Voyage is an automobile HMI App and mobile App about road trip planning, that can help travelers better the (in-car) experience in many different ways.
Basic Information
Research, Paper Prototyping, Low-fi Prototyping, Design Systems, Hi-fi Prototyping, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Motion Design, Photography & Videography
Sketch, Figma,Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Principle
Xianzhongge Liu, Shulan Kuang, Jennie Zhang, Yanting Sun
Duration
12 Weeks
Location
RISD
Date
Sep 2022 - Nov 2022
My Role
Tools
Team
Overview
Rich history :
Road trips have been a part of American culture for over a century, with the advent of the automobile in the early 1900s. The growth of the highway system, such as Route 66, in the mid-20th century further popularized road trips as a way for families to explore the country.
Technology development :
With the development of the automobile industry, the automobile system has been developed from scratch. We've seen what used to be a simple button turn into a big touchscreen. Smart navigation systems replace paper maps, and audio and video systems enrich long road trips.
Opportunity for better experience :
As a driver, a traveler, and a UX designer, I see a great opportunity to make people's road trip experience better with smart cars and high-speed networks. Maybe life on a road trip could be richer.
Challenge
According to “the USA Road Trip Survey” in 2022:
The 81% is a 19% increase from those who said they planned to road trip travel in last year's survey. 42% will "revenge travel" this summer.
When you're on a long road trip, some people often get tired, some people find cars uncomfortable, and most people hate long, boring hours.
78% of respondents felt that their activities in the car had no interaction with the vehicle at all.
With the improvement in car computer performance, people have high hopes for its function.
How might we better the (in-car) experience of road trip travelers?
Goals & Solutions
We designed a road trip assistance App that travelers can arrange the trip detail and in the trip with the following features:
Feature 1 - Traffic Navigation Optimization
Find the most convenient route in real time and optimize it automatically
Feature 2 - Personalized Food Recommendations
Recommended food based on reviews from different local people & travelers
Feature 3 - Travel Overview
In the Tour Overview, you can view details about any destination
Audio Tours are available at appropriate times and locations within specific sites in national parks
Feature 4 - Audio Guide
Feature 5 - Vehicle Camera
The car camera can record the beautiful scenery during the journey
Feature 6 - Team Call
Keep in touch with fellow travelers during road trip
Research
01 Interview summary
02 Competitive analysis
03 Persona
04 User journey map
To better understand our potential users, we conducted user interviews with 8 drivers. The interview is semi-structured and all the questions are open-ended, to ensure the interviewers could think out loud and share more details on their road trip experiences, as well as their understanding of how to improve the trip in the car.
Since there is no software on the market that fully covers all the functions of travel planning sharing, navigation, voice explanation, team communication, etc., our competitive product analysis combines map navigation software, travel planning software, and real-time intercom software.
After that, we brought up a persona to demonstrate our target users, their goals, and their pain points as road trip travelers.
After that, we brought up a persona to demonstrate our target users, their goals, and their pain points as road trip travelers.
Based on the persona, we were envisioning a scenario in which the user is traveling.
Brainstorm
Our team brainstormed possible features based on the timeline of the user's journey. Based on further user interviews, we identified several key features for further design.
Wireframe
We further refined the low-fi wireframes for various widgets and panels in order to convey and structure the whole process, which includes 5 steps.
UI Design Component
We create a series of UI design components to better the visual experience for users.
Prototype
We broke down the prototypes into 5 main tasks, corresponding to the user flow. Next, we conducted the second round of user testing.
Task 1 - Switch to the suggested route when there is traffic
Key Feature
Real-time road condition monitoring
Intuitive comparison than before
Automatic dismiss when no respond
Task 2 - Check restaurant detail and add it to the trip
Key Feature
Recommendation based on personalized
Detail information about restaurants
Check the restaurant in the whole trip map
Task 3 - Based on the overview check scenic spots info and make a phone call
Key Feature
Overview of the whole trip
Detail information about scenic spots
double check the info by phone call
Task 4 - Play the audio guide when visiting specific spots
Key Feature
Audio guide according to GPS
Recommendation based on personalized
Task 5 - Select cameras and check photos
Key Feature
Different cameras to be selected
Take photos or record videos for beautiful scenery
check and share photos to phone by album or map
Task 6 - Team call and walkie-talkie
Key Feature
Make a phone call drive-friendly
Add other teammates into call easily
Mute and change audio
