Numi
Numi by Expedia is a design system dedicated to reducing the pain points often associated with international travel experiences. This design system includes a mobile application, a physical lounge space, and IoT technologies. Set 5 years in the future, Numi accounts for what travel may look like once the world has recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Project Tid Bits
Duration: 6 months (Jan 2021 - Jun 2021)
Tools: Figma, G Suite, Loads of Virtual Sticky Notes
Role: Lead UX Design, Co-UX Research
Team: Sara Gustafson, Sara Behbakht,
Cameron Wood, & Kathy Nguyen
scroll for
design
goodness
DESIGN QUESTION
How might we reimagine the
“post”-pandemic international travel experience for people ages 20-30?
Research
To fully grasp how people in their 20s feel about traveling internationally, we carried out several user research methods. We conducted a survey, 13 user interviews, as well as market research. Qualitative coding and thematic analysis of these data led to long affinity mapping sessions. This analysis enabled us to create insights so we could design relevant, data-driven solutions
MARKET
RESE-ARCH
SURVEY
USER
INTER-VIEWS
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RESEARCH
INSIGHTS!
From our research we identified that travelers in their 20s
Desire autonomy over their travel plans
Cross-reference formal and informal information resources when traveling
Dislike close proximity to others
Have hope for future travel innovations
Empathy time!
In synthesizing our research results we crafted 2 user personas: the novice traveler and the expert traveler so we could showcase and humanize our user research. We took the novice traveler persona forward and created a user journey map for their travel abroad experience.
User Journey Map right down here!
Design Requirements
CUSTOMIZABLE
Allows users to customize updates about COVID-19 along their entire trip and provide suggestions.
INFORMATIVE
Provides travelers with real-time updates to their schedule (e.g., delays, cancellations, lines, etc.)
TRANSPARENT
Facilitates the sharing of location-specific guidance on safety and modes of transportation.
FLEXIBLE
Numi supports users’ flexibility when booking and adjusting accommodations within their budget.
CULTURALLY AWARE
Helps users make informed, culturally appropriate decisions when planning activities.
COVID-19 CAUTIOUS
Empowers travelers to navigate high-traffic spaces with confidence about cleanliness.
Our Solution
Our research and synthesis enabled data-driven brainstorming and ideation. We decided that having a combined technological and physical solution, we would later call Numi, would be the most effective way to solve the plethora of pain points that may face young international travelers in 5 years.
PHYSICAL
LOUNGE
SPACE
IOT
TABLE
MOBILE
APPLIC-ATION
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NUMI
Numi Building Blocks
STORYBOARD & USER FLOW
I made a storyboard and matching user flow to showcase how a traveler may go about using Numi to book a trip on a budget. The rest of the team additionally made storyboards and user flows to fill out the rest of the app’s main use cases.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Using our user flows, we constructed an information architecture to determine the hierarchy and necessary pages we needed to design for our mobile application.
WIREFRAMES
Once we refined our information architecture, we designed the wireframe for the Numi mobile application. These screens came from the flow I designed - planning a trip on a budget.
See the full interactive wireframe here
USABILITY TESTING
To refine the interactions of our mobile application we conducted usability testing. This way we had a way to make informed revisions and iterations to our design. We used usertesting.com and maze.co and gathered some cool heat maps!
Check out the full maze report here!
My Budget
Breakdown
needed another
iteration
An A+
interaction!
Numi Branding
In making visual design choices for Numi our team opted for a bold, bright look and feel to appeal to the younger demographic we are targeting. We included 3D typography in our logo and graphics to make the brand feel modern, yet futuristic.
High-Fidelity Mockups
Applying our branding and iterations from usability testing, we created the High-Fidelity prototype for the Numi mobile application. We used Figma’s prototyping tool and FigmaMirror to test out our prototypes along the way and create a seamless booking + planning system for our travelers.
IoT Table
Given the speculative nature of the project, we wanted to push technological bounds and that meant experimenting with widespread Internet of Things (IoT) design! I lead the effort to design the IoT table we wanted to include in the Numi Airport Lounge. The table allows travelers to sync their app experience with their Numi Room pod so that we can promote a cohesive travel journey. They can edit their pod mood, see the available amenities, plan an activity, and also keep tabs on their upcoming flight!
Numi Room
Our research helped inform a need for a physical space that would enable traveler autonomy. To do this we made sure to include nature elements, sanitization stations, moveable furniture, and private pods. We were lucky enough to have help from an architecture consultant who helped our vision for the Numi Room come to life!
Wrapping Up
We put together a pitch video to showcase our project to Expedia. Moving forward, we would have spent some time researching a business case for Numi. We want to make this solution scaleable for airports around the world to enable a comfortable, scaffolded travel experience for novice to expert travelers.
We enjoyed the challenges this project threw at us with the added component of conducting the entire User-Centered Design virtually through Zoom. Despite the quirks that 2020-2021 threw at our team, I am looking forward to creating speculative, boundary-pushing work like this in the future.