LONELY PLANET

RESEARCH PROJECT

A couple of years after leaving school I found myself on a plane to New Zealand. Like many backpackers I bought a van on the cheap to be able to travel the islands and have a home on wheels. These vans never changed in price and were sold from one traveller to the next, whilst they tended to lack any guaranteed performance they did however come with something just as useful a Lonely Planet Guide Book. Obviously in 1999 the internet was not yet our go to for travel advice rather more a means of communicating without having to write a letter. So for this project I wanted to explore how Lonely Planet in 2021 had progressed in the age of the internet and whether it was still a useful resource for travellers in the digital age.

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OVERVIEW

TIMELINE

  • 4 WEEKS

PROJECT

SELF DIRECTED RESEARCH PROJECT

SOLE RESEARCHER

USER RESEARCH

DELIVERABLES

  • USER INTERVIEWS

  • THEMATIC ANALYSIS

  • OBSERVATIONAL USABILITY TESTS

  • COMPETITOR RESEARCH

PURPOSE

The idea for this project is to identify how Lonely Planet is meeting the needs of its Users. The project will give us a platform to move forward with identifying further areas of research, persona/empathy map development and ideate possible outcomes.

METHODS

USER INTERVIEWS


OUTCOMES

THEMATIC ANAYLSIS

USABILITY TESTS


OUTCOMES

PAIN POINTS

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

COMPETITOR RESEARCH


OUTCOMES

INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS
DISCOVERY & ANALYSIS

USER INTERVIEWS

I decided to start the process with speaking with travellers so I could understand their current thoughts on travel and how they have gone about researching overseas travel.
Due to certain limitations these interviews were done remotely via Zoom interviews.

INTERVIEWEES

For this round of interviews I was able to find 5 willing participants aged 30-80. All have done some form of travelling outside of package holidays.


Ali

"For San Francisco I looked online I thin on Tripadvisor mainly. I also got a little guidebook"

Anna

"It is much easier when a trip is all organised and planned out. When I went up the Norwegian Coast before we didn't have anything planned but we got off wherever. However that was in my early 20's back then."

Shaun

"I normally would use the internet however I'd say the guidebook for Cuba. As we didn't have internet"

Jenny

"I'd probably just Google the different places and see what Google offered. Then go through the different sites."

Orlando

"I think we had a guidebook. I like the Wallpaper guides they are quite small and you get a feeling that they have been curated"

INTERVIEW STRUCTURE

  • I arranged five interviews over the course of a week.
  • Each one was contacted via email and advised of what the interview scope was for and how their information would be only used for the nature of this case study.
  • Interviews were expected to last up to half an hour and would be centred around an informal conversation to understand how they planned their travel.
  • I outlined 11 open questions to keep conversations going and to make sure I was able to collect good qualitative data.
  • I could not prescribe the questions completely as every user's travel experience is different.
  • I advised each interviewee that these interviews would be recorded so I was able to analyse the data.
    DISCOVERY & ANALYSIS

    THEMATIC ANAYLYSIS

    Understanding User Needs

    Whilst it is easy to look at a website and review it heuristically I felt that a good place to start would be learning how different users plan their travels. By conducting a thematic analysis of the interviews I had conducted I felt I would have a better understanding of the user motivations.

    Transcribed Interviews

    • Transcribed Recordings

      Each interview was transcribed so that the data could be analysed. This was somewhat tedious however it was the best way to delve into the information.

    • Prepared Interviews For Coding

      Through transcribing and re-reading the interviews I was able to familiarise myself better with what had been said.

    Read Interviews

    HIGHLIGHTING CODES

    Once I have transcribed each interview I was able to then familiarise myself with the qualitative data. By re-reading the interviews it helped me to become aware of similar subjects across the five interviews.
    I came up with the following 6 codes.
    Planning Decisions
    Motivations
    Travel Resources
    Travel Duration
    Locations
    Travel Activities
    Download Thematic Analysis Interview Coding
    Click Here

    ANALYISING THEMES

    After developing the codes and distilling the qualitative data down I was then able to review this information and develop specific themes.
    This took various attempts until I was able to decide what themes transpired from this initial interview stage.

    RESULTS OF THEMATIC ANALYSIS

    After reviewing these themes I placed these under three headings: Practical, Platform and Personal.

    LESSONS LEARNT

    Conducting my first round of user interviews allowed me to understand about the various ways travellers use or do not use certain booking tools. These interviews combined with further research methods will allow me to refine user interviews to focus on specific areas of information that would create better outcomes for Lonely Planet digital platform.
    The thematic analysis of these user interviews highlighted areas in my own understanding that was lacking and the need for ongoing research and ideation. I feel that both Codes and Themes would benefit from discussion within a workshop. Developing themes that as a team we could then move forward with through the following design process.
    DISCOVERY & ANALYSIS

    USABILITY TESTING

    OUTLINE

    Following on from conducting User Interviews I thought it would be valuable to see how users navigated the Lonely Planet website. To do this I had five users share their screen so I could record their navigation as they tried to find certain information on the site.

    CHALLENGES

    There were a few challenges conducting these virtual testing sessions and proved to be a good learning experience regarding how various user interact with digital platforms.
    Comprehension of Task
    Age
    Technology

    DATA COLLECTION

    Once users were setup to share screen I was able to then ask them to complete 6 role playing tasks.

    When I asked each user I needed to make sure I was allowing them to figure out the steps they needed to do to complete the task.

    • Not Leading Questions.

      Making sure I did not imply my own understanding of where to find certain information. Open description of what information they needed to find for their potential travel.

