USER RESEARCH X DESIGN
An Artificial Intelligence Itinerary for Group Travel Planning
Group travel planning can be a frustrating and exhaustive process, especially when trying to accommodate everyone’s preferences, wants, and needs. This is especially true for Gen Z, who tend to travel more than any other generation. However, they often struggle with decision paralysis due to an overload of information and the need for social recognition.

Leveraging creative freedom and imagination of an academic project, I reimagined an Instagram feature that makes group travel planning fun. The power of Artificial Intelligence, considering member preferences, helps in removing decision paralysis and makes the process enjoyable.
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My Role

Product Designer

Team

2 Designers,
2 Researchers

Time

3 Months
(Oct'22- Nov'22)

Tools

Figma,
Miro
context & PROBLEM
Challenges in Group Travel Planning Process and developing data-driven solution
As part of the Fall 2021 class on "User-Centered Research," we were tasked with selecting a problem in travel planning, conducting in-depth research, formulating synthesis, ideating potential solutions, and conducting usability tests.

My team is passionate about solving problems related to group travel planning among friends. We expanded our scope to include the complexities of decision-making.
Research
What is the problem? Who are the users?
Decision paralysis disrupts group travel planning for Generation Z
Our initial task was to comprehend the issues involved in the travel planning process and determine which problem was worth solving.
Gen Z's travel planning process: Inspiration over Destination
Gen Z looks for Inspiration more than Destination
9% of Gen Z have no destination preference while 55% has more than two. Gen Z travels more than Millennials and looks for inspiration. Social evaluation heavily influences their decisions.
"There are so many good places to visit but everyone has their preferences that leads to confusion. Ultimately I trust words of personal connections who visited the place to make choice easier."
- Research participant
Decision paralysis disrupts travel planning
Decision paralysis is a significant obstacle to group travel planning process. Current solutions in the market are ineffective hinder group travel planning by overloading people with choices.
"Our Europe trip was so seamless and I personally enjoyed everything as John planned everything very well coordinated with people and places in advance"
- Research participant of a group trip
Successful trips had Leader/s coordinating everything
Participants highlighted the pivotal role of leaders who assumed responsibility for every aspect of the team's trip. Effective trips were often led by individuals who took charge of every aspect.
Decision paralysis is a significant obstacle to group travel planning process. Current solutions in the market are ineffective hinder group travel planning by overloading people with choices.
Effective trips were often led by individuals who took charge of every aspect.
Activities and output
Literature Reviews
User Interviews
Competitive Analysis
Directed Storytelling
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How might we empower Gen Z to overcome decision paralysis when it comes to planning group travel?
Success Metric: Measuring how ease with which a group of people complete planning for trips. Determine how likely users are to recommend the trip planning feature to others to measuring user satisfaction (NPS)
USER PAINPOINTS
What are user pain points?
Leaders struggle to include all preferences and members struggle voicing opinions
We produced crazy 8s generating ideas for possible solutions & with these I interviewed 5 leaders who organize group travel to learn how they handle people, challenges, and decisions. From these interviews, I created leadership design goals based on user needs
Here are our sketches from storyboarding and speed dating (highlighted ones by me).
1
Inclusivity: Accommodating everyone's preferences
Group members want their preferences to be recognized and accommodated
2
Trust: First hand recommendations
Access to credible first-hand recommendations from personal connections
3
Transparency: Communication and collaboration
Solutions that help them reach agreements through consensus-building
4
Actionable plan with reduced human-input
90% preferred solutions that reduced human input in choices and actionable as an itinerary
DESIGN
Ideas into Designs
Our main idea focused on group leader-led trips, allowing them to have the power and freedom to promote inclusivity, trust, and transparency in decision-making. To quickly test the concept, we developed low-fidelity screens and conducted Think-aloud method for usability testing with 10 people.
Can Artificial Intelligence be an answer?
As tasks get more difficult and complex, people trust computers more than humans. From choosing the next song on your playlist to choosing the right size pants, people are relying more on the advice of algorithms to help make everyday decisions and streamline their lives.
"Humans rely more on algorithms than social influence as a task becomes more difficult."
- Scientific Reports Journal, University of Georgia, April 13, 2021
Activities and output
User flow
Parallel Prototyping
Testing
A potential solution to decision paralysis could be a feature in Instagram
Leveraging the creative thinking and imagination in an academic project we decided to pivot and reimagine the solution. I created two distinct flowchart pathways: one tailored for leaders and another catered to group members incorporating feedback from previous iteration.
I created sketches of the concept and developed screens for both leader and member flows, adapting them to Instagram's design system and language.
Leader prototype (above) and Member (below)
Final design
Instagram: An Artificial Intelligence Itinerary for Group Travel Planning
1. Leader flow
Interactive Figma prototype for leader flow (view in full screen for best experience)
Uniting the team: Sets basic preferences to get started
The group leader selects the place to visit, as decided by the team, and adds members to form a group using the newly added feature in Instagram.
Inspiration more than destination
The team leader selects 3-4 themes from the crowdsourced data in the app to determine the overall vibe for the trip.
Inclusivity: Making sure everyone is heard
The team leader can make sure that all members vote and their preferences are included. Send reminder CTA enables to notify members who forgot to state their preferences.
Share and Shuffle
The leader can generate itinerary and share it with members for discussion, approval and finalization.
2. Member flow
Interactive Figma prototype for Member flow (view in full screen for best experience)
Voicing their preferences through poll
Members can browse through the themes selected by the leader and vote the ones they are interested in visiting.
Resolving conflicts and exchange ideas
Members can request a reshuffle or regeneration of itinerary options if they do not match their preferences. This feature helps people plan their trips by allowing them to negotiate and chat to generate more options.
Demo & learnings
Answers to complex problems are often simple:
I learned that complex problems can have simple solutions. To tackle these problems, it's important to keep an open mind, break down the problem into smaller parts, and collaborate with others. This project taught me valuable problem-solving skills that I will apply in my academic and professional career.

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