Jimoto - People, Places, and Possibilities

‍The problem space❓

An estimated 235 million tourists travelled internationally in the first three months of 2023

With the world gradually emerging from the clutches of the COVID-19 pandemic, borders, international and domestic, have begun to reopen for travel. The need to travel has become a testament to the human spirit that craves wanderlust, cultural exchange, connection, and discovery of new experiences. In the world of travel and cultural exploration, there is a growing need for fresh ways to bring together like-minded individuals who are enthusiastic about traveling together and creating meaningful cultural connections.

‍s.e.t analysis👔🔍

How well does this problem fit in real time with the customer base?

‍competitive analysis👔🔍

what can we learn from Existing Competition?

‍user research👔🔍

User Surveys: What do people think about travel?

We started our user research by conducting about traveling. We posted to subreddit travel groups, facebook groups, twitter, and people who had previously studied abroad. We aimed to gather insights about what people thought on all aspects of travel in order to find common pain points. We received 27 responses of people ranging from ages 20-54

‍user interviews👔🔍

“The [travel] apps are usually generic and they make you experience the culture like a tourist and not a native.”

After going through our responses from the survey we reached out to those who wished to partake in the interview. There were 5 responses seeing as we were on a time crunch, but despite a small number we gained very insightful information from both inexperienced and experienced travelers: Issues with flight cancellations or delay, frustration with airport/airline customer service, faced difficulty when encountering cultural differences, and felt directionally challenged in new areas

‍The real problem👔🔍

Navigating the Chaos of Travel Planning and Creating Connections

Planning an itinerary for a foreign destination often leads to frustration, stress, and indecision. Currently, travelers must navigate a fragmented booking process and conduct their own research to piece together plans. Beyond logistical challenges, there's a cultural disconnect. In the post-pandemic world, travelers are eager for genuine, real-life connections but struggle with where to begin. They either attempt to quickly grasp the nuances of a new culture or try to blend into their surroundings without fully experiencing them.

‍our idea👔🔍

The goal for our app: jimoto

Jimoto is a budget-based travel planning app that integrates TikTok content and local suggestions to curate unique itineraries. It proposes day-to-day activities based on the user's budget and timeframe, leveraging AI to offer a personalized virtual tour guide experience.

‍user flow - traveler's pov👔🔍

Before I went on to sketch
the screens I built the app flow from the travelers' POV

wireframing🧑🧑

initial sketches

The next steps were to start creating wireframes based on the user flow we previously settled on. It helped to draw it out on the whiteboard and erase as we went on. We took inspiration from our competitors key features to help our app stand out and also minimize the learning curve.

lofi design🧑🧑

lo-Fi Wireframes

Based off of the wireframes we started to create lo-fi wireframes so that we could begin a round of user testing on the app interface (we only focused on the travelers' POV!

mid-fi - mvp concierge💎

First round of testing

After creating our Lo-Fi wireframes we created a Minimal Viable Product to test on users and gather feedback on how we could better the experience of using the app.

final product (kinda)💎

hi-fi design

With user insight on our app we created the hi-fi wireframes for the final product (or so i thought).

Google Analytics + Unbounce🧑🧑

A/B Website Testing

Wiith our final prototype ready we used Google Analytics to set up testing for which two versions of our site design to use in the final implementation. Variant A is a simplified version to show what our app has to offer while Variant B goes more in depth into what the actual prototype looks like.

Looking at our results from Unbounce we can infer that Variant A was more effective in catering to our target audience seeing as it had the highest conversion rate of 5.07%. There was a 26 person difference between them and 2 more conversions for variant A than variant B. Overall Variant A did better so we can cater to this type of simplified branding for Jimoto.

Our Google ad generated 4.67k interactions at a cost of 10 cents per click (CPC) and accumulating a total of 826 clicks. Moreover, our analysis of top search queries revealed valuable insights into user needs, enabling us to fine-tune our app's offerings to better serve our audience's travel-related requirements.

Top Key Words and Searches included:
holiday destinations
travel
travel and tourism
cheap mexico vacation packages
fun places to travel solo in the us
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Figma Prototype‍

conclusion 🧠

what did i learn from this project?

This project was one of the toughest challenges I've faced. I was incredibly lucky to be part of an amazing team that worked tirelessly to realize this project which meant staying after class almost everyday and meeting up every other day.  Thanks to our collective efforts, we won the Catalyst Award for Entrepreneurship which gave us $100 to bring parts of jimoto to life, and we couldn't be more grateful. The process was immensely rewarding, as it allowed me to immerse myself in all aspects of entrepreneurship—from budgeting and marketing to pitching- which I had never been involved previously involved with. Ultimately I learned how important and valuable it is to have a great team when working on projects like these because it makes it all the more rewarding and timely effective.