Holler
Overview
A trust-first travel app connecting you with recommendations from people you actually know.
Role
UI/UX Designer
Year
2018 · Refreshed 2024
Company
General Assembly
Team
Solo project
The Problem
There are plenty of handy travel resources out there, so what is it that isn't satisfying our users? Time-poor, young adults want quick, easy-to-access, correct-every-time information from people they know and trust. Their current journey to find travel tips online was tainted with past negative experiences and an overall feeling of uneasiness about who they were actually receiving recommendations from. Coupled with a struggle to find enough time to devote to the process, and the overwhelming amount of information available online, this signified a real problem. Users needed a tool they could quickly and easily navigate — but one they could really trust, no questions asked.
After conducting a series of user interviews, we validated assumptions and synthesised the results. Due to time constraints, we focused primarily on tasks involving finding a user's connections, finding content related to a travel destination, and posting content — leading us to a key user flow to guide the next steps of the project. Armed with what we'd learnt, we set out to create a key persona, prioritise features based on user goals, and dig into the information architecture for the product.
Solidifying our user expectations, we began wireframing the key screens for the app. Over a few days, a prototype was built from these wireframes. We created three task scenarios to paint the picture for our users and ran 15–20 minute sessions to get into the nitty-gritty of testing the very first prototype. Feedback was incredibly valuable and led to key changes to both the UX and UI.
The finished design is a personalised guidebook filled with trusted information from people you actually know. Within the app, users can write their own reviews on places they've visited, search for recommendations through their friends' diaries, and strike up conversations through the built-in messaging service. Along with a clutter-free UI and simple navigation, users are given a quick and easy way to access the top-line information they need to plan their next trip.
What's next?
Further testing of a prototype would be ideal, alongside a deeper look at retention – how to keep users coming back. Implementing additional features would also be worthwhile following a final round of testing. In 2024, I revisited this project as a way to challenge myself and see how far I'd come as a designer. The original wasn't design-led, but I'd always liked the concept — so with fresh eyes I gave it a visual refresh, bringing more polish, structure, and maturity to the UI while staying true to the spirit of the original. This exercise is part of the final result seen above.