Total Cayman - is a tourism platfrom to explore Cayman Islands
This is a Volunteering project (2021 2022), organised by a developer who is currently living in Cayman Islands. The idea for this platform belongs to himself along with his friend who knows many hidden and unique places around Cayman Islands.
The main purpose is to create an updated platform that provides unique places around Cayman Island and also serves as a platform to showcase local businesses.
Goals
Design an application for IOS and Android platforms, tablet version and website, which serve as a tool to promote local business, help tourists to discover unique places and share their favourite places.
Process
For this project I use a double diamond framework, which consists of four stages, along with a sprint design technique to help us manage the project volume work by breaking it down.
- Discover
- Define
- Develop
- Delive
Discover
“The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, encompasses 3 islands in the western Caribbean Sea. Grand Cayman, the largest island, is known for its beach resorts and varied scuba diving and snorkelling sites. Cayman Brac is a popular launch point for deep-sea fishing excursions. Little Cayman, the smallest island, is home to diverse wildlife, from endangered iguanas to seabirds such as red-footed boobies.
Competitor research
1. Trip Advisor
Aim
To provide people with the information and reviews of places to stay, visit and experience.
Navigation Menu
Relatively new Navigation Menu, good idea behind is the visitor should search by selecting relative categories. However, it is not consistent throughout the website and either is still not fully deployed, either is supposed to perform this way. Footer Menu contains many links, which do not provide necessary information, by placing unnecessary information to the bottom we declotter the space on the Main Nav and help the user focus their attention on the important features of the website.
2. Discover Ireland
Aim
Discover Ireland website is the official travel source for inland holidays in Ireland. This site includes comprehensive information on great things
to see and do at destinations across Ireland, including listings of activities and tourist attractions.
Navigation Menu
I love the icon options if you select a county or a destination – you have an option to choose a range of activities which interest you most. Sadly, further, I have discovered that the icons appear not for each county. Another thing I find is that the icons are a little inconsistent. I found the filters confusing to use. The menu looks great. However, it lacks speed a little bit. The website is focusing a lot on popular destinations. When selecting “Things to do” from the main menu and following the “Coastal escapes”, – I seem to get 593 results, with destinations, tips, and some blogs. I expected to get only the destinations.
3. View Ranger
Aim
ViewRanger Skyline lets you explore the outdoors with augmented reality, using your phone or tablet’s camera to label more than 9 million landscape features.
Navigation Menu
The Route Finder section, provides the user with an interactive map, and routes which were shared by the community. The Navigation Menu does not highlight where you are, I find this can be confusing especially for the first time user. To get access to the Routes and Track, the user must be Logged In or Registered.
4. Ireland
Aim
Displays the most popular destinations around Ireland. The use of images for the Desktop version also applies to the mobile version.
Navigation Menu
Plan your trip from the Main Menu provides with few options, such as; Getting here (Flights & ferries) Getting around (Driving in Ireland, Ireland by train) Accommodation (Sustainable stays, B&B stays) Two options for trip ideas, and see all the trip ideas. The image to the left is the result when you select the option ‘See all trip ideas’ – hub and spoke style menu.
The available filters allow the user to find the right destination faster. If you select one of the suggested trip ideas, in this example it is ‘All around Ireland’ you get the experience of an interactive map, and as you keep scrolling the map moves accordingly to the next stop location (day 1, day 2 etc). The viewer has a chance to select each stop and learn more about it. One uncomfortable thing with this I find is that you can only scroll up or down to learn about certain stops, you cannot skip a location.
User Journey
Minimalist interface of the application can cause a frustration to a use who is not yet comfortable to use the app via voice commands.
Pages Content
Task Flow 1
Task Flow 2
Google Home App - User Reviews (App Store)
Survey Results
I have used Google Forms to create a survey aimed at Google Home users (specific criteria is Google speaker user), to learn about the frustrations and favourite features and also to support previously collected findings. The survey was distributed using Social Media channels – Facebook and LinkedIn. The Survey contains opened, closed, and linear questions to collect qualitative and quantitative results. Follow this link for detailed questions.
The first question is focused on the demographic, and shows the main age group for users is between 26 to 35 years of age. Second screenshots represent that for the majority (80%) the use of application features is still important to control the smart speaker.
