Virtual Travel Assistant

at Your Service

A mobile application to help you travel

Compass, a smart virtual assistant to help travelers explore the archeological ruins of India

India has a lot to offer when it comes to history and culture, and what better than knowing the country from its archeological evidence loaded with marvelous structures and age-old stories inscribed in every wall and step.

FullProject

Brief

Finding out challenges of the solo travelers and travel enthusiasts while traveling the archeological site in India and using the gained insights to design a better platform to provide holistic assistance to the travelers

right from planning to documentation.

Why

Archeological sites fail to provide an Informative experience for travelers.

Problem statement

Who

Solo travelers and archeological ruin lovers who loves to gather knowledge from their travels and also document it along with it.

Target users

How

A virtual travel assistant to take care of all the needs of a traveler. Helping them to plan, decide, and make their travel more informative.

Platform

Hunch

Can there be an easy way to plan a trip without having to search all over the internet? A one-stop travel companion to provide you with all necessary information, smartly.

Process

Interface

Design

Generating

Empathy

Research

Analysis

Ideation

Interaction

design

Generating

Empathy

I am a travel enthusiast and I love to explore historical places. In the years of traveling to various archeological sites in India, I have experienced many problems. So I was facing such problems, I realized that other travelers might also be facing similar or other problems. To validate this assumption I started interviewing my travel enthusiast friends. I conducted User Interview and secondary research online.

User Interview

I conducted an user research with 7 people, who has experience in traveling. They were of the age group 22-30 years. 3 of them traveled mostly solo. The other 4 with their families.

Secondary Research

Online exploration led me to travel blogs and google reviews on searching for a place. From the user interview, I also found out that people(of the age group of the interviewed people) very often rely on travel blogs and curated content by service providers while planning out their trips. This led me to look at the most used travel apps. A lot of people also find quora very useful while researching a new to visit. Tourism of India, video links

Research

Analysis

I conducted an online survey to understand the user base with a few questions. From this survey, I got an idea of their pain points and concern which helped me to decide the course of the solution.

Pain Points and concern

There is no single source of information that helps me to plan the trip.
Lack of travel guide to help explore the site
The authenticity of the guide and the information he provides
The audio guide does not provide a smooth experience
Documentation the trip needs time as information is scattered in multiple places

It is difficult to know where to book the hotel(location)
Unavailability of the mobile network does not allow to check google maps for directions
It depends mostly on the driver which places well visit as we are unaware of the place.
Exploring the places at my own pace goes missing when I hired a guide.
Could not complete the days itineraries due to time issues

Ideation

right from planning to documentation.

System Requirements

Smart Assistance

Travel documentation

Helps generate travel plan on per day basis
Custom and specific travel plans
Step by step navigation assistance

Automatic documentation of all itineraries for every trip on a per day basis
Camera syn to save photo in the documentation
Download option in pdf or text format

Immersive Experience

Virtual guide
AR navigation
Interactive views and information overlays in AR, in the archeological sites

Informative

Authentic historical information from the archeological survey of India
Curation of all information, to be easily accessible
Easy location based activation of virtual guide

Competitor Evaluation

I studied a few travel apps to see what features they were proving to their users and find out the gaps where intervention is required.

503

Unable to Handle Request

UX strategy blueprint

I decided to create a UX strategy Blueprint for my project in order to have a clear path ahead and define the roles, activities, and principles that lay ahead, as well as help me anticipate the challenges I was likely to face

1/6

Challenges

Current travel app donot focus on making the travelling experience in the archeological sites informative and insightful.
No single stop source to provide all the relevent information to the users who are keen on travelling to archeological ruins found in India
For solo travellers commuting from one place to another is done only with the help of google maps. In which the destination has to be filled in by the user themseleves and as they are new to these places they are not sure about the location that they are opting for.
The tour guides in these places are not always authentic and verified by the archeological survey of India hence there always remains a chance of acquiring false information

2/6

Aspiration

Making the entire experience of traveling to such places extremely insightful and informative.
A single-stop destination starting from searching to deciding to planning to commutation in decided destination to stay and finally most importantly a virtual guide to always provide with all the required and essential information.
Providing with authentic information about these historical places which has been validated.
A customizable map, specific to the location the user has visited with complete details of the place.
Providing the user with relevant information about the sites when and where required.
Help the user to document the entire travel with all the itineraries without any additional work.

