Brand
Project
Where Travel Meets Photography
Summary
I was lucky enough to work with the good people at Moment to explore ways to improve booking trips on their travel site.
Responsibilities
UX Design
Moment is the market leader when it comes to camera lenses for mobile phones but they were expanding their business model to include travel. They aimed to create a way for users to book trips with talented photographers as their guide. The team at Moment and I got together to explore ways to enhance their travel site. They wanted to improve the visual design, make the UX for booking trips more intuitive, and allow the itinerary to really stand out on the page.
An important skill for any freelance designer is to know how to scope out a project and then the ability to keep within the scope. I kicked off this collaboration by flushing out what their specific needs were and estimating my time to find a solution. We regrouped over a slack call and once everyone was aligned began the fun stuff: design exploration.
They needed a concept for what direction to take the itineraries. They were finding customers want to connect the stunning photos, with a specific photo spot, along with the key activity of the day.
For the first direction, I intentionally limited the number of changes to the original design template. This would allow for a quick and easy solution to the problem without much dev work. I reduced the length of the page by collapsing the itineraries into expandable sections, added “Photo spots from Day 1” to give a small gallery for what users can expect, and added a section on what they can expect to learn that day.
For the second direction, I used a concept where I tried to make each day become an immersive experience that users can click through and take on one day at a time. It maintains the same side-scrolling ux that the design currently uses, but allows each of the “polaroid-esque” cards to open up and share all the details.
For the third direction, I added full-width images to the itinerary. I simplified the itinerary to focus on the main events and allowed room for the image to tell it’s own story.
In phase one I also reorganized the content so that the activities and locations are front and center. Making a purchase that is over $1000 is tough and will require a lot of consideration for users. I brought the guide up above the fold and highlighted some of the brands he/she has worked with as well as their bio. By emphasizing the value of the location AND the value of the Guide, clicking “Reserve now” becomes much easier.
I walked the team through my directions and we chose one to develop further. We discussed a few things to improve and figured out the next steps. We decided to make the hero less of a static image and more of a photo gallery showcase. Two days later I met with the team again and presented the final direction.
Part of phase two included flushing out all of the mobile designs and really dialing in that experience. I ended up going with a floating CTA along the bottom to prevent the user from needed to scroll for days in order to finally make a purchase. I also cleaned up the “guide section” so that everything was pixel perfect.
When reading through the creative brief about how the design should be a combination of Photography Workshop and Hipcamp, I couldn’t help but feel the whole experience was a little lacking. The designs currently feel very transactional and unemotional. There is a missed opportunity there that I think could be solved with a more premium and immersive feel to the page. I think users should be drooling over the location, as well as the guide. It should feel as inspiring as the first time you pick up a nat geo magazine as a kid. So just for fun I started from scratch and rebuilt the page with immersion and emotion and the key feature. This one probably wouldn't covert as well but it sure does look pretty.
