My Citi Hunt web app •UX/UI case study

Product Manager: Meredith Cohen
UX/ UI Designer: Marija Golubovic

Objective

My Citi Hunt is a product designed to offer a unique, personalized experience for the exploration of new places around the globe! This is not your random travel app. With My Citi Hunt, you get to discover places based on your interests and skip usual touristy sights.

Whether you’re traveling alone or with a group, you just need to choose a visiting city, enter the date and time for your adventure, choose from over 100 different topics of interest, and based on the inputs, the app generates a personalized scavenger hunt map with places to discover!

What are the benefits?

• My Citi Hunt saves you time for sights research, and it’s available on the go

• It offers a unique scavenger hunt experience for groups and solo travellers

• It’s your pocket concierge service, available whenever you need it - online & offline

Current Pain Points

Creating a scavenger hunt game can be challenging for inexperienced users and especially without prior knowledge and experience.

• Finding the places to visit and planning the sightseeing is time-consuming.

• Popular touristic places are sometimes overrated, and travelers often miss unique local experiences.

• Scavenger hunts are usually designed for active and outdoorsy people and are not suited for people with disabilities

• When traveling with family or a group of friends, it’s challenging to plan exploration when you simply don’t share the same interests and expectations from your travel.

Competitive Analysis

Marketing Advantage

• Personalization: Customized game based on users' preference

• Availability: Every day of the year

• Environment: Indoor & outdoor activities

• Support: Company donates to charities

Key Objectives

• Core messages “Wander With Purpose” and “Your Adventure Awaits.”

• The best landmarks and hidden gems around the city

• More than 100 roles available for players

• No need for a spot reservation

• Designed for all ages

Overall Strategy

The business of Let's Roam is designed to connect people around the globe and people around the specific user by offering over 200 hunts on three continents. What makes it unique is that every quest is designed for up to 10 users, and every person has a specific role, so there are no leaders; everybody is equally important.

Marketing Advantage

• Calls for action: The first three games are for free

• Availability: Invites users to create geocashes and find ones that are hidden locally

• Editor's choice: Google Play Store Rating 4.7, App Store 4.5

Key Objectives

• Invites users around the globe to go out and look for geocaches

• Worldwide treasure hunt

• Over a million geocache containers around the globe

• Every container contains a secret treasure

Overall Strategy

Wherever a user is located, geocaches might be near. This global game of creating and hiding secret treasures inspires gamers to go on a hunt and explore the neighborhood.

User interviews

Discovered behaviors & attitudes

For the research purpose, we interviewed 10 participants with different demographic and ethnographic backgrounds. All of them searched for scavenger hunt suggestions online at least once. They would usually download scavenger hunt maps on their phones or print out the maps. The majority of the interviewees expect the game lasts from 1 and up to 4 hours, or longer for larger groups, but with short breaks.

Needs & Expectations of the app

Test participants expressed their expectations from the scavenger hunt travel app:

• The map needs to load quickly and must be available online & offline, reliable & efficient as Google maps

• It should enable users to save or label visited locations

• It should have a sight preview option to enable users to view how visiting sight look from the outside

• It needs to provide an approximate time of commute & walking distance

• Focused, non-distracting guided map interaction with options to zoom in & out

• It should work offline, relying on GPS location and navigation service

• It should have an option to search for a specific sight and search history
  
  

Needs & Expectations of the game

The majority of the test participants:

• Never created a scavenger hunt from scratch

• Puts the excitement and mystery of the scavenger hunt in the first place, as they don’t know where the quests are going to take them.

• Thinks that scavenger hunt is more suited for groups than for individuals, and as such, it should rely on team spirit and include every team player equally

• Prefers scavenger hunts in nature (e.g., parks, national parks, or in forests)

• Expects to have an option to choose activities & their level during the scavenger hunt, such as walking, running, climbing, and jumping, depending on the weather

• Thinks the instructions for the scavenger hunt need to be short and straightforward, and three participants prefer riddle-style directions for an extra dose of fun.

See more on user research ➡️ here

User Personas

After analyzing user interviews and sorting insights, we decided to create two initial personas, as they represent two different ends of an audience spectrum. We have created User Persona Daniel, who goes on a scavenger hunt only with his girlfriend, and User Persona Meghan, who wants to spend quality time with her family and learn about the place they visit

“Eat like a local, drink like a local, think like a local”

Goals and needs

• Daniel travels with his girlfriend around Europe whenever they can, usually once per month

• They like to explore new places and learn about historical and cultural heritage

• They think places for tourists are usually overrated, and they try to connect with locals and get their recommendations

Motivations

• Daniel wants to explore the world, but as a student, he has to stay on a budget

• He thinks touristy places can be pricey and overrated

• Wants to spend quality time with his girlfriend and have memorable experiences

• Often posts on Social media

• Eats healthy, and avoids processed food

Frustrations

Daniel is concerned about the conformity of millennials, their poor lifestyle choices, and junk food addiction

He believes he can't get to his full potential if he doesn’t move, and he often thinks about leaving the country and starting a nomadic lifestyle.

