Flights booked
Hotel booked
Now what?
We’ve all experienced a medical or health event, either our own, or someone who we care about. It’s a situation that can be filled with stress, anxiety, and fear. Now, imagine experiencing that while traveling in a foreign country where you don’t know where to go for help, or speak the language. ExploreWell is on a mission to make it easier for people to access health and wellness resources while traveling (or anyone who is interested in learning more about local health and wellness resources where they are located).
Come on a journey with ExploreWell to learn more about how to expand your horizons while traveling and truly connect with the destinations you’re exploring.
Client: ExploreWell
Role: UX Researcher, Designer, & Strategist
Methods: Directed Storytelling, Heuristic Analysis, Card Sorting, Think-Aloud Usability Testing, Strategy, Wireframing, Interactive Prototyping
Tools: Figma, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, & Mighty Networks
Deliverables: User Journey Map, Competitive & Comparative Analysis, Annotated Wireframes, Information Architecture Diagram, & Strategy for Growth
People travel to connect with the world
People don't want to spend their time in a tourist trap. They don’t want an experience where there’s hundreds or thousands of tourists. They want authentic experiences. To find those experiences, people need to connect with local residents or others familiar with the destination, who can provide recommendations on reputable and authentic experiences.
“When we travel, we try to experience what the local health and Wellness scenes are like. What are the unique things...we can’t do at home?”
As a former Travel Agent, I had clients that wanted to experience the destination and connect more deeply with the people who call those destinations home.
Traveler’s trust recommendations
Directed storytelling interviews revealed that people not only searched on Facebook, Trip Advisor, Yelp, X, Reddit, etc. for recommendations to help them plan their trip, they trust these recommendations. Travel forums and groups exist. However, these resources are siloed in individual groups and not broadly searchable.
“I’m more likely to trust a blog than a website. There’s no other topic that I’m going to trust a blog over information on a site. But, I feel like it’s a person who had that experience. I trust that more than a website that someone maybe didn’t update.”
Four types of users
This represents a user’s journey for someone who is searching for health and wellness resources (user story #1).
-
Goal: An individual seeking destination specific health and wellness information to accommodate their need.
Story: As a traveler with a specific health condition, I need to find medical and wellness resources in the destination where I am traveling, so I can take care of my healthcare needs.
-
Goal: An individual with a health or wellness requirement seeking a suitable travel destination to accommodate their specific needs.
Story: As a traveler with a specific medical condition, I want to find a destination where I can travel that accommodates my needs, so I can enjoy my trip without hassle/inconvenience or surprises.
-
Goal: An individual generally seeking health and wellness information.
Story: As a temporary resident in a new destination, I want to find local health and wellness, so I can connect with the community and maintain my well-being.
-
Goal: An individual with destination knowledge who is sharing health and wellness information.
Story: As resident in a popular travel destination, I want share local health and wellness information, so I can help travelers explore our community and discover well-being resources we offer.
Challenges for our team
How do we create a resource that is more valuable than a Google search, is compelling enough to pull users away from what they currently use, and affordable for ExploreWell?
Four main third-party platforms emerged from competitive and comparative analysis - two were chat platforms (Slack and Discord), and two were community forums (Discourse and Mighty Networks). Our team knew that a community platform was the best option for ExploreWell. We disagreed on the optimal choice though. Discourse and Mighty Networks offered a free trial. We set up a sample community on each platform to complete a heuristic analysis. As we sampled each platform, it became clear that Mighty Networks was the best option:
Having made a decision, our team moved on to how the community forum would be structured. Will people use this forum to find travel destinations before they book their trip or resources after they book their trip that meet their health and wellness needs/goals? Or, both?
How will users search?
To find the answer to that question, we completed a card sorting exercise with 25 participants. Unfortunately, our findings from card sorting showed us that the categorization of information is subjective. Usability testing revealed that users wanted the ability to choose the way they view categories. The search functionality combined with highlighted hashtags in the Mighty Networks is platform is robust enough to give users the ability to find information quickly. As the community grows, this would be a reason for looking at a custom built solution, or upgrading to a more customizable version of the Mighty Networks platform.
Images from card sorting
Setting the site structure
The informational architecture diagram for the ExploreWell Community Forum
Growing the community
Building a community requires intentional and consistent work and attention. Participants said they would only trust a community forum if there was consistent and updated content. In addition to building out the ExploreWell community forum on the Mighty Networks platform, our team developed an actionable strategy for growing the community forum, which was informed by secondary research on how to build an online community.
“It’s [only] going to be as successful as the people that are engaged in it. It’s going to be a useful tool if people are using it.”
Learning About the Community Forum Video
Strategies for Growing the Online Community Video
Learning
As a former travel agent, and frequent traveler, I understand wanting to connect with the people and destinations where they travel. However, some local venues do not welcome tourists. In addition, over tourism can be a challenge for local attractions. It is important to balance tourists desires with what a local destination can handle. Travel Weekly offers great insight about this in their “What can happen when locals control tourism?” article by Arnie Weissmann. Striking a balance will be important for ExploreWell as they grow their community.
I enjoyed exploring how to integrate third party platforms as a solution for ExploreWell in this project. I would continue to explore different ways of categorizing content and really dive into the map features offered by Mighty Networks to see how it could be used to provide more relevant recommendations to users.