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Zeit

Zeit

A time travel company that offers over 200+ destinations and timelines that consumers can travel to.

A time travel company that offers over 200+ destinations and timelines that consumers can travel to.

View Final Prototype

Overview

Project
Phase 1 Project
(Academic)

Role
Product Designer &
Researcher

Timeline
4 weeks

Tools used
Figma, Discord, Zoom

Project:
Responsive Web Design (Academic)

Role:
Product Designer &
Researcher

Timeline:
4 weeks

Tools used:
Figma, Discord

Background

Background

Zeit's goal is to create a platform that allows users to explore, learn, and book time travel experiences without the hassle of going through shady reviews and third-party websites


Zeit's goal is to create a platform that allows users to explore, learn, and book time travel experiences without the hassle of going through shady reviews and third-party websites


Who are we trying to reach?

Users who



Users who:



  • individuals who enjoy travelling

  • individuals who enjoy learning about history

  • individuals who crave new and unique experiences

What do you look for when planning a travel experience?

"I tend to be type A when planning, so I utilize different resources for different needs"

"I tend to be type A when planning, so I utilize different resources for different needs"

—Female, 23

"I start my planning by figuring out what my goal is for each vacation and what I hope to get out of each trip"

“I would mainly look for if theyre certified in some way. basically anything to show that they know what theyre doing”

— Female, 26

— Male, 26

"I let my partner do all the work. I am simply just there"

“I feel like i should have researched more of how to build the pc before actually building and i most definitely wish i did it with someone “

— Male, 30

Empathy

Our Research Goals

Who We Talked To

Methods

Our Research Goals

To establish our goals, we asked these questions:


  • why do individuals travel?

  • if given the opportunity, would users time travel and how would they plan that event?

  • how do users view time travel?

  • what do individuals hope to gain out of traveling?

Who we talked to

I invited 5 interviewees who have travelled recently, are expereinced travelers, and do not have children.

Interview Insights

5 of 5 participants fear that time traveling will cause damage to our humanity and alter our current timeline

4 of 5 participants determine reputability based on prior customer experiences that are not promoted

5 of 5 participants felt that providing sufficent and accurate information on how time traveling will work is essential for users to feel safe

Methods

Market Analysis

Our analysis focused on companies commonly used by users for searching, planning, and purchasing travel destinations.

1 on 1 interviews

Interviews were used as primary research to understand those who travel and their behaviors when traveling. The converastions will help us determine what a traveler's needs are when planning for a trip, and even a time-traveling trip.

Empathy

Our Research Goals


Methods


Who We Talked To

Our Research Goals

To establish our goals, we asked these questions:


  • how PC Users decide what kind of parts and the type of performance they want to put into their PC.

  • why and how people choose to build a custom PC so that the business is able to better position their services


Who we talked to

I invited 5 interviewees, most of which have built their own PC or bought a custom-built PC.

Interview Insights

4 of 5 participants emphasized the importance of some sort of certification indicating that the builders know what they're doing

4 of 5 participants stated that they need the service to have 24/7 customer service if they have any questions or issues with the pc

4 of 5 participants would prefer a consultation of their build prior to paying

Let's Define

Making Sense of the Data


Learning from the data


Plan of Action

Making Sense of the Data

To better understand the data we gathered from our interviews, we did the following:

  • Creating a Persona - Elias

  • Affinity Map

Let's Define

Making Sense of the Data

Learning from the data

Plan of Action

Making Sense of the Data

To better understand the data we gathered from our interviews, we did the following:

  • Creating a Persona - Agnes

Learning From The Data

As always, the data gave us helpful insight into what users use to plan their traveling experiences, what they're looking for in a travel experience, and how users plan their trips, which will help us move forward with our Plan of Action

Participants determine trustworthiness based on customer reviews

Participants feel safer when there is sufficent enough information about a tour-guide led activities such as packages and expereinces.

Participants choose to travel to fulfill an inner longing and their expectations for each destinations when they travel is to take away a distinct experience and story

"When I travel I like to have experiences that give me something to talk about when I get back. I don't like cliche vacations

“As a newbie, someone to explain in a dumb downed way what each part does and is used for with examples would be a good thing to have.

—Female, 32

"I hate planning. It stresses me out so I just let my partner do it."

"I hate planning. It stresses me out so I just let my partner do it."

