Why Couchsurfing?

Couchsurfing Venture — Retrospective Travel is something that brings joy to almost every person. If you ask a person their opinion on travel, the response is almost always positive. And despite the horror stories of delays in airports, stolen luggage and pickpockets on the Ramblas, people always continue to travel. Why? Because the memories that those vacations and adventures create, make the potential obstacles that present themselves along the way worth it. In our fourth project our job, in a new team of three, would be to create a new product solving a real problem. The product would have to be original and would need to be built for an existing brand, well placed to bring the product to market. The first challenge however would be to agree on the product, or even the industry, that we would be designing for. I had grown to know my new teammates, Brandon and Caterina, over the last 5 weeks and it was clear we were friends, but that did not necessarily mean we had the same interests and passions. Over the first 24 hours there were some uncomfortable discussions about which direction the project would take. Given the breadth of options available it did not make for an enjoyable experience. However — we said from the off that once our proposal got approval from our directors, we would work together towards that goal for the good of the team, regardless of personal opinion. One of the few topics we agreed that we were passionate about was travel. Fortunately, our first proposal was accepted, and we had our brief: to create a new travel safety app that would be pitched to the accommodation sharing service — Couchsurfing. We had discussed each of our opinions on travel itself and we had many different opinions. I was more disposed to ‘off the beaten track’ backpacker travel, while others preferred hotel and resort holidays. Despite our varying perspectives, we all agreed that safety was a central issue when traveling. We discussed the growth of the ‘sharing economy’, and how it was perhaps most well represented by the accommodation giant Airbnb. However, we observed that safety was not such a concern for those renting through Airbnb — primarily due to the security inferred by the exchange of money. However, Couchsurfing seemed to be a perfect company to release a safety app. My colleague’s response when I elaborated the service the company offers epitomized this: ‘Sleep on some randomers couch? That’s insane!’ A number of terrifying accounts found online confirmed that this opinion was not uncommon, and we deemed that Couchsurfing would be well placed to market a travel safety app, increasing the security of its members while potentially providing a service that was attractive to other travelers. Initial Comparative Analysis In order to ensure that Couchsurfing was indeed a good fit for our brief we took an afternoon to survey the immediate competitive environment and see what safety features were on offer. We also carried out a market positioning analysis to identify potential opportunities. Competitive Analysis (Safety Feature) Market Position AnalysisKey Takeaways Though some of the competitors offer a range of safety tips and advice there are a few who offer almost no assistance, placing the burden of responsibility entirely on the user (Hospitality Club and WarmShowers). None of the companies offer a concrete service or product that would help in an immediate situation. Couchsurfing’s most successful competitors are all marketed towards all travelers, as opposed to a smaller niche market. We deduced that there is a clear opportunity for a company to create a product that offers more concrete safety features. Couchsurfing could also benefit from creating a product that is of use to a greater audience that its 12 million, mainly backpacking, members. We would call our product TrailSafe. User Research User Survey The next step in the process would be to verify that there was indeed a user need for such a product. In order to do so we would create a user survey to gauge how people on a larger scale think about travel, and in particular what their foremost concerns are. It would also help us to establish which device was most popular among respondents and therefore would be most pertinent to design for. We sent the survey out through a number of social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and mass email. We would aim to have at least 25% of the respondents to be Couchsurfing members, or have used Couchsurfing at least once. In total we received 55 responses. Means of keeping in touch with loved ones Hierarchy of concern (travel of friends and family) Hierarchy of concerns (with regard to personal travel)Key Takeaways We were able to identify the candidates to bring in for user interviews. We based these decisions on individual candidates proclivity for travel, preferred kind of travel and their concerns in regards to their own travel and the travel of others. With regard to their own travel users appear more concerned with: Budget > Accommodation > Safety > Itinerary > Losing possesions. With regard to the travel of friends and family users are concerned with: Safety > Budget > Accommodation > Losing Possessions > Itinerary. Travelers tend to keep in touch with their family and friends through numerous different apps and means of communication. We were made aware of the most important travel issues of our respondents, providing us with an idea of which features would take priority in our app. We were able to move on to the interview process with a select number of our respondents and we scheduled 9 interview appointments. User Interviews During our interviews we posed questions with the aim of finding out more about users’ travel related behaviors, experiences and pain points. This would help us to identify any patterns and common themes. It would also help us to to further identify which features would take precedence in our design and to find scenarios in which our product would be used. Some questions we asked during the interviews: What drives you to travel? Tell me about a bad experience you have had while traveling. How do you keep in touch with people while traveling? What are your concerns around traveling and why? “My mom automatically presumes I’m dead if I don’t respond” “I like to travel off the beaten track” “I am always worrying about my kids when they travel” “I make copies of all my important documents before I travel and keep my passport in a safe” Key Takeaway We were able to preen a number of insights from our interviews, with a dearth of experiences illustrating the travails of our users on their travels. Affinity Mapping, Personas and Storyboard We took the