SELMA AMBASSADOR (SA)

Improving Tourist Experiences

Researcher, Interaction Designer

(4 Team members)

Duration

2 months

Platform

Mobile, Website, Tablet

Tools Used

Paper and Pen

Google Drive

Wix

Apps Village

White Board

Pixelmator

Mobicube

Mindmiester

White Board

OVERVIEW

Selma Ambassadors (SA) will bridge the gap between visiting tourists and the plentiful available local resources.

The cities current tourist attractions infrastructure is amazing and powerful in terms of capturing the history, but it lacks the solution to engage tourists. The business owners in Selma are eager for a digital solution that would engage its tourists base more frequently and allow them to provide visitors a active sense of support and hospitality.

The Problem

For Tourists

"This cities historical scenery is very rich but it took me nearly 4 hours to discover the main attractions and that was credited to my wide search on facebook"

Selma needs a one-stop-shop source to organize and share all of the cities trails, activities, museums, restaurants, lodging, main events and attractions in one convenient place.

For Selmian Business Owners

"We see so many tourists come and leave our city but very few seem to know where they're looking for or understand the cities landscape."

Selma Business owners need a online digital source to connect with tourists to over their services. A place where the local business owner can offer products and services. A place where they can push deal notices and the latest news, and information on how tourists can support their sites. There is a great need for consumer and local business community to communicate.

The Goal

Encourage tourists to schedule their plans around ready available resources for appropriate accommodations. Creating a B2C relationship that offers consumers a personal welcome.

Create a reliable online digital source to making facilities, programs and services readily accessible for visitors. Bringing all local business attractions, services and resources information to one place for convenience.

Create a community to invite real customer reviews from travelers. Mobile vouchers to eliminate the option of printing tickets. Book activities and tours with a few quick and easy clicks. Find amazing things to do nearby or discover and book thousands of activities from their mobile device.

The Research

Our 50 survey respondents really open our eyes to what many visitors experience when they visit Selma and how they feel about the current tourists communication and marketing processes. Our main objective was to follow and perform the following things:

Discover

Field study,Diary study, User interview, Stakeholder interview, Requirements & constraints gathering

Explore

Competitive analysis, Design review, Persona building, Task analysis, Journey mapping,nPrototype feedback & testing (clickable or paper prototypes), Write user stories,Card sorting

Test

Qualitative usability testing (in-person or remote), Benchmark testing, Accessibility evaluation

Listen

Survey details, Analytics review, Search-log analysis, Usability-bug review, Frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) review

Insights from survey and interviews:

There is no central online place that list all of the attractions, museums, and ticket information.
No social media coverage for lodging or eatery's like AIRBNB and Uber Eats or restaurant etc.
Everyone has heard about Selma but few know about other historic factors of the city.

Have you ever heard of the

Battle of Selma? (50 respondents)

No

Yes

Did you book any of your travel arrangements to Selma using online resources?

(50 respondents)

No

Yes

The Competitors

From our research, we discovered that currently there is no application which allows tourists to book local events and attractions from local businesses.

Now there are websites for mainly every attraction in the city but you would have to know firsthand the name of the museum or attraction to search for it online.

AIRBNB just launched a new product called 'Experiences' which could become a very stiff competitor. However, we have decided to use this option to our advantage and create many of the local attractions profiles for the AIRBNB experience, thereby holding the cards of the technical driven way to get new customers to the businesses doors through our applications management.

The User Persona

Meeting the needs of two different user groups

In order to achieve SA goal of increasing tourists retention in the city, we decided to understand two different users - daily tourists experiences based on their own arrangements.

Isabella

Freelance Photographer for a living.
Travels often for leisure
Uses ARBNB for everything
Loves small town stories
Single and willing to pay more for convenience

Kenny

Works as a software developer
Travels twice a year for family vacations
Never heard of AIRBNB
Likes historic preservations
Loves a great deal

The User Journey Map

We created a journey map for the typical Selma tourist in order to understand thier emotions and the things that might motivate them to use the app. In order to create a positive experience for the tourist, it was important we address and minimize the things that instigate negative emotions.

Awareness . Decide/Plan . Participate . After

SA Promotes

the App

Interest

from

tourists

wonders about

other apps

Unsure how effective it is

Reports

One issue

people begin

up voting the

issue

Not sure if action is being taken

Action Still in progress

Problem

Fixed

improved

results

new issues

Emotional Experience

Initial Sketches

We followed rapid ideation - each team member quickly sketched his/her own ideas for the homescreen. Then, we shared and compared our ideas and came up with sketches that all of us agreed on to get early feedback.

User Feedback

Testing our initial concepts

We wanted to understand what users expect to see on the home screen and the actions they would take to report a problem. Positive reaction ensured that we are moving in the right direction.

Feedback:

Some tabs on the homescreen may not be required for a power user

Provide easy way to report problems

Homescreen should allow users to start navigation

Sketches to Wireframes

Further improvements converted into wireframes

I created low fidelity wireframes to perform some more testing and get feedback. This helped users visualize the content and functions of the application.