— Male, 26

"The most stressful part of planning is my indecisiveness. I feel like I will miss out on so many things if I cant do all of them"

“I decided to build the computer myself because my friends were all telling me to build the computer since it was cheaper.

— Male, 25

“Their credibility and trustworthy. I can't see what they're doing so I feel like that makes me a bit weary because Ican't see what’s broken until down the line”

“I would mainly look for if theyre certified in some way. basically anything to show that they know what theyre doing”

"I feel like i should have researched more of how to build the pc before actually building and i most definitely wish i did it with someone “

“As a newbie, someone to explain in a dumb downed way what each part does and is used for with examples would be a good thing to have. As someone paying someone else to build it for me, I would want other examples of computers they’ve built and customer reviews, those are the most important things to me.

“I also am weary on if they actually used the parts that i bought. there's a lot of scammy stuff going on out there“

“I decided to build the computer myself because my friends were all telling me to build the computer since it was cheaper."

Using Agnes as our persona,

Using Agnes as our persona,

We can keep her in mind when progressing into the ideation phase. Agnes embodies our user's needs and frustrations when starting their travel planning process for both normal travel and time-traveling.



As we brainstorm, we'll use her feedback as a basis for identifying the necessary features to ensure she has the most optimal experience when using Zeit to plan her time-travel experiences.


Let's Ideate

Stress Testing Elias


Exploration


User and Task Flows

Stress-Testing Elias

As we move forward with ideating, there are a few important questions to keep in mind:

  • How can Elias build his PC with the help of a reputible source?

  • How can Elias be assured that his PC is being built by individuals who know what they're doing?

✨

Connect to Content

Add layers or components to swipe between.

Let's Ideate

Stress Testing Eloise

Exploration

Card Sorting

Sitemap

User & Task Flows

Stress-Testing Agnes

As we move forward with ideating, there are a few important questions to keep in mind:

  • How can Agnes easily explore the different locations Zeit has to offer?

  • How can Agnes easily book a travel destination

  • Where can Agnes look at reviews from past customers?

Exploration

Exploration

To evaluate different design systems, we analyzed content on Dribble and existing travel booking building companies for inspiration and to determine what looks the most familiar to users

Our (closed) Card Study

Our goal was to gain intuitive insight on how users categorize events and experiences to help us determine how a user will search for different events they want to time-travel to.
To do this we:

  • gathered 7 participants

  • presented each user with 20 cards of varying topics

The Results:

  • Average time: 2m 34s

  • 7 complete, 3 abandoned

Overall, the study showed that there was a unanimous consensus for most topics, with the exception of 1-3 outliars for each card


What does this mean?

Most users have a good understanding of what categories each historical events fall under.


Our Site Map

We created a sitemap to help us structure how we want our users to understand the information on the site

User and task flows

When creating our task and user flows, we had these goals for the user (and Agnes) in mind:

  • Explore different regions/locations

  • Book an experience

  • Navigate through the reviews

  • Navigate through Zeit's social media pages

View full User and Task Flow Here

Sketches & Mid-fi

Design Reasoning

Zeit's branding was created with the intent to portray feelings of Retro, Celestial, and Trendy.

Using the inspiration from architecture, historical figures, and illustrations, we created a UI kit and logo that best fit Zeit's personality.

Design Reasoning

Behemoth Build's goal was to convey an unconventional, peculiar, yet reliable vibe.

Using the inspiration given by the client, I included quirky illustrations and created a logo that best aligned with their motto: "Monstrous builds"

Hi-Fidelity

View full Hi-fi here

Finale

Finale

The approach to usability testing

The approach to usability testing

  • Are users able to find a destination on the explore page that they like?

  • Are users able to easily find a destination to book and successfully checkout?

  • Are users able to easily find and browse through reviews?

Remote Usability Testing - Moderated

By testing the product in real time with the participant, I am able to analyze their behavior and ask them questions to better understand their reasoning for their behaviors.

Remote Usability Testing - Moderated

By testing the product in real time with the participant, I am able to analyze their behavior and ask them questions to better understand their reasoning for their behaviors.

Remote Usability Testing - Moderated

By testing the product in real time with the participant, I am able to analyze their behavior and ask them questions to better understand their reasoning for their behaviors.

