Identifying Travel App Designs

Before I start developing idea for my own travel application I wanted to conduct some research in travel apps that already exist and what sort of features are included within the application to give me a better understanding of what should be included in my own app when it comes to generating ideas and developing these ideas further. I have included a list of travel application below as a reference for me to refer back to when I need to see what already exists and/or what gaps are in the market that I could potential fill with my application.

• AirBnb
• Skyscanner
• EasyJet
• Expedia
• Hotels.com
• Trivago
• Trip Advisor
• PackPoint
• Culture Trip
• Hopper
• Kiwi

I have included some images of a few of the apps below to demonstrate the style of design throughout the application in addition to trying to find any similarities between the design and the over user-flow on the application.

 

 

 

 

 

What Do These Apps Do?

While all these applications are tailored towards travel in general they all have their own individual features in which they place their focus, whether that be in maps and navigation, hotels and accommodation or food and hospitality. While each app primarily does one task and does it really well none of these apps are a realistic “one-stop-shop” for a travel companion. This could potentially be a gap in the market – the pocket-knife of travel applications.

PackPoint is an application that focuses primarily on the packing side of things for your trip, personally I think this is a great feature as packing can be a little tricky especially when you are packing for a couple of weeks or for a whole family, keeping on top of your belongings can become a daunting task. EasyJet and Skyscanner focus on the actual travel side of things by offering a digital wallet for all your flights and boarding passes, I personally use the EasyJet application every time I fly over to the UK to visit my family and it has never disappointed. It gives you live updates for gate closures and flight departures in addition to any delays and allows you to scan your boarding pass via a QR code as opposed to having a physical ticket. Trivago, AirBnb and Hotels.com place most of their emphasis on the accommodation and the actually location you will be staying on your trip, I have used a couple of these in the past and think they all do a great job at what they have been tasked to do. Personally I really like the point system that Hotels.com provide as this allows the brand to build some sense on loyalty through rewards when customers book through their app or website.

These are all features that should be included in a travel application in order to make the overall process as smooth as possible without any dilemmas or issues along the way, these features could definitely be expanded to include extra functions that travellers may use while they’re on their adventures.

 

Why Did I Choose These?

There are a number of different reasons why I chose these applications as research for my travel application, the first reason being the features that are included on each of these applications will be extremely beneficial when it comes to creating the features for my own travel app as it will allow me to see what has already been done in other apps, what works, what doesn’t work as well as any gaps in the market that could be filled with my application. The second reason I chose these designs is from a design stand-point, some of these applications have amazing user-interfaces, like AirBnb for example, their user-interface is extremely clean and the whole app is user-friendly placing a focus on the overall user-experience. On the other hand, I also chose some of these applications for bad design to allow me insight into what I shouldn’t do with my application in terms of layout, typography, iconography and colour, this will allow me to place more focus on creating a better user-experience throughout my application in addition to making it easy-to-use and user-friendly.

 

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Idea Generation

Before starting to design my user-interface and iconography for my travel app I wanted to brainstorm some ideas that came to mind when I think of a travel application and what a travel app should include. I wanted to consider the common features that are seen through a lot of holiday and travel applications like ticket and boarding passes for flights, hotel deals and reviews in addition to other features that might make the app more enjoyable to use and actually worth having alongside you on your adventure.

A common theme I noticed in a lot of travel applications is that they give you recommendations of what to do while you are in a certain destination, for example specific places to visit, the downside to this is that these locations are often extremely mainstream and backed full of tourists which takes a lot of the excitement and enjoyment out of it. An idea that came to mind was having some hidden gems within each country or city, these would be locations that often go under the radar but are either extremely cool to visit and take pictures of or are a huge part to the countries history.

I have included an image of my mind map below to give you an idea on my thought process and I how I went about taking the first steps to creating my own travel application for handheld devices.

 

 

App Feature Ideas

When I began brainstorming for my travel app I wanted to consider what sort of features would be beneficial to someone who is travelling from country to country or from city to city. Personally, I can be an extremely forgetful person especially when you introduced the excitement of travelling abroad so I thought it would be a good idea to include a packing list feature to ensure that you pack everything when you are leaving your destination. I know a lot of people go travelling on their own in hopes to find other like minded travellers along the way so I thought some sort of social media feature which allows you to share your travel photography and actives with other users on the application, I also wanted to include a chat room and message board feature to allow other users to connect with each other and even come together if they are in the same location.

One feature I thought would be amazing for a travel app would be the destination randomiser feature which will act almost like Tinder but for travel and holidays as opposed to relationships and dating, personally I find it hard to choose where I want to go because there is so much choice. The destination randomiser feature will allow the user the swipe left or right on randomly generated holiday destinations, this feature will allow you to set your budget for the holiday you would like to go on, what dates you would like to go on holiday, will you be travelling in a group or flying solo in addition to more recent COVID-19 travel restriction features which allow you to selected a restriction limit whether that be countries in red, amber or green.

I will be going into each feature in more detail once I create a more refined selection of my ideas but for now I think this is a really good start on what sort of features my travel app should include. I have included a bullet point list below of some features that could be useful.

• Travel Planner
• Packing List
• Travel Journal
• Ticket Wallet
• Chat Rooms/Message Boards
• Hotel Recommendations
• Restaurant/Bar Recommendations
• Information About Destination
• Destination Randomiser
• Tinder For Holidays
• Instagram For Travel Photography