Lastmin

UI/UX Design, Interaction Design

2017

Featured in Interaction for Designers: How to Make Things People Love by Brian Boyl, published by Routledge, 2019

Have you ever experienced not realizing a long weekend is around the corner and having no idea of where to have fun?

Lastmin is a travel destination finding platform that provides spontaneous trip suggestions for last-minute travelers who do not know where to go simply based on the time and budget the users want to spend. This is an iOS mobile application available on phone and watch.

Why Lastmin?

Most of the current travel apps focus on providing guides and/or a rating system for users to plan for their future trip. However, many people, especially young adults think having a schedule for journey can be stressful or unnecessary. This platform offers trip suggestions for last-minute travelers who don’t want to do research or don’t have time to plan for their trip to find a destination in seconds. The platform also randomly advises secret spots of the city during the user's trip, which makes the user even more delighted with his upcoming adventures.

Process Overview

Market Research

Positioning Matrix

Market Research

Competitive Feature Comparison Matrix

Design Criteria

User Interviews

I conducted interviews to 10 people who are potential users of the service and experts on this topic, in order to understand their habits of day trips and gather their perspectives on the current travel services. I found out that most of them do not like having a plan and schedule for travel, and are willing to know about the secret spots of the city that they live in when they want to have a day trip.

Key Insights From the Interviews

People want unique and personalized travel experiences instead of just being a tourist.
People do not like following specific instructions all the time during travel but would love to embrace uncertainty.
The results of destinations provided should be highly based on the users' interests.
People are willing to know about the secret spots around them during a journey.
People are easily attracted to imagery of high quality when they want to make a decision.

Target Users

People who like traveling
18-30 years old (young adults)
Nationwide
All races and genders

The target users will be young adults because they’re more likely to accept new things as this app is all about random travel destinations and unexpected delight.

Features Ideation

I brainstormed on the possible features of the platform and then used MoSCow method to put the features into categories of "must have", "could have" or "won't have."