Understanding Travel Planning

The research goal: to better understand the end-to-end traveler journey from inspiration to booking.

Duration
March - April 2022

Methods + Tools
In-depth Interviews / Visual Research / Personas / Mural

Role
Solo Researcher

Client
Viator - Sponsored Project

Problem space

Viator prides itself on making it easy to find and book high-quality travel experiences all around the world. With no current personas, the client wanted to better understand customer segmentations and how their attitudes and purchasing behaviors might differ.

OVERVIEW

Outcome

Personas that encapsulate two distinctive groups of travelers, and a final summary report that address defined research objectives. This exploratory research enables them to align product offerings with customer needs. They serve to inform future initiatives and features around travel research, planning, and purchase behaviors.

RESEARCH PROCESS

The 5 phase approach

This five-phased approach was used to address the study design, lending structure to the research process while also outlining stages of progress clearly to involved stakeholders.

01

Align

Organize questions + study intent

02

Plan

Recruit + create protocol

05

Apply

Moving the data forward

04

Analyze

Synthesize + deconstruct insights

03

Gather

Capture + debrief data / stories

ALIGN

Stakeholder workshops bridged gaps in understanding and identifying the type of research we’re interested in

Research questions were determined by working with the client stakeholder through a series of workshops to brainstorm, define, prioritize, and categorize based on what we were aiming to learn most about (product vs. people). This led to a refined list of research questions and ultimately the learning objective.

Understanding travel engagement and purchase behaviors

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

PLAN

Information on Viator’s current client base informed the participant sample. The protocol was designed from the research questions to effectively engage participants.

Participant sample

Balanced gender, convenience sample

DEMOGRAPHICS
PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Believes in travel planning

Use desktop and mobile devices daily

BEHAVIOR

Person planning an upcoming trip

ABILITIES

METHODOLOGY

Remote one-on-one participant interviews conducted in a single session via Google Meet

GATHER

Capturing the end-to-end travel planning journey through in-depth interviews and visual activities

Interview sessions and visual activities led to rich qualitative information to be gathered and analyzed

ANALYZE

Utilizing color coding and affinity mapping, data interpretation and pattern-finding revealed travel planning themes.

PERSONAS

Personas were created to model and summarize the different types of travel planners that emerged from this research. Notable quotes helped shape the two distinct travel planner types.

“If I stuck with the research more, I feel like I would have found something better.”

“I want the best! It saves me time when I can just google the ‘top 10’ or ‘best burgers’ or ‘best coffee spots’ of a city.”

“I’m a part of ‘Traveling with Toddlers‘ facebook group. I find helpful travel tips when it comes to traveling with my family that I can’t find anywhere else.”

APPLY

Key findings

  • Visually-driven tools such as Google Images, TikTok, Instagram, and Yelp are utilized to get a big picture idea of what to expect from a travel destination. Travelers prioritize visually aesthetic experiences and activities with the intent to share content themselves.

    Travelers seek lists that summarize the “best” or “top” things to do. Lists bring order and simplify travel research. Google is the preferred search engine for travelers to seek the “best” or “top” things to do. These list make consuming information quick and easy to digest.

    Travelers are distrusting of information that could be sponsored or don’t tell the full story. They vet and validate their research by seeking opinions of like-minded travelers or utilizing crowd-sourced content (Yelp, Instagram geotag location, Tripadvisor).

  • Time and value were big factors that impact decision making and the purchase process. Security was an interesting factor that was revealed. The unprecedented travel impact of covid has caused travelers to shift a greater importance on flexibility and security. Travelers want to know their purchases are protected in the event of emergencies, cancellations, or delays.

  • Travelers were mindful of seasonally relevant attractions or activities. For a period of time, the covid-19 pandemic made travel plans unpredictable making travelers are interested in flexibility .

  • With little time to plan, last minute travelers want to be able to lean on locals or trusted companies on where to eat and what to do. Though last minute travel can be exciting, travelers weigh the pros and cons of fluctuating prices. They are wary last minute bookings can lead to cheap deals or inflated prices.

  • Annual family vacation and special occasions sat on the fixed date end of the spectrum. These events are often recurring or allow travelers a decent amount of foresight and anticipation in their planning. The next trigger was mental health needs, these are unpredictable and are therefore compromised by short trips and weekend getaways.

  • It was found that mobile use was more predominant in the initial phases of research, where visual imagery and inspiration could be found. A mix of mobile and desktop device usage occurred in the middle stages. Which is where participants utilized a diverse set of collaboration tools. The final travel phase of booking commonly occurred on a desktop. This pattern is likely due to desktops allowing participants to cross-reference their options in order to make informed purchases.

The reasons for what triggers the need for travel planning sat on a spectrum. This pattern was also detected when understanding which devices travelers use for planning and when.

PATH FORWARD

Expand + inform

  • Expand customer understanding by conducting additional participant interviews that satisfy a larger sample and explore other market segmentations.

  • Apply learned insights and established personas to inform other learning objectives. (Understanding non-committal travel engagement behaviors, Ideating for increased travel engagement). Evaluate if the research insights and established personas can be applied to these learning goals, and identify remaining knowledge gaps.

  • Socialize personas and allow them to strengthen user empathy and guide product decision making.

RETROSPECTIVE

What I learned

  • In UX design, providing rationale often revolves around explaining design choices to teams, emphasizing the user experience's benefits and aesthetics. However, in research, the rationale centers on the justification behind the methodology and approach used to uncover user insights.

    Through this project, I've learned that justifying the research approach and methods demands a more nuanced understanding of the specific research objectives, potential biases, and ethical considerations. It necessitates clarity in defining why a particular approach was chosen, what it aims to reveal, and how it aligns with the overall research goals.

  • I embraced the opportunity to integrate visual research techniques into my research protocol, a decision that came with its unique challenges. While some participants faced a minor learning curve, and there was a potential risk of exceeding our allotted time, the adoption of these visual research strategies proved to be incredibly rewarding. By providing participants with creative prompts, we empowered them to convey their experiences more vividly and express themselves through the use of images, gifs, and even by sketching out their travel planning. This approach facilitated the gathering of rich and insightful narratives from our research participants.