3/6

Focus area

Travelers and specifically solo travelers who are enthusiastic about the ancient era of Indian architecture and the human life surrounding that.
Will be focused essentially on the archeological sites across India which comes under the Archeological Survey of India
Service: A mobile application
Providing the user with an AI as a co-planner with all the information which will only give suggestions to the user and let the user make its own plan from there-after
Technologies: customized AR maps, Bekon based information, AR and audio based virtual guide.
UX/UI: Service eco-system, AI,Taskflow, screen designs, branding.

Guiding principles

4/6

Save users time bu providing them with curated information in a single spot.
Maintain historical authenticity of the information of these historical places.
Using easily available technologies to make the traveling experience more immersive for the user.
Become completely knowledgable about the place of the visit while visiting through this service. Not just only see things but also have information about these places.
Chronological documentation for the entire travel

Activites

5/6

Uers Research
Analyzing the existing travell apps
AI
Taskflow
Wireframing
UI designs
Empathy mapping
Customer journey mapping
Persona

Data & Research

6/6

User interview
Secondary research
Study the trends
User Survey

Empathy mapping

1. Specialised and detailed maps

2. Difference between what you see online and ground reality

3. Most of the time what places you will visit ultimately depends on the vehicle driver

1. Read multiple travel blogs

2. Reads answer in quora

3. Ask friends

4. Checks out multiple apps from the app store

5. Checks in Google maps to find out the distance between names of places during their online research phase

6. Checks out the rental services available in the travel stop

1. Often feels frustrated by the information overload on the internet and travel blogs

2. Will, there be an internet connection to do research online while on the site

3. From where to get verified travel guides?

4. How many spots will I be able to travel in a day?

5. What mode of transport should I avail for a particular location?

6. Where would I find the rentals?

1. Authenticity of the information from the travel guides

2. Feels anxious about how many places will I be able to visit?

3. Fears of missing out important locations

4. Feels clueless about places which almost ruin now and

doesnot have proper signage

5. Fear about being miss guided by localities.

6. Where would I find the rentals?

Says

Does

Thinks

Feels

Pains

1. Read multiple travel blogs

2. Reads answer in quora

3. Ask friends

4. Checks out multiple apps from the app store

5. Checks in Google maps to find out the distance between names of places during their online research phase

6. Checks out the rental services available in the travel stop

Gains

1. The authenticity of the information from the travel guides

2. Feels anxious about how many places will I be able to visit?

3. Fears of missing out important sites

4. Feels clueless about places which almost ruin now and

does not have proper signage

5. Fear about being miss guided by localities.

6. Where would I find the rentals?

Persona from user interview

Solo traveller

Goals -

Travel independently and safely
To have a reliable source of information while traveling

Pain points -

Network issues, while trying to look up for urgent information on the go
Having to rely on localities for navigation and other important decisions

Needs -

Needs curated information content
Easily available detailed and customizable map

Lover of the ancient era of India, archeology, and architecture

Goals -

To travel in the archeological sites gaining as much information as possible, making the entire trip a lot more insightful
Able to have a more authentic source of information about these old places

Pain points -

Difficulty in finding gov authorized travel guides/ Unavailability of audio guides
The additional effort of documenting the entire trip with all the information and itineraries from the trip

Needs -

Something which will make the entire experience of traveling in these ancient ruins a lot more immersive and educational
Easy documentation of the travel

The concept

A smartphone application for the archaeology travel enthusiast that will essentially work as a virtual travel guide and assist the user from selecting the location, planning out the trip, exploring the location with an engaging experience. it will also help the user to document the entire trip effortlessly.

With the use of AR technology, this app will bring out the inscribed stories of the age-old stone walls to life making the user's exploration very insightful and engaging. Location-based activation of the virtual guide of this app to help the user explore the location will remove the tedious effort of having to search manually.

Planning the trip along with the AI of this app will save a lot of time for the user.

The AI will plan the trip on a per-day basis with custom and specific route maps for the user, which can be added to the offline mode in case the user might travel in a remote location. While traveling the navigational instructions along with the map will be in a step by step manner not overburdening the user with information.

Location-based activation of the virtual guide feature

Beacons will be fixed right in the entrance of the complex so that it can detect the user's phone, and start the virtual guide feature. Beacons will be fixed throughout the site, whichever artifact, wall, structure, pillar anything that needs an explanation or has a story or is historically relevant.

So the presence of the user in front of that particular thing is mandatory for the audio guide to start.

Archeological ruin

Beacon

User with his phone

Information Architecture

App Design

Click here to enlarge

User Scenarios

1.

