Totem

Summary

In our early stage trip planning, we discovered that young adults look for inspirations and options from everywhere; but in collaborating with friends, things tend to get messy as opinions differ. And while we have come to understand they enjoy and prioritize the sense of freedom that comes with being able to travel anywhere with anyone, they also tend to have limited budgets and unpredictable schedules.

To address this issue, we introduce our google extension: Totem, an information collecting and safekeeping tool that helps our users create inspirational mood boards to share with friends, and indulge in the aspects of trip planning they love without being tied down by complicated logistics and awkward social etiquette.

Affiliation

CMU
User-Centered
Design and
Evaluation

Team

Zexuan Li
Junwoo Cheong
Proud Taranat
Iris Yip

Duration

August, 2022
December, 2022

My Role

UX Researcher

Problem

Our initial goal focused on helping college aged and young working professional users effectively plan spontaneous getaway trips. However after extensive research, we realized that money, time, and collaboration were significant limiting factors for users to plan trips under a short notice. So our goal shifted to helping young, budget conscious users efficiently plan trips collaboratively.

Research Methods

Insights

In early stages, users are guided by visual appeal, especially when browsing online: Current collaborative trip planning tools such as excel do not support the use of images.

“I like to keep my options open and narrow things down based on what I can afford”.

Users appreciate subtle and indirect ways of resolving social differences in collaborative trip planning.

“I feel uncomfortable bringing up money in front of close friends but I still think it’s necessary to do”

Users appreciate flexibility with regards to time commitment and decision-making when planning trips collaboratively.

“I don’t mind letting someone I trust take the lead”.

Solution

Our insights eventually led to the final solution, Totem, a web-based extension that allows users to collaboratively (or individually) plan trips using an image-driven approach. This solution provides an efficient and visual way to organize key items in each trip, and allows users to easily accommodate the differences in their trip-planning style and social circumstances.

The browser extension can be accessed through any standard site to save bookings, reservation details, listings, and other web objects with ease, allowing the user to collect and save info without breaking their flow.