Kindling

A responsive website designed to help less-experienced travelers access California’s national parks.

DURATION
4 WEEKS
(FEB - MARCH 2023)

MY ROLE
USER RESEARCH
IDEATION
WIREFRAMING
PROTOTYPING
USER TESTING

TOOLS
FIGMA
OTTER.AI

PROBLEM

California houses the most national parks over any other state—nine in total. This doesn’t even include the additional 20 protected national forests that are scattered all throughout the state. Visiting these beautiful sites is a dream for many, however accessing these remote places is not always convenient nor feasible for all. At minimum, one often needs a reliable vehicle, the appropriate gear, and also to possess a basic knowledge of outdoor safety and etiquette.

SOLUTION

I designed a responsive website that will allow travelers of varying degrees of experience to easily access the many ethereal landscapes of California via a small shuttle service. Kindling allows travelers to tailor their specific interests into a curated trip, then reserve their spot through an intuitive and straightforward booking process.

EMPATHIZE

RESEARCH

Because I was not previously well-familiar with the bus travel industry, it was important to first conduct secondary research. I quickly learned that directly accessing national and state parks is neither easy nor always feasible, especially with the leading bus companies here in the US (Greyhound, FlixBus).

I then utilized competitor analysis to gain further insight into where each of these companies both shine and fall short.

The core of my research, however, was centered around one-on-one user interviews with people of varying degrees of outdoors-experience. I aimed to learn about past travel methods and any prior experience with public transportation, as well as the process people go through when initially deciding on their destination.

KEY INSIGHTS

Despite having varying levels of outdoors-experience, a number of commonalities still existed amongst my participants:

  • Conducting prior research for any trip is crucial. Users want to feel as prepared as possible.

  • Past negative transit experiences were due to busses making many stops, rides being generally uncomfortable, and still not dropping you off close to your destination.

  • Tour guides can be so useful and informative; wishes bus drivers could also double as guides.

DEFINE & IDEATE

OPPORTUNITIES & PERSONA

Based on my research, I crafted two personas with the intent of prioritizing Nico, our less experienced nature traveler who needs a bit more guidance.

Nico is a city boy at heart but still seeks to escape into nature when able. He tends to feel lost when planning, especially when his unreliable car is often a determining factor.

SITE MAP

Creating a site map allowed me to better visualize the structure of the website and how best to categorize the information in order to create an intuitive experience for users.

USER FLOW

Mapping out a user flow was key in determining how our user will initially decide on the trip they end up booking. I determined that an interactive filter-based system of selecting your personal interests would work best, resulting in users crafting their own perfect trip.

VISUAL DESIGN & PROTOTYPE

LO-FIDELITY WIREFRAMING

I then began to sketch out a few of the main screens which allowed me to better determine the overall layout and hierarchy of various elements.

MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMING & FIRST ROUND OF USER TESTING

After converting the sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes, I then began conducting my first round of user testing. I learned that in order for users to feel more inclined into booking a trip, more information would be both helpful and incentivizing. For example, the trip detail page could include a map of the location along with the distance from Los Angeles. It would also be nice to rent more gear. More visuals (both photos and icons) would also help to excite users and motivate them to travel with us.

TYPOGRAPHY & COLOR PALETTE

It was important to me that the UI felt fresh and different from other nature-based travel companies. Instead of more traditional earthy, natural tones, I took those hues and brightened them up a bit to feel more fun and exciting. This is more reflective of the company, who strive to take travelers on unique trips that are more off the beaten path.

BRANDING & LOGO

In a literal sense, kindling refers to the small group of sticks and twigs that are used to start a fire. Kindling also means to become impassioned and excited—our very intents when you travel with us.

Designing the logo was rather simple: I knew that I wanted a bold, textured and almost hand-drawn feel while still looking clean. I implemented the orange and yellows to coincide with fire.

TESTING & ITERATIONS

After mocking up the hi-fidelity screens, I began to test the flow of deciding on a trip and booking your spot. I ran tests with five participants total.

I measured success by the ability of users to fully complete the task, as well as discovering at least a few areas for design improvement.

Overall, there was little friction in completing the flow and just a few minor suggestions to enhance the UI.

ITERATIONS

I added a call-to-action link to better direct users to view the trip detail page.

The initial hope was for users to click on the block of images to access the detail page for each trip. My testing proved that this was not a given, as users momentarily struggled to access the next page.

It was an easy fix to add a CTA link for each trip, which now better aids users throughout the flow.

I re-vamped the confirmation page to help build the excitement and provide more information.

Before, the confirmation page left a lot to be desired. There is now a lot more personalization by addressing the user by name and counting down the days until the trip.

LIVE PROTOTYPE

Thank you for reading! Any comments or questions? I’d love to hear them.