“Sometimes I feel like I need a personal assistance for all the work I have to get done”

Goals and needs

• Weekend getaways with her family and romantic weekends with her husband so she can relax and enjoy their time together

• The family likes to take road trips and explore new places

• At least once a year, they travel abroad with extended family and friends

Motivations

• Wants everyone to enjoy and have fun

• Thomas and Meghan care about Sofia’s growth and development, so put her needs first

• As a busy businesswoman, Meghan often feels like she doesn’t have time for herself, so stealing a bit of family time for “her time” won’t harm

Frustrations

• Relies on Thomas a lot; he is her biggest ally, but she gets sad because they don’t have more time for each other as they used to

• She usually doesn’t have a lot of time to organize family trips even though they are usually short

• Not a lot of places they visit as a family are kids-friendly

User Stories

USER INFORMATION (examples)

• As a new user, I want to select my preferences so that my scavenger hunt can be as personalized as possible

• As a Scavenger hunt newbie, I want to have a guide available so that I can do the hunt anytime I want

• As a Scavenger hunt newbie, I want to have an option to choose my hunt pace so I know I have enough time to finish it

• As an experienced Scavenger hunt goer, I want to have an option to save my experiences so that I can share them with friends and family

THE GAME (examples)

• As someone who started a scavenger hunt, I want to have an option to save progress so that I can take short breaks and continue where I left off.

• As a user who finished a few scavenger hunts, I want to have access to a dashboard with all my accomplishments, so I can follow my progress and save places I visited.

• As a new user, I want to have access to a free trial game so that I can decide whether or not I want to create more scavenger hunts.

• As someone who doesn’t always understand a quest, I want to have an option to get a hint for my challenges in case I get stuck so that I can still have a chance to finish on time.

Read more User Stories ➡️ here

User Flows

Main USER FLOW

1. open the app

2. chose to create an account

3. enter email address

4. confirm the input

5. get redirected to the mailbox

6. confirm the email address via magic link

7. get redirected to the app

8. app's home page

Meghan recently found out about My Citi Hunt, and she is very excited to see how it works. First, she downloads the app and creates the user account.

• Objective: Create a user profile by using an email address for verification

• Entry point: Home page

• Success Criteria: Active profile and return to the Home page

Main user flow

1. open the game creator

2. choose the city

3. choose the interests

4. set the date and time

5. set number of players

6. set the accessibility features (optional)

7. start the game

After signing up, it is time to create the first scavenger hunt

• Objective: Set up the game preference, and access the game

• Entry point: Access the game creator

• Success criteria: Start the game

Main User Flow

1. open previously created scavenger hunt game

2. follow instructions, solve quests and take photos/videos as the part of the challenge

3. successfully finish the scavenger hunt

4. choose option to post photo(s)/ video(s) on social networks

5. choose Facebook as social network to share photo(s)/ videos(s)

After finishing the hunt, Daniel wants to share photos and videos he took along the way with his friends on social networks.

• Objective: Daniel wants to share his scavenger hunt experience on social networks

• Entry Point: Opening previously created a scavenger hunt

• Success criteria: Posting a photo(s)/ video(s) through My Citi Hunt directly on Daniel’s Facebook page

Card Sorting & Resulting Sitemap

GENERAL PROJECT INFORMATION

• A total of 6 participants gave their opinion on how the sitemap should be organized. Before they started with the sorting, they were informed through the Optimal Workshop messaging system what the project is about, the purpose of the research, and that there are no right or wrong answers.

• Before entering the card sorting environment online, test participants had to answer two questions:

  • “Have you ever gone on a scavenger hunt before” from which we learned that just 2 out of 6 participants participated in a scavenger hunt before

  • “Have you ever used a travel app before? If so, could you remember the name of it”? and 4 out of 6 said they have used travel apps before; HereWeGo, Booking, and Airbnb were their answers.

Card Sorting Results

The Best Merge method looks much like the original sitemap, but some of the changes were mind-opening. For example, one of them is that a Gallery category should be transferred from the Profile group to Live Feed.

Thanks to Card sorting research, we learned about the importance of informing test participants about what their task is and how the results will help my project grow.

During the research, participants weren’t sure where to sort certain categories, however, because of the nature of the product, we couldn’t reveal or provide suggestions about the features planned to develop for this app. That is why some categories ended up being unsorted, such as the Help or Invite friends categories

The final version of the Sitemap shows the simplicity of the game. Navigation is not cluttered with options, so it allows easy access to wanted features.

Usability Testing

USABILITY TEST PLAN - METHODOLOGY

After creating an initial sitemap and developing low & mid-fidelity mockups of the web app, it was time to take our design to the next level. We organized the first round of Usability testing and the primary goal was to receive feedback from potential end-users. The usability testing was moderated and held in-person and remotely via Google Meets.

PARTICIPANTS & SCHEDULE

A total of 6 people participated in usability testing. For detailed information about their demographics and testing schedule, please contact me directly.

TEST SCRIPT

The usability test script used during the prototype testing contained Introduction, General Personal Questions, open-ended questions related to participants’ previous experience, and direct hands-on tasks. For detailed information, please contact me directly.

TEST OBJECTIVES

• Learn do participants understand the basic navigational structure and how they interact with available features

• Lean do participants understand basic user flows: sign up, interests update, and content upload

• As a moderator and interviewer, I observed participants’ behavior during the study and encourage them to speak their thoughts. Also, I observed their body language and thumb movement while interacting with the prototype to help us make conclusions about element positioning.

GOALS

1. Learn how well users understand the app’s basic functionality, features, navigation structure, and overall value and service the app provides

2. Test usability, efficiency, and satisfaction of the app and discover errors

3. Learn about what test participants think about the project, their preferences, their satisfaction with this basic product

Discovered Errors

Final Prototype

For defining UI elements, I followed Material Design recommendations and Design for Accessibility guidelines and tested users' feedback. I kept the design simple and made it even more engaging. Two main features are promoted – the Home page Live feed containing users' posts (only publicly shared ones) and the option to Create a personalized scavenger hunt.

UI Library segments are available ➡️ here

The link for the prototype is available ➡️ here