and approval from friends.
Following persona identification, we depicted their journeys in a customer journey map, highlighting steps, touchpoints, pain points, and opportunities. This facilitated understanding of challenges faced by personas and areas for focus. The challenges uncovered are:
Time is lost trying to find the best option suitable for everyone
Long wait time for feedback on plans
Members of group might want to split for different activities
Insufficient platform for communication, causing difficulty to manage collaboration between group members on trip preferences
And we concluded that we should create a product that can:
Make the decision-making process faster, easier and efficient
Create a community where people can view ratings about destinations/attractions to become inspired
Invite everyone to have input (organizers & participators)
Allow for compromise.
Design
This led us to the concept of the app FLOCK. Inspired by the term "flock" (a group of birds traveling together), FLOCK is a collaborative group travel organizer designed to make decision-making for group trips interactive, entertaining, and engaging through the use of AI and gamification. We identified core features and created user stories to illustrate these functionalities.
Collaborative board
As a trip organizer, I want a platform where I can collaborate with my group members and receive input on my ideas, so that I don’t have the responsibility of organizing everything alone and without feedback.
AI
As a trip organizer, I want a tool that could help me keep track of my group’s preferences so that I know what to look for in terms of things to do that will satisfy everyone.
Gamification and Voting Poll
As a member of a group, I want to have a productive planning process so that we can be effective in planning and have a great time during our trip, free of bumps in the road.
Once we had our concept, we developed the information architecture and user flow, sketching out our frames to create low-fidelity wireframes that brought our findings to life. We concentrated on the key screens to highlight the main features of our app.
After conducting comprehensive UI research, we established a strong design identity that guided the development of our high-fidelity prototype. Our objective was to strike the perfect balance between familiarity and innovation, ensuring the app feels intuitive while introducing fresh flows and concepts that set it apart from what has been done before. Below are videos that showcase the key features and interactions of our prototype, highlighting the app’s key moments.
Usability Testing
After presenting our prototype to the Masters’ board, we began testing our product to identify what worked and what needed improvement. We started with card sorting to ensure the main themes of our app were easily recognizable. We asked six users to organize categories as they would when planning a trip and to specify their expectations for each category. Most responses aligned with our design, indicating a shared understanding, though some users had different perspectives, which we explored for potential integration.
We then conducted a cognitive walkthrough using the "thinking out loud" method with six users, assigning them specific tasks to observe their completion process. The tasks included:
1. Complete the onboarding
2. Create a trip and invite friends
3. Select preferences
4. Vote for a destination
5. Choose activities
6. Add an activity to the itinerary
7. Find information about the destination
8. Use the app during the trip
9. Locate the leaderboard and achievements
We separated the results into two categories: appreciated elements and possible improvements.
Our project ended here since we were supposed to go through the UX process as a whole. We didn’t manage to rework the app because of limited time.
Obstacles
Our main challenges were time constraints and team dynamics. With limited time, we prioritized key areas to deliver an impactful app. While collaboration was strong with some team members, varying engagement levels required extra effort to stay aligned. Despite this, we remained committed and delivered a product we were proud of.
Reflections
This project pushed me beyond my comfort zone, demanding a critical and innovative perspective. Despite the limitations within our group, we developed a solid concept with real potential to become a functional app. The journey was challenging, exciting, and at times nerve-wracking, but incredibly rewarding. It allowed me to apply everything I learned during my Master’s degree to navigate the full UX process.
Created with blood, sweat, love and tears.
© 2025 Michele Sabty. All Right Reserved.