© Aaliyah Koledoye 2025 | Peace, Love and Bubble tea
My process
Empathize
I interviewed 4 people who like to travel but have expressed their frustrations with planning budget-friendly trips. My questions aimed to learn about their frustrations, patterns and goals. I conducted remote interviews to get perspectives of people from different backgrounds.
Interview questions:
Do you like to travel? Why?
What’s your favorite and least favorite part of preparing for a trip?
Walk me through your process of preparing for a trip
How do you keep track of all your travel details?
What is most important to you when booking a flight?
Define
Problem statement: People who like to travel on a budget struggle with finding cheap tickets when they are planning trips with friends. Our design will provide a way for them to build and manage their itinerary in a timely manner. As of now, they have to search multiple websites to find the cheapest deals, which is time-consuming.
Ideate
I brainstormed using the 'word association' technique, then created a sitemap and low-fidelity mockup of my ideas for the app.
Looking for something specific?
Prototype
I followed a user-centered design process to create the wireframes, mockups, and prototypes of the new website. I used tools such as Figma to design the interface and interactions. I applied the principles of visual hierarchy, contrast, alignment, and consistency to ensure a clear, intuitive, and attractive design.
Based on the ideas I brainstormed and problems defined by the users, the number one focus was booking cheap flights. So, I made the ‘book a flight’ section the first on the homepage. Users can fill in basic information about the trip they’d like and the system will search all travel sites for the cheapest results.
Why did I design it this way?
I want the user to be able to search for their destination and input their budgets quickly. The home screen also shows popular destinations people go with friends and users can add in their desired budget.
What user research insight made me choose this design direction?
The users main problem was finding cheap flights, making the ‘book a flight’ section first allows them to find what they are looking for instantly. The app will show them results from different websites across the internet.
How can this design solve the issues my target users are currently facing?
Users can find the cheapest flights in one place and also find destinations to plan for with their friends.
What visual design elements and principles did I choose to incorporate and why?
I used a line to show separate sections, color to indicate that users can type in the boxes (‘max. Price per person’), color to encourage users to explore the different destinations under ‘plan with friends, scale to emphasize ‘book a flight’ and balance for the images under ‘plan with friends’.
What important user feedback influenced my design decisions (if any), and how did I incorporate it?
I added a text box for them to search new locations in the ‘plan with friends’ section.
Project background
This project was executed as a capstone for my UX/UI design certificate through Chegg skills.
Design challenge
A lot of people love to travel and explore places they haven't been to before. However, airfare is expensive, and planning trips can be time-consuming. There are so many airline websites and mobile apps that travelers use. However, it is difficult to keep track of the best airfare deals and manage flight reservations all in one place.
Away You Go is a new airfare booking app that wants to solve travelers' frustrations with finding flight deals, booking those deals, and managing those flight reservations. They want to make sure that they are solving the right user problems and offering a product that is easy to use and useful to travelers who are budget conscious. They hired you as their UX/UI designer to help them conduct user research, ideate, prototype, test, and design a mobile app that caters to these types of travelers and their specific needs.
Test
Task scenario:
You get a message from a really close friend asking you to plan her birthday trip next month. She wants to go somewhere with a beach and nice weather, and has a budget of $600 for round trip flights. Book a flight that fits her budget for next month. Figma link
Usability Test Report
Summary
I conducted the sessions with 5 people using moderated and remote testing. I had the participants share their screen and walk through the tasks. 3 out of the 5 completed the task in under 5 minutes, 1 in 13 minutes and the last one in 20 minutes.
Findings
The 3 participants that finished under 8 minutes gave the feedback that the mobile design was straightforward, like apps that they currently use. The participant that finished in 13 minutes shared that they wish they could book hotels on the app too. The person who completed in 20 minutes said ‘I wish I could find destinations similar to the one I’m considering’. I think my designs could be improved for a more thrifty audience. Also, none of the participants used the ‘explore’ feature to find ‘somewhere with a beach and nice weather’.
Recommendations
I should make the design have a bigger emphasis on the ‘explore’ feature so users can search the type of destination they want to visit. I could add a way to show similar flight options using the information provided, potentially to similar locations the user didn’t think of.
Key takeaway
Focus on the 'why'
As I went through this project, I found myself asking both the users and myself, 'why?'
Why did they think that way?
Why did I place the button there?
In turn, every decision earned it's place.
Away You Go
Individual Capstone Project
New app to minimize customers' frustrations with finding cheap tickets.
Key skills: User research, design thinking, prototyping and user testing
Role: UX Researcher and Designer
