Lople Travel App
Lople is an application which helps travelers have a slice of local life of any place they travel to & provide the locals the chance to get paid for their passion. Helping you embrace cultures at a click.
How did the idea occur?
As a budget traveler, I was on my trip to Goa this March with my friends. We were there for a span of 5 days and we had exhausted our travel researches by the 2nd day. And being there for Holi, we really wanted to celebrate it as the locals do, however even after the day’s search we ended up on a scruffy beach with rather dull setting. This made me wish what if we had a local travelling with us, who could just show us the perfect seasonal places, gave an insight in to the Goan culture, and tell us exactly what fish to order. I did my research, and couldn’t find a platform which could offer me the same. I talked to a number of my friends, messaged a few travel bloggers and in general became conscious to observe this In all travel related content online. That is when the idea for Lople was born.
Timeline
3months
Tools
Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
Role
Ideation,
UX research, UI design
What was the challenge?
For eons, Travel has been equated to travel itineraries, Tour guide groups & museum pamphlets. Whereas real travel should be about slurping the sorbet down at an ice cream parlor, or catching that sunrise from the peak, listening to the stories behind the famous sculpture or riding a kayak amid the city lanes. But who else can better help you experience this than a person who calls the city home. Lople aims to connect the traveler and the local, to redefine travel experiences. The locals act as hosts, which helps them share their love for travel while earning.
What will the revenue model be?
Lople Is a free to download application for all the users. As for the local/host it will help them find the users for the experiences they are offering or the place they are hosting to, and the app will keep a percentage charge on every transaction executed. It will also help the local promote its services with discounts and plans at a nominal fee. As for the traveler, it will connect it to the desired local and will monetize via the advertisement.
Working towards the SOLUTION
To solve the problem, a series of stages ought to be undertaken, which involved researching, empathizing & connecting with the prospective users, analyzing industry competitors, investigating for the missing links, ensuring the accessibility & feasibility of the application. the below is a road map depicting the various steps performed.
Empathize
The empathizing phase was a journey, from being a traveler to getting a snippet view into the mind of other travelers, and understanding the needs and the missing links. Process of Body storming, interviews and questionnaires helped be gain a newer perspective with each interaction
Qualitative Research
Travel is very subjective for every user, hence their needs and aspirations differ. To understand and get a wider perspective on it, post our desk research we went ahead and interviewed a few people and asked them some of the following basic questions. Since it was amidst the pandemic, the interview had to be conducted telephonically.
01 How open you are to meet new people?
02 Do you wish to make other people familiar with your history and culture ? Are there any spots around your city 03which you wished more people could see ?
02How inclined are you in hosting people? What do you feel about hosting travelers, following your passion and getting paid for it ?
04Does the idea of travelling and being a travel guide in your own city excite you ?
05Do you love to explore your own city?
06How many hours can you contribute in a week for hosting experiences?
07What is your travel motivation?
Key Insights from the Interview
- The urge to explore new areas and have striking experiences is their main motivation to travel. Keen on staying with a local family, but not spend the whole trip wit them.
50% would to play host and the 30% were open to the idea of it, whereas 20%have never tried it before.
82% of the users love to explore their own city and have their own favorite spots.
Users are enthusiastic about meeting new people but a few would want to get acquainted before hand online.
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Users showed an inclination to meeting locals but were concerned about the authenticity and safety
Quantitative Research
Interviews can be conducted only with a niche user base. To get a wider glimpse we hosted an online survey using Google Forms. This aided us in mapping patterns, behaviors and needs deeply. The following are the statistics for some on the questions we included.
What is your idea on exploring the true culture and the local life of the place you travel?
“Roaming around the streets in during busy times & strike a conversation with a few locals”
“ By interacting with the local people, one can truly explore their deep-rooted traditions”
“Opens your mind to how the people do things differently in other cultures, is useful to adopt in our life”
The most challenging activities to find recommnedations to?
a. Cultural explorations, Local activities & History
b.On going music festivals, party arenas
c. Clean beaches and sunset peaks
Key Insights from the Interview
Define
The define phase was focused on applying the understanding from the research into forming the two users of the app, i.e. the traveler and the host. Each carries with itself it’s own needs, expectations and pain points. The below devised personas, empathy maps and customer journeys are an attempt to define them closely.
User Personas
Empathy Mapping
Traveler
Host
Customer Journey
Traveler journey before Lople
Host journey before Lople
Traveler journey after Lople
Host journey after Lople
Ideate
The process of ideating involved Brain storming a viable solution, now that problem statement and the target users were familiar. It involved generating reasonable and implementable ideas which would make the application useful and drawing out the sitemap of the app for easy navigation.
Information Architecture
Brain Storming
Design
The design stage involved stirring up the creative juices with a pinch of color psychology, dash of typography and lots of visual sense. It involved, wireframing, designing the logo and the visual aspects of the app, prototyping and other creating the entire UI of the app.
