What is Taste Persia?

Taste Persia is a digital platform designed to connect travelers with knowledgeable local hosts in Iran, facilitating immersive cultural experiences while promoting sustainable, meaningful, and safe tourism.

Project Overview

Duration

8 weeks

My Role

Research & Design

Design Goals

• Emphasize sustainable tourism efforts and memorable travel experiences.

• Spotlight the one-of-a-kind and unique nature of these experiences.

• Guarantee and clearly convey Iran's safety for travelers.

• Create an intuitive and seamless digital user experience.

Opportunity

• The opportunity lies in developing and providing such services to promote sustainable travel choices.

Problem Statement

• Lack of digital services for foreign tourists to access authentic and secure sustainable experiences.

Software

Figma, Office

Team

Group of 5

Design Process and Discover

The survey, Interview, and Competitive Analysis

In the initial project phase, we conducted both a concise online survey with 12 multiple-choice questions and user interviews with 20 individuals, focusing on their experiences with tourism websites and online booking. These research methods were instrumental in identifying key pain points and informing our subsequent design decisions.

Additionally, we performed a competitive analysis of similar websites to gather valuable insights for our design process.

In our design process, we embraced the Double Diamond framework—a proven method that guides us through discovery, defining, developing, and delivering solutions. This structured approach ensures we thoroughly explore problems, create innovative solutions, and deliver user-centric designs that make a meaningful impact.

The Major Competitive Analysis Takeaway

• Detail Planning: Prioritize detailed plans for the day, including location, time, duration, and local experiences.

• Media or Multimedia reinforcement: Utilize videos and image galleries to visually acquaint users with the destination and potential experiences.

• Community reviews: Encourage user engagement through reviews and a blog, promoting idea-sharing and collective experiences.

• Practical Preparation: Provide travel checklists tailored to each experience, ensuring users are well-prepared for their trips.

The Major Interview Takeaway

• Highlight visuals: Place a strong emphasis on high-quality images and videos to aid users in selecting travel destinations.

• Streamline information access: Ensure that all necessary information is easily accessible on the website, saving users from the need to search elsewhere.

• Include user reviews: Acknowledge the importance of reviews and establish a robust review system for evaluating hotels and destinations.

• Simplify planning: Provide tools and features that make the trip-planning process easier for users.

The Major Survey Takeaway

• Budget Travel is Popular: Most travelers prefer budget-friendly options for their trips.

• Activity Choice Matters: The type of activity chosen is a critical factor when seeking new travel experiences.

• Online Platforms Are Key: Travelers primarily rely on web browsers like Google and social media platforms such as Facebook to discover travel destinations.

Design Process

Define

Affinity Diagram

The interviews were conducted, and the data was organized using an affinity diagram.

Affinity Diagram Takeaway

• Value Matters: Travelers prioritize affordability and seek reasonably priced experiences.

• Short Activities are Preferred: Travelers generally opt for shorter activities to maximize their travel experiences.

• Importance of Details: Crucial details like checklists, destination information, car rental options, and location details are highly significant to travelers.

• Destination Attraction: The appeal of the destination itself and the availability of local activities play a crucial role in travel decisions.

Persona

The persona was created based on user research. We designed the website to fit the user's needs and address their challenges.

After creating the persona, we wrote a scenario that helped us understand the user experience more precisely. This scenario allowed us to dive deeper into the persona's journey and gain valuable insights to inform our design decisions.

Develope

Sketch and Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

A series of sketches and mid-fidelity wireframes were created to visualize the hypothesis of how the experience would look like.

Site Map

To enable users to search and find the experiences, a decision was made to categorize each experience by date, location/city, and experience type

site Map and User Flow

To support what the navigation and flows would be like, a sitemap and user flows were created.

User Flow

Filters were added to allow the user to know what is more convenient when doing a solo trip or traveling with a group.

Moodboard

As a sustainable tourism project committed to respecting the host community, inspiration has been drawn from Iranian culture, nature, and a rich palette of colors in the creation of our mood board. After several iterations, the final mood board has been arrived.

Design System

To facilitate the development of high-fidelity screens, a comprehensive design system was established. This design system ensures uniformity in colors, fonts, and components throughout all user experiences.

Iteration and Usability Testing

A/B Testing on Homepage

Home Page Iterations

Throughout the design process, the home page underwent numerous iterations, encompassing various elements such as the hero image, logo, typography, icons, search bar, card sizes, buttons, and footer. These iterative improvements were made to ensure an optimal and user-friendly home page experience

Hero Image and Search Bar

We conducted both usability tests and A/B tests for our hero images on multiple occasions, gathering valuable user feedback. Some of the issues users encountered included:

• The complexity of Hero Images: Users found the hero images too busy and expressed a preference for images with vibrant colors and fewer objects.

• Clutter Affecting Readability: Due to the crowded composition of the images, users faced challenges in reading the title and subtitle, which introduced the website.

• Ineffective Search Bar: The placement of the search bar was not optimal, and users had difficulty with drop-down menus not appearing correctly.

These insights from user testing have been instrumental in refining our design and user experience to better meet our users' needs.

Card and Button Iterations

After conducting user testing on our card designs, we received valuable feedback from users, which included:

• Inconsistent Card Sizes: Users found the card sizes to be either too large or too small, and the fonts were not suitable for the website.

• Button Curvature Mismatch: Users noted that the curves of the buttons did not align well with the overall card design.

• Inadequate Image Information: Users expressed concerns that the images used on the cards did not convey sufficient information.

• Button Size and Typography Variations: The size and typography of the buttons underwent multiple changes based on user feedback and iterative design improvements."

Deliver

Final Wireframes

In the subsequent stage, we crafted high-fidelity wireframes. These final wireframes, also known as hi-fi prototypes, were developed after thorough research, design, rigorous testing, and multiple rounds of iteration.

Mobile Version

As our project encompassed both desktop and mobile versions, we embarked on re-sketching and transforming our designs to accommodate mobile devices. This section includes the initial sketches for the mobile version as well as the resulting low-fidelity wireframes.

Challenges and Solutions:

One of the challenges we encountered was the conversion of the desktop version into a mobile app, primarily because of the adaptive website design. To address this challenge, we implemented the following solutions:

Final Mobile Version

Reflection

What I Have Learned from This Project:

• Research plays a crucial role in every design phase, making our product better. We can make the product more user-friendly by testing and improving it repeatedly.

• Creating a UI kit not only makes our design more cohesive but also helps our team communicate better, making future changes easier.

What I'll Do Next:

• My next step will be focusing on making the product even more user-friendly with more usability tests and improvements.

• working on making the pages more accessible to a wider audience, emphasizing inclusivity in our design.