insights from our interviews and carried out an affinity mapping exercise which helped us to confirm the common themes we thought were present in our interview responses. By organizing the insights by context, experience, pain and pleasure we could formulate our user personas. Bobby the Backpacker — Primary Persona Our Secondary and Tertiary Personas When we moved onto the design process, referring back to these personas would be extremely helpful in ensuring that each choice was backed up by our research. Our primary persona was a young backpacker, traveling the world and exploring his freedom. However, he had a need to keep in touch with many loved ones at home. Our secondary persona was an elite traveler, in need of a means of storing important documents while traveling to distant locales. Our tertiary persona was ‘Jody the Mom’, a preoccupied mother worried about her family when in distant unfamiliar places. We also developed a storyboard in order to better illustrate user scenario in which our primary target persona might use the TrailSafe. Once again it is of great assistance in the design process. In our scenario, a young backpacker is excited to travel the world but his mother is apprehensive. He downloads the TrailSafe app which allows him to store all his important documents and check in with his loved ones quickly and through a number of means. His mother’s mind is put at rest and he can continue his travels worry-free. Our StoryboardOur problem statement for our product was as follows: Couchsurfing has a strong brand presence among free and easy backpackers and those looking to travel on a shoestring. However, many potential users will be turned off by the perceived insecurity of Couchsurfing. With a new ‘Travel Security’ product allowing users to check in and store all of their important travel documentation, Couchsurfing could increase its membership and at the same time expand its target market, while providing users with a one-stop product for all their travel needs. Feature Prioritization We had a good idea of where we wanted to take our app in regards to features, but we deemed that it would be helpful to carry out a feature prioritization to clarify which would be most essential and the subsequent cost in time/effort/expense. Feature PrioritizationComparative Analysis We carried out a study and analysis of the apps available that offered some of the features we had identified for our application. This would show us how these features are typically displayed and how they function. Some examples of the apps surveyed: A selection of apps offering similar features to those of our productKey Takeaways The apps available offer only one or two of these features. It is common for document/credit card apps make use of skeuomorphism. Itinerary and check in apps make use of both calendar format and list format. We observed that there is a gap in the market for an application with multiple features that would provide travelers with a one stop shop for their safety, contact and storage needs. Our product could also experiment with a flatter (and simpler) design in terms of our document and credit card scanning feature. Technological Constraints and Security One of the main obstacles in the development of our app would be security, as we would want our users to be able to scan and store sensitive documents. We spoke to a number of wed developers who assured us that the technology exists for an app to have these capabilities, but that it would be an expensive process. Building the app out would take 4–6 months. We would need a number of API’s for the apps features to function correctly. User Check-in — Twilio, Facebook Graph API, Mailgun. Document Scanning — OCR. Couchsurfing Availability API for built in availability information. Ideation Process We set up a design studio, whereby each member of the team sketched out their ideas in a short amount of time. We then presented our sketches andreceived feedback. We returned to the drawing board and sketched our next iterations based on our discussion. Once we had finalized our ideas we created some paper prototypes to test on users. Paper Prototypes Key takeaways from Paper Prototyping The logos used for our main navigation were unclear. Users found the calendar function unclear. Medium Fidelity Wireframes We then digitized our final hand drawn sketches into medium fidelity wireframes to test on 4 users. This would help us to ascertain any functionality issues with the user flow, as well as other more granular problems. We altered the logos in the main navigation as per the users complaints. Usability TestingWe uploaded our digitized wireframe to the Invision prototyping platform and took steps to set up our usability testing. Each member of the team would have a role during testing to ensure that all aspects of the users behavior could be recorded and analysed. While one member would facilitate the interview, asking question and prompting explanations, the other members would take notes and film the users actions while testing the prototype on both the iPhone. Our prototype for this version can be seen here: https://invis.io/W38O0EOYV “I don’t usually use touch ID but it seems like a really good idea for this” “Is that a house icon or a calendar?” “I don’t want to have to log in at the beginning, I want to go straight to the content” “I love this idea, I would use this when I travel” Key takeaways: The users found the icons on the main navigation difficult to under- stand, in some instances completely misinterpreting their function. Two testers wanted more feedback from the calendar when creating their itinerary. Users found their interest in the app waned with the protracted onboarding process. With these observations and pain points we were able to move on to a high fidelity iteration of the app with a clear idea of what changes to make. We made adjustments to the icons in the main navigation once more and built out the account/profile creation in the settings part of the app. Our prototype for this final version can be seen here: https://invis.io/4C8P37WJD Next Steps Short Term Build out the document scan feature in the application. Build out the Credit Card scanning feature in the application. Usability testing on the high fidelity iteration. Addition of the SOS function to the home screen. Long Term Research potential of a Google Maps API as background to home screen. Research potential for Beacon technology. Research into connectivity with banking institutions as well as currency converters. Research possible inclusion of local security news, potentially using an API such as GeoSure. More user research to establish who the true user of the app would be.