Home Screen

Home

New Event

Deals

Activities

Nearby

Option to add

new destination to profile of user

Option to add

new destination to profile of user

Activities available

based on location

Nearby partner venues, hotels, restaurants, trails, etc.

Choose New Event

Events

Home

New Event

Deals

Activities

Nearby

Museums

Deals

Activities

Events

Site Markers

The Prototype

Usability Testing

For Tourists

The cities current tourist attractions infrastructure is amazing and powerful in terms of capturing the history, but they are not very engaging for the tourists. The business owners in Selma are eager to come up with digital tools that would engage its tourists base more frequently and provide them with an active sense of support and hospitality.

For Selmian Business Owners

The cities current tourist attractions infrastructure is amazing and powerful in terms of capturing the history, but they are not very engaging for the tourists. The business owners in Selma are eager to come up with digital tools that would engage its tourists base more frequently and provide them with an active sense of support and hospitality.

The Solution

For Tourists

The cities current tourist attractions infrastructure is amazing and powerful in terms of capturing the history, but they are not very engaging for the tourists. The business owners in Selma are eager to come up with digital tools that would engage its tourists base more frequently and provide them with an active sense of support and hospitality.

For Selmian Business Owners

The cities current tourist attractions infrastructure is amazing and powerful in terms of capturing the history, but they are not very engaging for the tourists. The business owners in Selma are eager to come up with digital tools that would engage its tourists base more frequently and provide them with an active sense of support and hospitality.

SELMA AMBASSADOR (SA)

Improving Tourist Experiences

My Role

Researcher, Interaction Designer

(4 Team members)

Duration

2 months

Platform

Mobile, Website, Tablet

Tools Used

Paper and Pen

Google Drive

Wix

Apps Village

White Board

Pixelmator

Mobicube

Mindmiester

White Board

OVERVIEW

Selma Ambassadors (SA) will bridge the gap between visiting tourists and the plentiful available local resources.

The Problem

For Tourists

"This cities historical scenery is very rich but it took me nearly 4 hours to discover the main attractions and that was credited to my wide search on facebook"

Selma needs a one-stop-shop source to organize and share all of the cities trails, activities, museums, restaurants, lodging, main events and attractions in one convenient place.

For Selmian Business Owners

"We see so many tourists come and leave our city but very few seem to know where they're looking for or understand the cities landscape."

The Goal

Encourage tourists to schedule their plans around ready available resources for appropriate accommodations. Creating a B2C relationship that offers consumers a personal welcome.

​

Create a reliable online digital source to making facilities, programs and services readily accessible for visitors. Bringing all local business attractions, services and resources information to one place for convenience.

Create a community to invite real customer reviews from travelers. Mobile vouchers to eliminate the option of printing tickets. Book activities and tours with a few quick and easy clicks. Find amazing things to do nearby or discover and book thousands of activities from their mobile device.

The Research

Our 50 survey respondents really open our eyes to what many visitors experience when they visit Selma and how they feel about the current tourists communication and marketing processes.​ Our main objective was to follow and perform the following things:

​

​

Discover

Field study,Diary study, User interview, Stakeholder interview, Requirements & constraints gathering

Explore

Competitive analysis, Design review, Persona building, Task analysis, Journey mapping,nPrototype feedback & testing (clickable or paper prototypes), Write user stories,Card sorting

Test

Qualitative usability testing (in-person or remote), Benchmark testing, Accessibility evaluation

Listen

Survey details, Analytics review, Search-log analysis, Usability-bug review, Frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) review

Insights from survey and interviews:

There is no central online place that list all of the attractions, museums, and ticket information.

No social media coverage for lodging or eatery's like AIRBNB and Uber Eats or restaurant etc.

Everyone has heard about Selma but few know about other historic factors of the city.

Have you ever heard of the

Battle of Selma? (50 respondents)

No

Yes

Did you book any of your travel arrangements to Selma using online resources?

(50 respondents)

No

Yes

The Competitors

The User Persona

Meeting the needs of two different user groups

In order to achieve SA goal of increasing tourists retention in the city, we decided to understand two different users - daily tourists experiences based on their own arrangements.

Isabella

Freelance Photographer for a living.

Travels often for leisure

Uses ARBNB for everything

Loves small town stories

Single and willing to pay more for convenience

Kenny

Works as a software developer

Travels twice a year for family vacations

Never heard of AIRBNB

Likes historic preservations

Loves a great deal

The User Journey Map

We created a journey map for the typical Selma tourist in order to understand thier emotions and the things that might motivate them to use the app. In order to create a positive experience for the tourist, it was important we address and minimize the things that instigate negative emotions.

Awareness . Decide/Plan . Participate . After

SA Promotes

the App

Interest

from

tourists

Our 50 survey respondents really open our eyes to what many visitors experience when they visit Selma and how they feel about the current tourists communication and marketing processes. Our main objective was to follow and perform the following things: