Paper Plain
Helping travelers organize their travel plans and download their trips offline.
Role: UX Designer
Timeline: Aug 2023 - Feb 2024
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Otter Ai, and Notion
Project: Case Study
PROJECT OVERVIEW
In 8 months, I’ve researched and designed Paper Plain — a centralized hub for all things travel; aiming to streamline the trip planning process and enhance the overall travel experience for users offline.
THE PROBLEM
Over 72% of Travelers reported getting lost on a trip and over half spent more than one hour trying to find their way back to their destination.
“I enjoy taking time to plan a hiking trip. Once I am in the woods, I rarely have service and I am also not the most tech-savvy. This makes me feel anxious because I need to make sure I can find my way back.”
“As a med student, I find purpose by traveling to places where I can volunteer and give back to the community. Because of this, I am usually in remote areas far away from the main cities.
CONNECTING THE DOTS STICKIES
“I like traveling alone most of the time because I find traveling with friends difficult to coordinate with when most of us won’t have wi-fi.”
21 questions, 63 stickies, and 5 hours later, I synthesized all my interview insights in the form of an Affinity Map where I was able to visually cluster recurring themes about safety, offline accessibility, and loneliness while traveling alone.
THE SOLUTION
How might we enhance the travel-planning experience for travelers to feel supported and connected throughout their journeys?
By integrating features such as the ability to seamlessly display itineraries, stay connected with friends, and flight synchronization to ensure that solo travelers can navigate their journeys, regardless of online accessibility.
IDEATION
Using my research and interviewee insights, I created an Experience Map to help define my user’s journey to further understand their needs and pain points.
Brainstorming a list of User Stories helped to articulate potential features that I wanted to include in the app.
I narrowed down the stories by categorizing them into Epics that had similar themes. From there, I was then able to identify certain tasks that best supported my solution.
💌 Authorizing Inbox Sync
BRAINSTORMING
TRIPS
I sketched a simple, list-styled itinerary to keep it minimal, but informative by showcasing 3 items at a time.
HOME
The goal of the Home Page is to display “Upcoming Trips”, a friends list, and curated travel guides. I wanted to incorporate social abilities so Travelers can plan with their friends and keep track of solo and group itineraries.
Next, I wanted to invest time into rapid concept sketches by drawing them on paper. This helped create early design ideas and I was able to gather instant feedback from my peers and design instructors.
I was able to show my sketches and receive instant feedback on things that I may have missed and what I should consider when I move into the Mid-Fi prototype. 5 Rounds of User Testing took place, where I received live feedback from Participants. I made changes based on their insights for the High-Fidelity Prototype.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
For changes, I decided to remove Reservation Icons because they were not consistent throughout the app. Additionally, I added a Comment section for each Item because Users expressed wanting to be able to communicate with friends and family on trip ideas.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
When creating Paper Plain, I made several iterations that would work best for the User based on feedback and testing. In the future, I want to continue iterating and improving on the overall design. In terms of impact, this solution would allow Users to collaborate with friends, download their travel details offline, and have their itineraries all in one app.