Process
We employed the use of personas in perparing for the design process. The personas represented hypothetical users whose needs would be met by the application.
The O'Donnells
Robert O’Donnell, Retired Insurance Actuary, 66 years old. Susie, Wife, Retired Secretary, 63 years old. From Newport, MA outside of Boston. Three grown up children.
Robert has worked from 9 to 5 at the same company for over 35 years before retiring last month. His wife, Susie retired a year ago, and has been spending most of the time at home.
The O’Donnells have no international travel experience and only speak English. They have always wanted to see the world, “but never had the time.” They are most interested in travelling to Asia, which Susie finds ‘fascinating’. They have not thought of specific places to visit, but they definitely want to visit India and Thailand.
They have retired with a substantial nest egg, and with all the free time that retirement brings, they feel that the time is right for them to start travelling.
Their children bought them new smartphones for Christmas and Susie is already addicted to Angry Birds. Susie likes Angry Birds because it is a game that is "easy and simple to understand".
Life Goals: Experience the world outside the US.
Experience Goals: Feel young & carefree again.
End Goals: Travel to all the places that they wanted to but never had the time.
The Changs
Simon Chang, 45, works in an advertising firm as a lead designer. His wife of 10 years is Sherry Chang, 42, a violinist for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. They have lived in Pittsburgh all their lives. No children.
The Changs enjoy travelling to new places to experience the sights and sounds. However, due to their limited finances, they have only been able to travel around North America. When travelling, the Changs like to explore the area by foot. They don’t usually plan out an itinerary beforehand, instead preferring to make decisions as they go along the trip.
They have been to San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Toronto to check out the music scene, but the place that they always dreamt of going is Vienna in Austria.
Simon is an avid iPhone fan and relies heavily on his iPhone to keep his busy schedule in order. Sherry, on the other hand, would rather leave all the technology-related issues to her husband.
Life Goals: Travel around the world listening to good music.
Experience Goals: Feel the exhilaration and joy when one hears beautiful music.
End Goals: Travel to all the good music venues around the world.
Scenario
We built a story around our personas to illustrate and realize the goals of the application.
User wakes up at their hotel in Rome and wants to get an early start. Ready to depart at 7am, the user engages the Bucket List app. Knowing the user’s location, time, and interaction history, the application suggests the user head to a nearby cafe. Pleased with the suggestion, the user accepts the suggestion, and the application provides the user with navigation information to walk to the cafe.
Finished at the cafe, the users again engages the application and chooses to advance to the next item on the itinerary. Before continuing, the application prompts the user to enter their check total to subtract from their daily budget. The application then suggests the Roman Colosseum, a major tourist attraction and famous Rome landmark, as the next destination. Thrilled with the suggestion, the users accepts and is provided with public transportation navigation as well as fare information. The fare is deducted from the daily budget upon arrival.
At the Colosseum, the user can consult the application for links to further information (Wikipedia, etc). After spending a few hours at the Colosseum, the user advances through the itinerary, which suggests the nearby Roman Forum, and provides walking directions.
Finished with the forum, it’s around noon, and the application suggests nearby locations for lunch. After a brief lunch, the application, having successfully suggested historical ruins, suggests visiting the Pantheon. The thought of spending the afternoon under the hot sun is not appealing to the users, so he rejects the suggestion and selects “museums” from a list of possible alternative categories. The application suggests the nearby Capitoline Hill Museum and the user is content to walk a short while and spend the afternoon looking at artifacts.
Having spent little of their budget during the day, the application suggests a fancy restaurant for dinner on the other side of town. It’s a bit far away, but the food sounds great, so the user takes the Metro and enjoys a nice meal. After confirming their check total, the application suggests nearby wine bars and dessert spots, but exhausted from exploring ruins, the user selects to “call it a night” and is provided with directions back to the hotel. Growing impatient with public transport, the user looks to see the suggested taxi fare and decides that it’s within their budget to take a leisurely ride back to the hotel.
The application will prepare a new itinerary for the next day...