‘FRECS’ The Travelers App
‘FRECS’ allows you as a traveler to experience the best of what locals’ life has to offer, and base your decisions on your friends’ and locals’ recommendations.
MY ROLE
Product Designer
As a part of the UX Design Class with BrainStation, I came up with this idea, and have created this app from start to finish: ideation, brainstorming, research, interviews, building Information Architecture, User Flows, WireFraming and Prototyping, Usability testing, Hi Fidelity UI design.
THE CHALLENGE
VALUE PROPOSITION
When you travel to new and unknown places, you don’t always know the best places to go to, the best restaurants, the best bars, best events.
Most travelers base their decision making on Google or Yelp, however, those reviews usually come from other travelers, and not locals.
As a traveler, you miss the true essence of the city, when you go by other travelers’ reviews, and not by what locals would choose as a night out, or follow the experience of your friends who have traveled there before.
Most people rely on Google/ Yelp/ Reviews and Ratings Websites, when traveling. They will often times look for restaurants, bars, and other night, or day time activities, based on those reviews. However, do those reviews truly match the experience?
It seems as most people would prefer going to places recommended by locals or close friends who’ve been there before. “FRECS” is here to solve just that. It gives you, as a traveler, the opportunity to build your trip and activities based on your friends and locals recommendations.
USER PERSONA
The biggest takeaway from the interviews are:
Most people would value going to places their friends have recommended.
They don’t fully trust reviews and rating websites, since they don’t necessarily match what they are looking for in a trip.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
USER FLOW
WIRE FRAMES
STYLE GUIDE
HI-FIDELITY
Onboarding
Create your own adventure based on your friends’ and locals’ recommendations!
Experience the best of what locals’ life has to offer.
Location and Facebook access request
For the user to have the best experience and get the best of what the app can offer, it is highly recommended to sign up with a Facebook account
Category selection
The user will be able to select however many categories they wish to view. Once the selection is made, they can SAVE item to favorites, BOOK a place, VIEW who of their friends recommended it, and continue to favorite page.
Category selection + Specific location
Once a category selection was made, the user may now view them all on a map based on the location he has chosen. The user may now scroll down to view each of the locations selected in the category or view in a carousel all items in one category.
They are able to save it to favorites, book it, or see who of their friends recommended the place.
Favorites
The user may see their upcoming trip, save items under specific categories, view previous trips, and start planning future trips.
Notifications
Will give the user the option to view who of their friends is traveling to new locations, see new places that open in their city, see if their favorite artist are performing and when, help friends build their trips and so much more! The sky is the limit!
Create your own itinerary zone
As a part of traveling to new and exciting places, the user will have the opportunity to create their own itinerary, and view/ copy friends itinerary, share experiences, and create a full chat around the joy of traveling!