Tripcents
— 2018
UX Research:
Potential Users - Erin Jacobson & Eimear O’Meara
Existing Users - Amie Bergeson & Rachel Jackson
Usability Testing - Zach Rausch & Mark Pietrovito
Group Facilitator: Amie Bergeson
Studio Lead: Rachel Jackson & Eimear O’Meara
Design Coordination: Erin Jacobson
Tools: Invision
Tripcents approached our team in the fall of 2018 in an interesting position for a young startup. At 18 weeks on the market, their app had reached over 100,000 downloads, a great marker for early stages of an app. They were struggling, however, to convert users to the core purpose of the app - saving for travel. Daily usage rates were steady but conversions rates for users to sign up for a savings account were discouraging, hovering around 2%. The Tripcents team had received positive reviews during their first round of funding, but as they prepared to enter a second round in the coming months, they wanted to take some time to pause and evaluate the direction of the app to ensure that they were moving forward with a viable product. Over the course of three weeks, our team of six conducted intensive research of the existing app to evaluate the existing product market fit and develop solutions for a simplified, financially focused version that showed 25% increase in conversions after the first two week of testing.
LAUNCHING TRIPCENTS
Tripcents launched in May of 2018 with the combined efforts of four co-founders with a passion for travel. In the history of their travels however, they found they shared a core challenge when planning a trip: saving for travel.
“We’ve all had trips we were dreaming about, but kept putting off because they were expensive and difficult to plan. Or we've spent months planning group getaways just to have the majority of people drop out at the last minute because they didn't save enough.
This shared pain point ignited the spark that would later become Tripcents: “A mobile application that is designed to enable people to travel by automating savings while providing personalized insider deals.”
18 WEEKS LIVE
When Tripcents approached us, they had been live in the Apple App store for 18 weeks with a successful mark of 100,000 downloads. Operating with an agile methodology, the tripcents team launched updates nearly every week to improve core functionality and test new features. When we started our work with Tripcents, the app provided four core features.
CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES
CHALLENGES:
- Though the app had 100,000 downloads, only 2% of users were setting up a savings account - the intended core feature of the app.
- The ability for users to book deals had been only mildly successful to date. It was unclear whether this was related to the feature or the fact that users had to pay a $2.99 subscription fee to access the deals.
OPPORTUNITIES:
- Of all the features the app offered, the ‘create a budget’ had generated the most use with users. This was encouraging, but the Tripcents team craved more data on how users were engaging with the budgets and insight on what might be missing.
There was a lot to dig into - however, our team found one issue to be the most concerning: saving for travel.
This was the core feature of the app but with only 2% of users setting up a dedicated savings account, was the app targeting the right value proposition?
3-TIERED RESEARCH APPROACH
To properly evaluate the validity of the current value proposition - saving for travel, our team decided to focus research on three key areas.
#1 -
POTENTIAL USERS
Over the course of 5 days, we interviewed 11 people - all classified as ‘potential users’ of the app. Respondents were filtered by their interest in travel and age. What we found surprised us but ultimately led us to important insights about the behavioral patterns and intent behind planning and saving for travel.
Although we found our respondents were not potential app users, their responses helped us verify that: 1.) Saving & travel work hand in hand and 2.) Tripcents should be focused on new travelers that don’t already have established planning and savings methods.
#2 -
EXISTING USERS
Interviews with 13 existing users provided interesting insight into behavior patterns of existing users - specifically that of actual versus intended use of features within the app.
#3-
USABILITY TESTING
Interviews with 13 existing users provided interesting insight into behavior patterns of existing users - specifically that of actual versus intended use of features within the app.
RE-DEFINING TRIPCENTS
Our research validated that the core feature of a dedicated savings account was a viable value proposition however, there was a clear need for a new, focused direction for the tripcents app.
REFINING THE TARGET MARKET
Our research showed that experienced travelers already had established routines and savings habits, leading to the focus on ‘new’ travelers in the new mission statement. Research of potential and existing users helped us define ‘new’ travelers as the following:
Apprehensive Anne
Age: 25
Single
Income: $45K
Goals: Wants to know how to save properly & see her money grow
Pain Point: Lacks trust putting personal information on app & limited funds to save
Breezy Ben
Age: 33
Single
Income: $80K
Goals: Enjoys experiencing adventures with his friends
Pain Point: Doesn’t know how to plan trips efficiently - wants to just join instead of stress the details.
Paisley the Planner
Age: 37
Married
Dual Income: $160K
Goals: Plan, save & budget for her Europe trip on time and efficiently
Pain Point: Planning for a trip is time consuming & research intensive.
ESTABLISHING NEW DESIGN GUIDELINES
Looking back to our initial research, our team identified three key metrics to help guide the design of a refined app experience for Tripcents’ target market, ’Apprehensive Anne’.
#1-
FINANCIAL FORWARD
SIMPLIFIED USER FLOWS
A simplified user flow was developed to redirect focus to budgeting and saving. The new flow continually routes users to set up their savings account at peak points