Bonny reaches the site and her location-based virtual guide screen pops up in the application. She sees the overall time and distance to cover the place and starts her exploration. She starts the micro navigation feature to find out the starting point and direction in which she should start.

No of days

Map

Stay

Geet chooses "Hampi" an archeological site to visit, she selects the places she wants to visit in Hampi, then the no of days she is planning the trip for, the app suggests she should at least be there for 2 days. The app recommends that this trip could be completed with only one stay and tells Geet in which area she should book her hotel.

2.

With the help of the beacons as and when Bonny reaches a certain location the audio guides start providing her information.

That way she can take her time and explore the place. When Boony wants to know more about an article or structure or any object of interest she changes the search option for an audio guide and clicks photo to get the relevant information

The AI of the app makes a trip plan for two days for Geet. It divides Geet chosen places to visit in Hampi in the 2 days Geet has allotted for the trip. And generates a specific route map for each day which can be added to the offline mode

AR

Overlay

Bonny has reached a location where the archeological site has been ruined so much that she cannot make anything out of that. She opens the immersive experience feature and sees the original view of the place through AR overlays. On the walls, Bonny sees a lot of story narration in the paintings or stone curving but it is difficult to under what it is saying. So Bonny starts to use the interactive storytelling feature and learns more about them.

Geet reaches to Hospet, the starting point of the trip for Hampi from Bangalore. she opens the app and uses the "Let's go" feature and the app starts instructing Geet step by step for navigation and all travel-related itineraries.

Interaction

design

After the System requirements were known to me and had structured the application, I started to detail out the features of the app. I made the task flow for each and also made the wireframes and then converted them to screens.

Task flow 1

Planning the trip

Gives the user a curated list of places to visit in the site

Depending on the no of places the user chooses the app suggests how many days the user should invest for this trip

Unique features

The app also suggests the no of stays for comfortable traveling, and also informs the user in which location the user should try to look for hotels

Based on the no of days the user will be traveling the AI generates custom and specific route maps on a per-day basis. This planned trip can be added to the offline mode.

With this feature, the user can select the particular places they want to visit and generate custom route maps for each day and add it to an upcoming trip option to access it while travelling later.

Planning the trip

Task flow 2

Step by step navigation

Unique features

Access to pre planned route maps, specific to that days travel. Along with the route map the users gets a chronological set of navigational instructions to visit the locations in that site.

In the chronological set of navigational instructions, users will be asked questions in every step with accompanied choices to make from, to add flexibility to the itineraries of the day

Users can also opt for Micro navigation with AR features for commuting between two specific points.

Suggestions to services(like vehicle rental, restaurants) as and where required.

Users get to access the offline file of navigational information( which they have planned with the help of the app, and add to the offline mode) in remote locations,

UI in the app, which the user is going to use when he/she reaches on spot and starts visiting for the day

Walkthrough for step-by-step navigation

Task flow 3

Virtual guide

As the user reaches the spot, Location-based activation of the "virtual guide" feature.

The will be in the audio format, with three types of search options.

Search options

Unique features

Preference 1

Location

Default mode

Preference 2

Image

Click and search

Preference 3

Text

Type to search

The Audio guide will be Accompanied with AR assisted micro navigation inside the location complex

The virtual guide will be audio-based and help in micro navigation inside the complex with the AR feature. The audio-guide will start as soon as the person's phone gets detected by the beacons, however, the user can change the search from location-based to image or text.

Virtual guide

Archeological ruin

Beacon

User using the

audio guide

(location-based)

User using the

audio guide

(On click)

Task flow 4

Immersive experience

Users will be able to see multiple views of the existing place through AR overlay

(The way the place was excavated, originally constructed)

Unique features

AR overlay on top of the wall paintings or inscriptions will tell the users the story narrated in those.

With this feature, users can scan any painting or stone sculpture and AR overlays on them will tell the user what story has been depicted on them. The user can also scan ruined structures to see how they looked originally or how it was discovered.

Immersive Ex

Interface

Design

The last stage of the project involved designing the interface and branding of the application.

Naming the app

After an initial exploration and brainstorming, I decided to go ahead

with the name "Compass" for my app

Compass

In the olden days, archaeologists and explorers used a compass to navigate and find their way. Similarly, this app also helps tourists explore and guide them in every way possible.

Branding

I explored around with a few different name of the app, that I came up with. Eventually, I focused on the name "compass" and explored the form of a compass to get inspiration for the logo.