Case study: Design a tourism app for Al-Ahsa city
By: Hadeel Alqahtani
Tags: Saudi Arabia, UX, Tourism, UX Design, UX Research

Hello, I am Hadeel Alqahtani and my teammates Hajer Alhilali, Mariam Alfairoz, Reem Bahathiq worked in the past two weeks on designing a tour app for Alahsa city, and I am glad to share with you what we found in our study.

Our information about Al-Ahsa is little, I visited Al Ahsa just once, and one of my teammates Mariam she is originally from there, and she visited Al-ahsa many times and that’s helped us a lot.

Photo from my visit to Al Ahsa

Desk research

It is a common saying in Alhasa that “Alhasa belongs to you even if the age forgets you” which means that you will remain in Alhasa’s memory even if you move away.

Historically, Al Ahsa is a place with rich culture, beautiful traditional places, and diverse nature. Many notable and influential people have come from Al Ahsa, such as Jasem Alsahih and Ghazi Algosibi. etc, Also Alahsa was an educational destination for anyone who wants good knowledge.

Problem

Alahsa is a very attractive tourism city with a rich history and culture and beautiful nature but there is no easy way to plan trips to Alhasa due to a lack of information and guides to the traveler.

Solution

Facilitate the planning and information-gathering process for users through our app. Make travel to alhasa easier and see it like nothing before.

Interviews

we wrote our interview questions and interviewed 20 users and asked them about the information that we need:

What was the best travel experience you have and why?

What interests you in tourism sites and applications

Describe your last travel trip?

What attracted you to Alhasa?

What activities do you do when you visit Al-Ahasa?

What influence your trip experience?

What struggles did you face while traveling?

How can your experience Be better in Alhasa?

Survey

A survey was conducted to find out more about the user interest in traveling to Alahsa, and for the users who have already traveled to Alahsa, how they behaved and how they plan their trip, as well as what problems they encountered and what their needs are

Affinity Mapping Insights:

A traveler is attracted to travel experiences that allow them to discover a city’s culture and view its scenery. Meeting locals and tasting the local food is also part of the experience , in order to experience the culture in an authentic way

Detailed plan that includes accommodation with reasonable price, resort and farms , modern café and restaurants will make people trip enjoyable

The activities should be different for different ages. Along with shopping and relaxing, people want to see something new, explore, and meet new people.

The majority of people plan their trips through word of mouth. In the absence of good online information, they ask people they know about places and activities before going somewhere.

people who know famous places in Alhasa the are not interested enough to visit these places due to lack of information

Most common activity that people used to do when they visit Alhasa historical places , farms, water springs , Parks , shopping , museum

people tends to use web/apps that facilitate their trips through reviews , hotels comparison , video and picture , proposed plans.

Apps / Webs facilitate people trips through reviews , hotels comparison , video and picture , proposed plans.

Most of the user dislike Alhasa in summer season

Storyboard

Persona

Key Features

We analyzed the user needs from our interviews and survey data, and we determine our key feature

C&C Analysis

In our analysis of the tour business, we compared the services and features of the different tour apps and websites, we identified the direct competition that share with us the same features that we do, and we analyzed the indirect competition that shared one or two of the features with us.

Direct Compettior

Indirect Compettior

Leaf Diagram

leaf diagram

Summary of the C&C analysis

Airbnb has great features that have helped us implement best practices in our app. Tripadvisor has information about all things to do with high-resolution photos with thousands of ratings and comments, and it also offers a follow-up feature for people who share the same interests or trust their opinions.The Saudi Spirit application contains the feature of customizing experiences, which is not found in the rest of the applications.

User flow

user flow

user journey

user journey

Card sorting

Part of our research is a card sorting, as the main goal was to determine how Al-ahsa’s residents categorize its famous places. Set up a closed card sort for the best-known places, and the results were as follows:

card sorting

Site map

sitemap

sketches

Lo-Fid wireframes

Med-fid Wireframes

Annotated Wireframe

Usability Testing

wireframes

prototype

what's next?