- 50% prefer to use mostly voice and sometimes require the application
- 20% use mostly application and sometimes voice
- 10% still use application only
This means that the application should gradually prepare and educate the user how to use all features by voice, before removing essential controls. Also keeping in mind that sometimes the voice commands do not respond correctly, technology has not been perfected for any smart home application yet. Therefore, the brand should have a backup plan, for the user to easily switch to app controls if voice is letting you down.
Other important findings from the survey show that 40% of the users find the Overall ease of use of the application (Q11) being difficult
- one user selected 2
- three users selected 3 (linear scale where 0 = Very difficult, 7 = Very easy)
Q12: Overall ease of understanding app settings – the settings within the application also highlights that 50% of the users find it difficult to find or understand.
- Two users selected 2
- Three users selected 3 (linear scale where 0 = Very difficult, 7 = Very easy)
Q15: • What would you change if you could?
- List of possible tree decisions for your problem trying to solve
- Universal settings regardless of what the connected device is
- more control over non-google devices, besides just turning it on/off and having only about 20 colours or something
- Now that I know the other features exist I would make these more visible and explorable
- Easier to find info within one app. To be able to link more devices, Ring for example not yet compatible
- Buy another Google speaker
- Make it compatible with other devices
- Interface to be more user friendly.
- Add NFC to link the app to a new device
Analysing Results - Current User Frustrations
Problem Statement
How might we minimise frustration for Google Home users and allow easy access to the essential application features?
Define
This is the Define stage, the focus during this stage is to filter through all the findings from the previous stage. This will help to narrow down the problem and will identify the bottlenecks. We will create a list of current problems and opportunities for improvement. This stage is also focusing on the user, defining the user personas, user journey maps, empathy maps.
User Persona 1
Thomas Murphy
Age: 32 Years Old, Male
Education: Bachelor in Computer Science and Information Technology
Work: IT
Location: Vienna, Austria.
Professional: Thomas is working for IT company, he is relatively new and about 3 years with the company. To pursue his career with this company he has moved to Austria from Ireland, and lives in a spacious city apartment. He loves discovering smart gadgets that improve quality and comfort of his apartment, this is one of the reasons he decided to invest into Google Home App compatible devices. His first purchase is the Smart Speaker – he likes listening to music.
User Motivation: Loves the idea of controlling devices from different rooms.
A shortcut if the voice command not working
To control smart devices – speakers seems to be the main issue
Accessible features in the Google home app
Frustrations: After some time of using smart devices, Andrew discovered that technology has some imperfections and that controlling using voice commands is not always so easy. Also, a biggest disappointment was to learn that the phone application has many hidden features and requires a lot of time to discover needed functions.
Technical Devices Owned:
- Google Home Speakers – uses daily
- Lighting – uses daily
- TV – uses daily
- eBike – uses 5 times p/weekT
User Persona 2
Stella
Age: 29 Years Old, Female
Education: Bachelor Visual Communication
Work: Graphic Designer
Location: Frankfurt, Germany.
Professional: Stella is a Designer and works in Frankfurt for Web Development Agency for the last 5 years, she recently got promoted to a team lead. She lives a little bit outside of the city and gets to work by train. Because of her busy work she has little time for gym, and tries to maintain her workout routine at home. She uses a smart speaker for her exercise and she finds it great when it works. Also, she is using Fitbit to keep track of her heart rate and monitor activity.
User Motivation: Loves the idea of controlling devices from different rooms.
A shortcut if the voice command not working
Learning new features in the Google home app
Frustrations: Stella uses some routines as well in the morning while having breakfast and in the evening for bedtime. She finds sometimes difficult to control the device, and not aware of all possible features, wishes to learn more about commands but in reality has little time to do so.
Technical Devices Owned:
- User has Google home speakers (2) – uses daily
- Fitbit – uses daily
Empathy Mapping
- Think & Feel – How is the user feeling about the experience? What matters to him or her?
- Goals – What is the user’s ultimate goal? What are they trying to achieve?
- Tasks – What tasks are users trying to complete?
- Pain points – What pain points might the user be experiencing that they hope to overcome? What are their fears, frustrations, and anxieties?
User Journey
Opportunities
Design
Deliver
What I have learned
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