Main Street Travel App
Case Study
UI Design, Design System, Wireframing, User Testing
Main St. is a travel app created to showcase local small town festivals around the United States. The app allows users to locate and learn about small town festivals happening around their community. The app provides details about the festival while attending, navigation while at the festival, and allows the user to post a reel from the event. The goal of the app is to provide opportunities for visitors to engage in travel small towns and also to encourage tourism to small towns across America.
Final prototype walk through
Watch a walkthrough of the final designed app
Key screens highlighted
Navigation of the app follows general user flow
Overall UI showcased
App functionality displayed
Design Process
DISCOVER
Market Research
Through research, it was found that travelers like to have a purposeful experience while traveling and engage in activities based on the local culture.
Small towns need tourism in order to generate their economy and keep local business afloat. Each year Americans spend $933 billion on domestic tourism alone.
Attending small town events like founders day festivals and seasonal festivals, provides an excellent opportunity to experience what a small town has to offer and benefit the towns economy.
travel app Comparison
Through examining other apps, it was noticed that many travel apps focus in on big city travel. Uniquely, Main St. highlights small town community festivals and looks to encourage travel to small towns.
THE BIG IDEA
Create a centralized app to locate and navigate small town specific festivals and activities around you to promote small town tourism.
2. PROTOTYPE
Persona - Small Town Traveler
“ I want to be able to explore the rural America with my family and immerse ourselves in local town events. “
Jessie is excited to be visiting Northern Wisconsin on vacation with her husband and 3 year old daughter at a rented cabin. She is looking forward to leaving the big city, experiencing nature, and partaking in life within a small town with her family.
Background
Create candid family memories during her trip
Learn about the small town festivals and events in her area
Explore a new town and experience the atmosphere in a small town
Goals
A central way to locate small town festivals
Pre-plan dates and timings of the event to coordinate with her vacation
Information guide to know what to do while at the festival
Improvements
Persona - Small Town Owner
“ I hope to increase sales of my maple syrup and promote tourism to support my small town community.“
Eric is owns a small maple syrup business in Hayward, Wisconsin. He regularly sets up a booth to sell his maple syrup during Hayward’s local festivals to tourists. He hopes to increase sales of his product during town festivals and attract more customers during the busy tourist seasons.
Background
Generate sales of his maple syrup at town festivals
Attract more visitors and tourists to his small town of Hayward, Wisconsin
Learn about new festivals to sell his maple syrup at in the future
Goals
Promote visitors and make known Hayward’s small festivals
Learn about vendors and products being sold at festivals before attending
Create a central place for promoting and learning about small town festivals in the area
Improvements
App User Flow
The app user flow map out the general flow and features of the app.
The app is split into three main motives whether you using the app to find a festival, while at the festival, or reflect back on your festival visit.
MOodboard
The moodboard provides a vision for how the app to look and feel.
The moodboard invokes the feelings of welcoming, resourceful, intuitive and appealing app for users. Bringing in some warmth and small town feel.
The sketches and ideation help physically explore how the app will look and function on paper.
A “mild” and “wild” version of sketches were created to examine how the app would look traditionally, as well as in a more experimental way. Aspects of both versions were explored in the design of the wireframes.
SKETCHES & IDEATION
LOW-Fidelity Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
3. ANALYZE
Usability Testing
To evaluate the app prototype, I conducted a usability study with multiple participants. Participants were asked a series of questions to spark a reaction and provide feedback on the app thus far. Highlighted in the graphic are randomly selected users and their opinions on the app.
Questions asked covered the following topics:
Overall Impression and user experience
Content organization and layout
Navigation of the app
Design impression and inconsistencies
Future Improvements
KEY INSIGHTS
Positives
Overall, user testing found a positive response to the user interface of the app
85% of users could see themselves or someone they know using the app
Users generally felt they could easily navigate the app
Users appreciated features such as bookmarking festivals and reels
90% of users rated the overall app experience an 8/10 or higher
Improvements
The text and wording of some pages could be rephrased for increase clarity
An user pointed out it would be helpful to showcase where your current location somewhere on the app
Add a button linking to Facebook to reach a larger audience for festivals
Increase spacing between elements
Ensure white text on images is clearly readable
4. Deliver
Style Guide
Final APP DESIGN
Impact & Takeaways
Based on the research conducted, I believe that this app will greatly be able to streamline as well as increase tourism to small towns across the US. Centralizing a way to locate and navigate US small town festivals will not only benefit the tourists in locating events to attend, but also shine attention onto the the small town and help them gain tourists and revenue.
Market Research References
6 reasons to visit small towns. 6 Reasons To Visit Small Towns – Wild Bum. (2020, September 22). https://blog.wildbum.com/2020/09/22/6-reasons-to-visit-small-towns/
Anders, T. (2020, April 15). Why small town vacations are the best. White Pine. https://whitepinetn.gov/why-small-town-vacations-are-the-best/
Gane, T. (2022, October 21). Why you should spend your next vacation in a small town. Travel + Leisure. https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/why-you-should-spend-your-next-vacation-in-a-small-town
How to attract tourists to a small town. Town Web. (n.d.). https://www.townweb.com/post/2022-how-to-attract-tourists-to-a-small-town