Wireframing
The Wireframing process began by making paper wireframes, sketches to define the flow of the app for the users. It aimed at enhancing the accessibility, usability, easy categorization of information & fulfilling the interaction and layout needs.
Visual Design Elelements
Hues speak to the users before anything else, because they carry with them an emotional connotation. The color palate chosen is based on a picture I took on a trip to Pondicherry, it captures the essence of local travel as its base.
‘Orange’ radiates courage to explore and the essence of change, whereas ‘Blue’ denotes calmness, trust & a part of nature.
Prototyping
01 Onboarding
The App opens with the splash screen and the user is acquainted with the major uses of the app, which sets the tone, followed by a sign up screen
Choose the PROFILE TYPE and proceed
02 Profile Verification
To ensure the authenticity of the users and prevent frauds, the user is required to submit two official identity proves and a facial verification follows. This earns the profile a VERIFIED stamp . Further, the profile details like gender, OTP verified contact details, languages spoken etc need to be filed out. the screen also helps with addition of payment portals and password resets.
03 Help Section
The help section of the app, guides the user through various FAQs that might occur during the interaction, the cancellation policies for both the host and traveler, safety options like near by first aid, police and contact details. The user also gets to REPORT AN ISSUE by choosing the category and typing in the complaint.
04 Traveler's Flow
After choosing the place of travel, user can either book a stay or an experience with a host. They can browse through the available options as per user’s budget. Choose the apt match, check HOST PROFILES, reviews and the itineraries to make the right choice and proceed to pay. It allows stream less communication with the host
01 Customize
02 Search
03 Browse
04 Select
05 Pay
05 Traveler's Dashboard
This is the traveler's personal space for easy accessibility of the information. This space provides the traveler four major options of Messaging, calendar, trips status and a blog section, switchable from the menu bar on the left.
Messages
The inbuilt messaging portal serves as an easy way to facilitate stream less communication amongst the traveler and host, making the entire process quicker and hassle free.
Trips
The Trip section depicts the traveler’s wish list, past & upcoming trip details. It displays some handy highlights about the city in picture, like the main attractions, maps, optimal travel options, some SOS representative contacts, best places to eat, shop etc.
Planner
The Calendar depicts the traveler’s trip schedule at a glance along with free time slots they have during the day. Whereas the Checklist acts as a personal packing assistance, wherein it curates an editable essentials list to pack on your next trip.
For You
The For You tab contains various quick read articles, tips and hacks relating to various travel associated topics (hacks, food, safety) for the user to read written by other travelers and bloggers
06 Host's Flow
The host’s flow is what allows it to get itself registered for hosting. It begins with choosing to offer an experience or stay. All the registration process is dotted with tips and help links to make the process smoother and convenient.
Stay
If the host chooses to offer stay, he can select the type, amenities provided, any luxurious services, what helps them stand out and the activities included. They can even add the rules to be followed during the stay. Pricing is always a task, so the help article helps them come up with the optimal price depending on the market rate and location. The host is also guided on the market trends, best tips for interiors, hygiene and itinaries.
Experience
Under experience, the host gets to choose a category ranging from adventure to art to culture. The key here is to be as creative and unique with the itinerary. The host gets the full freedom to design his day tour, include timings, maps, equipment needed etc, and price it as a per person ticket mechanism, The host gets to accept or reject the booking request, after analysing the traveler, their ratings and reviews and the verified mark.
07 Host's Dashboard
The host’s dashboard aims to serve as a one stop solution for all insights, bookings blogs, planner, and messages.
The Task Manager helps manage under three main parts.
Messaging
Insights
Task Manager
For You
​
The bookings tab manages all booking requests, upcoming and accepted bookings.
The calendar gives an overview of the schedule.
The task manager contains of an editable checklist where you can keep track of inventory, repairs, payment lists, cleaning cycles, etc.
01.
The Messaging portal has been designed keeping in mind the usability by host’s coming from all age groups and sectors. It gives you the opportunity to set scheduled messages triggered by the events you set. It also gives you suggestions by providing message templates for different hosting events.
02.
The INSIGHTS tab acts as the Host’s analytics tracker, which portrays the views, bookings, information about income & expenses and monthly sales; all in pictorial formats for enhanced convenience. It displays the Reviews received at one place and an average of the total ratings received. It shows a word cloud from all the reviews and picks up the most used words, to show the tempo of the month at a glance. The dashboard displays a list of articles, magazines, videos etc. where the host’s has been mentioned or featured. This encourages them to utilize such platforms more for marketing.
03.
Lastly, the For You tab is dotted with a number of quick read articles discussing best hosting practices, hygiene tips, pricing guidance, and other articles under the topics of sales, marketing, food, etc. This place acts as a safe place the host can fall upon for immediate answers especially when new to hosting.
What did I LEARN?
​Design extends beyond the aesthetics and connects to empathy and problem solving. Working on this application taught me to understand the needs of different user’s and how small changes can bigger differences in terms of enhancing the usability and make the experience more joyful. It gave a different perspective on travel and how there can be economical ways to travel, that also strengthens the sense of community and moves towards localization.