Zeit

Project Summary

Zeit is in the business of Time Travel Tourism. The company is the first of it’s kind and is in need of an ecommerce website. Zeit will offer trips back in time from prehistoric times through today, there are a total of 289 destinations that could be visited. They are able to do custom trips to a certain date back in time, but it will cost a little extra for the traveler. People will travel to controlled and extremely protected places that most closely resemble what we know of today as resorts, but including organized (and secured) trips to nearby cities and attractions, where interaction with locals will be limited. However, Zeit travelers will be able to look at and do things typical of the time, such as workshop activities or attending shows. Despite all this, Zeit wants to make the selling of the tickets as easy as possible. Think about today’s travel agency packages. Since Zeit’s travel offerings are a bit restricted and limited, people will be able to shop for trips similarly to how one shops today for books or movies — by finding what interests you, reading more about the options, and making a purchase decision.

Zeit has asked that I create an e-commerce site for travelers to purchase tickets. I needed to find the best way to display trips, what’s special about each time and space and how to classify or categorized trips. The website needs to be responsive so users can access it from any device (laptop, tablet and mobile, mainly). The website should be able to show all products (e.g. tickets to a specific space and time) with the right categorization and filtering. During the checkout process, the user will be able to select the day of departure as well as duration of the trip in the present — whenever it’s more convenient for them, as well as understanding that the trip to the Virgin facilities is not included. Although this is secondary and lower priority for the project at hand, the website should also provide information about how the service works in order for people to understand and trust the company.

Understanding Challenges and Problems

Competitor Analysis

I looked at the most direct competitors that Zeit would have in today’s market. I looked at their strengths and weaknesses and found the ideal persona of what I think a customer of Zeit would be like.

From the travel industry I found that the UX is very simple and direct if you are looking at specific dates to travel within. Airbnb and Expedia are very good examples of traveling by date. From Atlas Obscura I saw that they planned out their historical trips by experience and the pre planned dates were provided. By witht these trips they have specific sites and tours so travelers can get the full experience. From SpaceX I found that the excietment of innovation and to be the first is a big drive for tourism. From my findings I will be able to create an innovative, simple and exciting travel site for Zeit.

Data Findings

I then began to start to gather research for the design of the website. I had my interviewees complete a card-sorting task to determine the categories that would be created on the Zeit website. From my findings I decided to create three categories that users could find a trip by. Those categories are Time Period/Era, Location, and Journeys/Events it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Interview Findings

From here I began my interviewing process to find the ideal persona of who would use Zeit. I started interviews and asked questions regarding the different stages of planning, booking, and traveling on a trip. From my findings I was able to make a persona for the user of Zeit. Once reviewing my research findings I created a persona of someone I think would use Zeit. Darcy Fischer is the average persona of someone who would use and access Zeit.

Task Flow

Once the user flows were complete I made a task flow of what it would look like for Darcy to find and book a trip. The user and task flows helped me to decide which pages I wanted to create and what I needed to make a complete flow for the user to book a trip.

Affinity Map

Once my first draft was created and made interactive I began my usability testing. I have 4 users complete set tasks. I had a total of 10 tasks for a user to go through the flow of booking a trip by location and fully completing the checkout process. My overall findings were a success with only minor specifications needed to be added.

Review

Overall, I was able to create a functional prototype of Zeit. I created several pages for if the user searches for a trip by location. The user is able to look through different trips by location and see where they are placed on the map. Once a place is picked, they are taken to the trip details page. There they can review what their trip will include and things to expect. One this page the users can also read reviews from previous people who have taken this specific trip. Once they are ready to book their trip they can input a specific date and time and submit to several checkout pages to confirm dates, excursions, and hotel. Once inputting payment the user can review their trip and be sent a confirmation email.