A GROUP TRAVEL PLATFORM TO COOPERATIVELY MANAGE TEAMWORK AND FACILITATE COMMUNICATION
Creators: name: Peng, Xingyu
Publisher: name: Purdue University Graduate School
Year: 2019
Subjects: Industrial and product design

description: This research aims to explore a new mobile application platform for group travel planning to improve the experience of communication and cooperation in teamwork. The inspiration was from my own travel experience. Being the leader or one of the people who managed the travel group during the past years, I realized that group travels have been full of fun. However, I also faced a variety of challenges at the stages of planning, preparing, managing, and accounting before travel, during travel, and after travel. According to the literature review, some general problems of group travel were found out. Dealing with the problems in planning, scheduling, packing, communicating, and cooperating with travel partners, and financial issues are defined as the most general travel stressors for travelers. Therefore, travel relieves our living stress, meanwhile, brings new stressors from the other hand. The research started off understanding the current market condition and main competitors through doing market research. Peer product analysis and product positioning map were done during the market research. Then the user study was conducted through an online survey, user interviews, and field research using observational study method. The design direction and target users of the research were defined afterward. The design process began with the brainstorming session, followed by going through App flow structuring, interface wireframing, and visual designing to come out with the mobile application – CooP, a group travel platform to cooperatively manage teamwork and facilitate communication. Thus, a map-list alternating planning platform was developed for more efficient planning in CooP. Users can switch between the map view and the list view to plan the route. Besides, the group checklists, tasks distribution, and group account features were designed to facilitate teamwork in planning. Additionally, A group chat platform was hidden in every page corners to improve group communication. The CooP can also split the group flexibly when different people want to visit different places separately. By connecting with physical devices, CooP can track the people for protection and safety. The usability testing of the post-travel evaluation gathered some future improvements that can be achieved later. From the perspective of technology, AI technology can be better utilized in providing suggestions and recommendations voluntarily based on the user’s data to enhance the efficiency and smoothness of the working experience. From the map perspective, providing a real route line between locations would be more preferred than the straight-line segments. The coop can recommend mid-way attractions for users to select. Overall, CooP achieved the goal of improving communication and cooperation in group travel planning. It innovated the traditional way of doing a group travel plan by combining different functions into CooP to create a multitasking platform which speeds up the process of planning.