Freewheel!

Freewheel is a native app designed to assist new and seasoned travelers looking to go on road trips. The initial thought for my project came from reflecting on my many cancelled travel plans due to the pandemic.

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Looking to travel during the pandemic?

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The “new normal” has made air travel, especially international travel, difficult, if not, impossible for many Americans looking to go on holiday. Road trips are an alternative way for vacationers to satiate their wanderlust.

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Goal

What can be created to ease vacationers looking to travel on the open road? What are the challenges travelers face when planning a road trip? And when they’re actively traveling? Why go on a road trip versus any other form of travel?

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Researching Our Users

I conducted user interviews with millennials, starting the conversation with this questions:

How do you feel about going on road trips?

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I also looked into direct and indirect competitors of this potential product such as Google Maps, Kayak, and Roadtrippers. While many of the features are similar, the experience on planning a new trip varied.

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Research Results

How might we improve and enhance the experience of going on a road trip?‍

We believe that by creating a new app for road trip travelers that simplifies the process of planning, navigating, and sharing, we will help them discover new destinations and guide them safely throughout their journey.

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Prototype: From Flow to Hi-Res Mockup

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User Flow and Paper Prototype

Because this was proof of concept project, I limited my user flow to the research and trip setup portion. I added a few sections for the account view to help round out the user’s experience with the app. The goal of the user was to discover and build a new trip itinerary then save the trip to an account.

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Through User testing this paper prototype, I ran into these issues:

• No indication that an origin was placed
• Difficulty understanding the itinerary page
• Unsure how to proceed after using filters

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In my next prototype I decided to focus on these features, ordered by high priority to low priority:

1. More robust search filters; Adjust how to access filters
2. Provide more avenues for recommendations to appear
3. Highlight safety Information on destination
4. Add sign-up/login at start
5. Ability to add extra activities, stops

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Navigation

I also conducted card sorting exercise to help inform the site navigation. The grouping ranged from 3 stacks to 6 stacks.

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In the end, the card sorting exercise informed the arrangement of my menu into 3 sections with 2-3 subsections.

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Testing the Prototype

A wireframe of the product was built out in Figma and I ran new users through the same test as the paper prototype with improvements.

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For my test results, i got a good mix of positive comments and more constructive feedback than the last round.

I would use this.

• Likes that itinerary generates stops to add including food and gas.
• One user had a neutral experience.
• A user asked to be able to deep dive with more info on destinations
• First user error I ran into during testing

Good tool to catch edge cases.

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Again, I used these results to form the final steps.

• Layout modifications
• More detailed info in the itinerary
• Build out itinerary editing tools
• Prototype more features

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Project Takeaways

This was a great experience for me as my work is usually towards the end of the UX process. I was able to dive deeper into understanding the user and conducting the research needed to build a well designed product. Because of the accelerated timeline of this project, I wasn't able to conduct as much research. Overall I'm please with what I was able to accomplish.

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