NaviSavi
A short-form video app for travel that allows travelers to share unfiltered, genuine travel videos, filter by interest and location, build itineraries, and book immediately.
My Role
UI/UX designer and Head of Creative Direction: Created new interactions and interface designs for version 1 of app, led overhaul of website design, developed brand design system
Duration
October 2020 - April 2021 (6 months)
What is NaviSavi?
Target Market Research
Market research was conducted by referring to studies on travel habits of different demographics, and Millennial and Gen Z travelers aged 17 to 39 were identified as spending the most on travel each year worldwide, at almost $200B each year.
This research also revealed the frustrations that this demographic has in regards to booking trips. They reported that while they find conducting research on a destination before they go important, highly edited images and misleading reviews make this process difficult, as well as not being able to group together reviews, videos, and images into trips on one platform.
Studies on Millennial preferences for apps revealed the following attributes as the most important: unique features and functionality, better design than competitors, celebrity/influencer promotion, and the "braggability" of features.
Design Process
Improving on Preexisting Screens
Changes were made to the home screen, the first of which was the removal of unnecessary white space to show more content. A navigation bar was moved to the bottom of the screen to keep with the Nielson heuristic of consistency with other major apps for the purpose of predictability for users. There is also now an option to move between clip view and trip view to allow flexibility of choice for users.
While the original search screen had categories established, a search options button was added in order to further specify a user’s search by category, price, and distance. The option to switch between grid view and map view was added to provide users with the choice to view videos according to geographic location or thumbnails.
Because the video modal was blocked by the description tag, all buttons on the modal screen are now outlines and draw less attention away from the video. Users are able to input longer descriptions when the video description is placed under "more," and there is also an option to discover other activities nearby.
The original profile page had an abundance of white space at the top, which was filled with a display of a user’s followers, who they follow, and the number of countries they have visited. The countries button takes a user to a breakdown of countries visited, along with stats of the percentage of the world that has been visited. This feature was added to increase “braggability,” which Millennial users reported as being essential to their social media experience.
Building a Task Flow
HOW WILL USERS NAVIGATE THE APP?
Final Solution Mockup
1. Login page with options to log in as a guest or a user/business with an account
2. Home page when no users or tags are followed and when first users are followed; a grid of videos displays a featured city, as well as users' trips
3. Search pages that allow searching for locations and users via map view, viewing thumbnails of categories, and selecting filters
4. Upload page that allows users to browse videos, input descriptions, and provide link to website for booking
5. View full videos; like, share, add to a trip, and visit video website; report videos; add to preexisting or new trip
6. Rewards page that allows travelers and businesses to earn money consistently using the app
7. Profile page that displays clips and trips and allows users to edit their content; users can also view rewards from the profile page
8. Visual and list display of countries visited with an option to add countries; edit profile and app settings accessed from profile page
User Testing
TESTING PROTOCOL
Testers: 5 undergraduate students and 2 participants in the 30+ demographic
Assumptions: We made the assumption that users using the app would be experienced with popular apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter both due to the age group and them having a smartphone.
Tasks: Upload videos, add video to trip upon upload, add video to a trip after upload, successfully search for a city or activity, like a video, view likes, visit video website, find an activity on map view.
Conclusions: Users enjoyed the realistic depiction of travel locations through the use of video, along with the lighthearted aesthetics of the app such as the playful language tone and icons. The most common feedback that we received was the search categories being too broad, and the video length restriction being too short to show a location fully.
Creating Social Media Content
CURATING IMAGES AND CREATING GRAPHICS FOR INSTAGRAM
Building a Brand Guide
BRAND GUIDE SNIPPET
Website Redesign
Project Reflection
BUILDING A DESIGN SYSTEM
My primary takeaway from this project has been the creation of design components that are unique to NaviSavi, as well as ensuring consistency of these components when building a design system. I was able to create components from scratch due to them not being previously established by the company, allowing me to understand the importance of each component in reflecting a company’s desired product.