    • Avoiding Prescriptive Directions.

      Being aware that seeing how the User navigates the site is what I need to see. Making sure that I was not indicating which links were the fastest to locate desired information.

    Creating a Report

    I watched each recording of Users navigating the Lonely Planet website and took notes on what they did.
    I then highlighted any pain points that were evident with each task.
    I noted any conversation that they were having explaining their decision or frustrations.

    To See Full Usability Testing Report.
    Click Here

    PAIN POINTS

    From this report I was able to then distill down these Pain Points into three areas.

    Search and Filters

    LP is an information heavy website and relies on the ability for Users to search and filter information.

    There are two search bars and multiple drop down menus however none offer ease of use.

    No consistency in what search results will return.

    Filters are not always comprehensive or lacking for bookings, activities and finding restaurants.

    Users heuristic understanding of Hero Pages found the LP page crowded and not intuitive.


    Confidence in Service

    Sometimes whilst searching you are transferred to third party website. No indication of their trustworthiness.

    Membership is offered however it is unclear what are the benefits.

    Would a User want to download their App Also if their experience of the website is not professional?

    Book Now buttons sometimes caused hesitation with Users when seeking further information regarding a booking.

    Information Navigation

    Overload of information.

    Ad's dividing page width given the impression of being a footer. Also distract from reason to visit LP website.

    No obvious link to Thorn Tree Forum or Reviews of potential bookings.

    LP shop is separate from main website. Users found it difficult to return to information on main page after visiting the shop.

    Add to Cart option for relevant books on destination pages would enable faster checkout and less confusion.

    USABILITY TESTING TAKEAWAYS

    Interviews

    The more I do of these the easier it will get. Understanding how to interview knowing that data pulled from these will be used in a certain fashion helps structure and make sure content is covered during the interview stage.

    Coding

    Learning how to be effective with transcribing interviews so then coding is effective. Learning how to pull this information out and present would be easier now that I have done this case study.

    Themes

    Probably the hardest part of this case study is knowing whether the Themes you have chosen reflect the data you are reviewing. I think this would really benefit from teamwork and hearing a groups input to generated Themes.

    DISCOVERY & ANALYSIS 

    COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

    To get a better understanding of the pain points raised in the User Testing I decided to look at three digital platforms that offer similar services. These competitors hopefully would allow me to see how other platforms worked around some of these issues.

    Competitors

    Although not an exhaustive list of competitors I researched those that I felt offered the same of elements of what Lonely Planet are trying to do on their digital platforms.
    The competitor can be split into two groups of direct competitors like Rough Guides and Frommers and indirect competitors like AirBnB, Tripadvisor and Rome 2 Rio.
    I did not included purely app based products for now but rather those that had a website offering their services.
    I created matrix for the pain points that had been highlighted during the usability testing to see how competitors faired.

    Search and Filters

    Information heavy website search functionality.

    Looking at how Users found Lonely Planet search options to be frustrating I decided to see how the competition faired.

    • Review sites such as Tripadvisor and Tripexpert streamlined their information and then allowed you to filter down. Simple and effective means of finding what you need.

    • Kayak did this in reverse where you could filter what information you were after then search.

    • Rough Guides which is quite close to Lonely Planet in its offerings had added pre-search criteria which only seemed to complicate accessing desired information.

    • Simple clean landing pages with unfussy search bars in the Hero Image seemed the way to go.

    Confidence In Service

    Increasingly Users Want To Know What Other Users think.

    With this pain point I looked to see how competitors presented themselves and how they instilled confidence in the service and brand.

    A few did the job and had links to their social accounts, clean webpage with minimal advertising and modern layout. However only a few combined this with customer reviews and ratings for their services.

    AirBnB has a clean simple layout with relevant information at hand. Pages show reviews of their services so users can gain a sense of how other users have enjoyed an experience.

    On the other end of the scale Lastminute.com is confusing with advertising both on the side of the screen and appearing in banner form across the page. Whilst they have links to current Covid regulations and social media the site itself appears similar to a page from 00's.

    INFORMATION NAVIGATION

    From these competitors I sought to find solutions or better options for how information on these sites could be navigated with ease. Specifically I wanted to see how other sites presented clean landing pages, convenient add to cart options and integrated shopping experiences.

    Minimal Yet Essential Options

    Airbnb leads the way on how to streamline an information heavy website and encourage users to search in an easy no nonsense search and filter system. They focus on the job at hand by removing unnecessary information which aids focus without distraction.


    Add to Cart Option

    Fodor's travel has an option on each city or destination where you can purchase the relevant guidebook. Simple yet effective prompt for user and saves times searching later.


    Integrated Shop

    Rough Guides manages to integrate their shop seamlessly with the website. Users are able to go back to searching destinations and visit the shop without getting stuck in this part of the website.


    Competitor Analysis Conclusion

    It was easy to compare Lonely Planet with competitors however it is somewhat subjective.
    This is a process that I would normally workshop with various teams to get their input of what they see as strengths and weaknesses.
    It would be a good way for teams to also see how competitors are creating better user experiences.
    Conclusion

    LESSONS LEARNED

    & NEXT STEPS

    This self directed UX Research case study allowed me to apply various methods into understanding qualitative data. Gathering this information through interviews, usability tests and observing competitors digital platforms.
    It is clear that research does not stop here and this research itself would then prompt further investigations during the Define, Ideation and Prototyping phases. However I do feel confident that useful information from this research could be used to help defining and ideation stages of the UX design of the Lonely Planet website.