RemoteGo
A lifestyle app for remote working travelers with tools to plan, explore, and connect.
Project Overview
Problem:
Remote working travelers often struggle to find all they need when booking accommodation, finding fast and reliable wifi, co-working spaces, or worker friendly spaces in general because the majority of traveling resource sites are for people traveling on a vacation. What if there were an app that could help traveling remote workers find what they needed and connect with others living the same lifestyle?
Solution:
An end to end application that provides tools to plan, explore, and connect with others.
Inspiration & Background:
The growth of remote work has created a new class of travelers, people who work from anywhere in the world. This app was inspired by my firsthand observations of these remote working travelers and the challenges they face in balancing work and travel. My curiosity about the sustainability of this lifestyle fueled the development of design solutions that aim to support remote workers in their travels. Through an empathetic and user-centered approach, I create practical and meaningful solutions that can improve the remote work experience for travelers everywhere.
My Role:
UI/UX Designer
Branding, Prototyping, Usability Testing, UX Research
My Tools:
Figma, Figjam, Whimsical
UX Research
Key Takeaways from User Interviews
To gain a deeper understanding of the practical needs and challenges faced by remote working travelers, I conducted interviews with four individuals I met during my own travels who planned to continue this lifestyle in the future. These insights helped validate the product idea and inform my design decisions.
Identifying the weaknesses and strengths of my key competitors ultimately helped identify solutions as to how could we make this app stand out in the current market. This posed the question, who should be our target users?
MEET ANDRÉ, OUR USER PERSONA
After revisiting user interviews and analyzing the behavior of real-world remote workers who travel, I discovered that all of them were relatively inexperienced in juggling both tasks simultaneously. This insight helped me to pinpoint my target audience and devise a solid design strategy that differentiates me from the competition. By focusing on the unique needs and pain points of this specific user group, I was able to create a solution that truly meets their needs and addresses their challenges.
Task & User Flows
In crafting the information architecture and flows, I meticulously considered the user's journey and their engagement with each page. I designed it in a way that presents users with a plethora of options to interact with the features, maximizing their usage and accessibility. This approach is driven by my commitment to enhancing the user experience and elevating their satisfaction with the product through making the features intuitive and user-friendly.
Lo-Fi Wireframes
The process of producing low-fidelity (lo-fi) wireframes played a crucial role in the overall design process. By mapping out the different screens and user flows using these rough wireframes, I was able to bring our design ideas to life and visualize how the various features would work in practice.
Creating lo-fi wireframes allowed me to focus on the core functionality of the application and avoid getting bogged down by unnecessary details. By keeping things simple, I were able to quickly iterate on different ideas and make rapid changes as needed. This helped to refine the user experience and ensure that the app would be easy and intuitive to use.
Branding & Visual Design
When it came to branding and visual design for RemoteGo, I wanted to break away from the common black, white, and red color scheme used by its competitors. Instead, I aimed for a simple yet distinct look that evokes feelings of calm, happiness, and excitement for the users. The prominent use of navy blue in the design symbolizes power and significance, while lighter shades of blue bring a sense of tranquility. The use of warm, sunny colors inspired by sunflowers, such as orange and yellow, brings joy, brightness, and positivity to the design.
The name RemoteGo was chosen to reflect the growing trend of remote work and the app's focus on travel. The "Go" part is memorable and captures the essence of travel, while the logo emphasizes the app's global reach. The resulting design is simple yet unique, effectively communicating the app's purpose and values.
Design Solutions
Plan a trip & create a checklist.
Users felt overwhelmed by the amount of planning and tracking that is involved in sustaining a remote working & traveling lifestyle. With this in mind, I created a customizable trip creation tool and a checklist based on the individual’s needs so that it is easier for users to organize their information and trips.
Explore, review, and customize search.
Creating options to explore and find the information remote working travelers would be looking for was really important in this design process. I attempted to create an appropriate amount of filtering options to assist with refining specific searches. In addition, I linked specific useful information for users backed up by research to make it easier for quick finds and booking through other sites. The intent was to be resourceful.
Connect through community meet ups & country chats.
The lack community building and connection with other remote working travelers was shown to be a problem for users in the initial interview process. I focused of two main elements, community meet ups and country chats. I chose to focus on organized meet ups rather than leaving the meeting up entirely up to the user for specific connection and safety. A group setting seemed to be more appealing, especially one that is already organized with others in the same city.
The country chats were developed as another method of connection and a resource for users to look for specific information about a city or country. In the example on the prototype you can see the search is refined to information about the #wifi since that is the number one concern of remote working travelers.
Usability Testing
To refine my designs and interactions, I sought feedback from a subset of the users who participated in my earlier research. They provided valuable insight by pointing out areas for improvement and confirming which elements resonated with them. This feedback was instrumental in advancing the iterative design process and ultimately led to the finalization of the interaction design.
Final Prototype
Challenges, Successes & Next Steps
Designing for a niche group of users was a challenging task in this project, requiring unique solutions to stand out and balance the needs of users, the business, and technical requirements. Feedback was embraced to create something that was usable, practical, and valuable for the target audience. The project evolved into a more complex endeavor as the designs were adapted and refined. Moving forward, the focus will be on expanding resource features and testing them with a wider user base. Additionally, the integration of third-party booking sites will be given more consideration in the overall design for the benefit of users.