About the Project

The inspiration for this app came from my personal travels with my van. Having taken many roadtrips I discovered early on that it is not always easy to find a spot to sleep while roadtripping. Talking with fellow travelers, the idea arose that it would be really helpful if there was an app that connected you with local people who would be willing to let you spend the night on thier property.

Designed for…

a UI-Design student project in 2021. The goal of the project was to design a responsive web app for location-based recommendations that meets the requirements of its users and solves the problems they face with existing location-based recommendation apps.

My Role

User Interviews Graphic Design, User Flow, Wireframing, Prototyping, UI-Design

Tools

Sketch, Invision, Lucid App, Photoshop

Duration

Mar 29 - June 13, 2021

Driveway Nomads brings the roadtripping traveler in contact with local hosts in Europe in order to provide them with a sleeping spot for the night. Not only does this give the roadtripper the opportunity to find incredible locations but it also allows them to interact with the locals. It’s a great way to make memories and experience the authentic local life.

The App

User Interviews

Patterns
- It’s not easy to find a spot when wild camping.
- Experiences with wild camping have been good.
- A filter function would be good to have in the app.
Frustrations
- Difficulty finding a good sleeping spot while wild camping in Europe and the lack of apps to help with this.
Needs
- Water, toilets, showers are a high priority
- Being able to plan your places in advance and also directly in the moment.
- Filters and recommendations will help a lot in finding the right spot for the night.

Personas

Meet Pierre, Isabel, and Adam! These Personas are based on the preliminary user interviews that were done for this app. Each personality is roughly based on those that were interviewed.

User Stories

In order to dive deeper in to the needs and desires of the users, several user stories were created to synthesize which features and functions would be of importance to the user while using this app.

Isabel

‘When I am browsing for a spot to sleep, I want to be able to read reviews, so I can decide if the spot is the right one for me.’
REQUIREMENTS
- A browsing function
- Oversight of reviews
Pierre

‘ When I am preparing my route, I want to be able to plot my sleeping spots on a map, so I can travel without having to search for spots every day.’
REQUIREMENTS
- A location overview page
- Reviews
- Filter icons
Adam

‘ When I am searching for a spot to sleep during my trip, I want to be able to filter for what type of spot it is, so I can find what I need.’
REQUIREMENTS
- A location overview page
- Reviews
- Filter icons

User Flow

With the requirements and jobs to be done collected from the user stories, the next question was to answer what path would the user take to get to thier goal? For this a user flow chart was created which followed the paths of new, guest, and signed in users.

Mood

The aesthetic of this moodboard was inspired by old national geographics that were printed with the 4 color process. Two National Geographic articles that really stuck with me were about a man that walked the pacific crest trail and a woman who traveled across australia on camel. Both stories reflected the good and the bad times of their trips. The imagery colors and fonts of my moodboard reflect this. I want this app to feel at home in both the sunny but also dreary rainy days. It should help guide your adventure no matter what the circumstances. The colors are derived from natural hues found in nature with the yellow accent of street signs and road markings.

Style

The style of the app evolved from the inspiration of the moodboard. During the process of creating the app various adaptations were made along the way to create a cohesive feel and look.

Wireframe Progression

The feedback from the interviews, the personas and the style created with the moodboard and styleguide were integrated to create an app that would be useable for the traveling roadtripper.

When it came to designing the wireframes for the app, the process went through three stages: low-, mid- and high-fidelity frames.

What was initially just a rough sketch was transformed into a finished and polished version.

Responsive Design

Two sample screens were adjusted to show how the app would react from mobile to desktop screen. The layout was adjusted at necessary increments to accomodate the change in screen space.

Handoff

Driveway Nomads gives those who love to travel on the open road the opportunity to explore new places and meet new people through the app. For the time being the app has solely focused on the experience for those seeking a location. In the future, I could imagine approaching it from the hosts perspective and working on creating new screens and an extra userflow to encompass thier needs. Furthermore it would be interesting to add a social factor giving users the possibility to share thier trip on social media.

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