Our participant criteria:

Age

23-32 years of age

PC Habits

  • individuals who travels frequently

  • individuals who are interested in history or world events

  • individuals who travel with a group/family

  • individuals who travel alone

Goals

  • want to be able to learn while they travel

  • want each travel experience to be unique and different from the last

  • want to have a story to tell after each trip

Age

23-32 years of age

PC Habits

  • individuals who currently own a custom built PC

  • individuals who are interested in building a custom PC

  • individuals who used a PC building service

Goals

  • individuals who want to choose specific parts for their PC

  • individuals who want help with another individual when building their PC

Age

23-32 years of age

PC Habits

  • individuals who currently own a custom built PC

  • individuals who are interested in building a custom PC

  • individuals who used a PC building service

Goals

  • individuals who want to choose specific parts for their PC

  • individuals who want help with another individual when building their PC

Lessons Learned

Behemoth Builds was a wonderful learning opportunity in translating UX skills from a product such as an app, into a responsive website.

The general attitude of this project was a lot more casual compared to my other capstone projects. The client was a close friend of mine and I believe that made the project a little less formal than most students would have experienced. As great as it was having a chill and easy going client, I do feel that I was not able to utilize my UI skills as much for this project. I also felt that my research skills such as utilizing both primary and secondary research methods, and quantitative methods could have enhanced my learning experience.

A few things I would change are:

  • organizing my UI kit better

  • explored more design patterns

Despite the challenges, I am progressively growing as a designer and researcher with every project I undertake. I am eager to take on more challenges that will push me to further develop my design thinking skills.

Here were the tasks they were assigned:

Here were the tasks they were assigned:

Exploratory:

  1. Search for the area you would expect find destinations offered

  1. Search for the area you would expect find destinations offered

  1. Search for reviews & testimonials

Specific:

  1. Book a travel package

  1. Book a travel package

  1. Checkout and pay for travel package

  1. Checkout and pay for travel package

Testing Findings

What worked

  • 4 of 5 participants felt that there were plentiful opportunities for them to book

  • 3 of 5 participants felt that the ability to browse through the map was fun and innovative

  • 5 of 5 participants felt that the booking process was straightforward

What didn't quite work

  • 3 of 5 users requested more information on the science and logistics behind time travel

  • 3 of 5 users wanted more information on what you can do at the destinations

  • 4 of 5 particpants felt that there weren't enough opportunities to explore aside from the menu and limited # of CTAs

What worked

  • 3 of 4 participants felt that the information provided was enough to accomplish what they need

  • 4 of 4 participants felt that this is a feature that they would utilize (tech support)

  • 3 of 4 participants appreciated the purpose of the consultation process (consultation process)

  • 4 of 4 participants felt that this process is essential to a pc building journey(consultation process)

What didn't quite work

  • 2 of 5 users had difficulty utilizing the drop down feature when choosing specific parts during the consultation booking process

  • 2 of 5 users were expecting to put in more information when utilizing the tech support feature

What worked

  • 3 of 4 participants felt that the information provided was enough to accomplish what they need

  • 4 of 4 participants felt that this is a feature that they would utilize (tech support)

  • 3 of 4 participants appreciated the purpose of the consultation process (consultation process)

  • 4 of 4 participants felt that this process is essential to a pc building journey(consultation process)

What didn't quite work

  • 2 of 5 users had difficulty utilizing the drop down feature when choosing specific parts during the consultation booking process

  • 2 of 5 users were expecting to put in more information when utilizing the tech support feature

Here's how we approached our Priority Revisions

Here's how we approached our Priority Revisions

Using our Priority matrix, these are the things we were able to determine what we are able to immediately work on.

  • added more information to the destinations

  • added additional and more accessible CTAs

Lessons Learned

Zeit was the first case study that involved UX research, testing, and the true design process. During the journey, there were quite a few things that if I had the time, I would have done differently:

  • Focus on the business goal. During the beginning stages of iteration, I got sidetracked when looking for inspirations and wanted to do more than what was going to benefit the user group for this project, thus burning daylight. (should have kept asking myself: “Zoe, whats the bigger picture here”)

  • Fail faster, perfection is fleeting. I feared producing work that failed. I didn’t iterate as much as I would have liked to due to the feeling of failure when I produced a wireframe that wouldn’t have worked. Being more insightful during the iteration process would have led me to better results and more justifications for why I chose this or that.

  • Ask more questions. During my interview process, I did not go deep enough into searching why my participants felt this way, or chose this action. I would have yielded better priority revisions. Most importantly, I would have yielded more insights and more empathy driven results.