1. Design Problem:
How might we work with black owned businesses in East Austin using design thinking to improve customer experience?
Inspired by entrepreneurs from Lagos, Nigeria and Kibera, Kenya where business traditions constantly adapt and transform, we worked with an Austin business to design a future strategy that helped create growth.
Localuer is a minority owned travel startup in East Austin launched in 2013 who offer specialized recommendations to travelers in 198 cities across the globe through a paywall portal. Localeur's business goal is to convert their email subscribers of 19,000 people to monthly and lifetime product subscribers. This design problem works with the Austin travel company to improve the customer experience and increase their customer subscription base.
2. Users of the Product
Localeur's email subscriber list is made up of 70% women who are between the ages of 25 to 39. Localeur sees the most growth potential in this core audience who were identified as users who do more of the planning and researching when preparing for a trip. Localeur also wants to attract younger female users ages 21 to 27.
3. User Research
Our team got creative in the user research phase due to the pandemic. We conducted interviews in person, over Zoom, and on the social media site Clubhouse. All of our time talking with users gave us rich insight and amplified certain pain points about traveling. We found it especially enriching to talk to travelers in the Girls Love Travel club because of the collaborative nature of the conversation. The group setting enlivened our interviews and gave everyone ample topics to jump off from and express user interests and travel stories.
Pain Points:
unexpected costs while traveling
knowing where to stay
finding transportation
safety when traveling
using subscriptions enough to justify their cost commitment
User Needs:
value and share-ability in a subscription service
safety of the travel area
local transportation information
credibility of sources providing the travel information
cost effective travel information
4. Design Process
Research African businesses
Initial brainstorm
Cluster opportunity areas into themes
Opportunity area development
Compiling and interview guide
Themes from interviews
Ideate, Prototype, Test
Solution generation
5. Design Solution
Using Localeur's existing website design, we added information to the traveler's itinerary about safety by asking the traveler a few safety related questions. Based on these answers, Localeur's site suggested certain locations for travel and included relevant safety guidelines. After initial prototype testing, the travel guide specifically included a local's perspective on safety information to build user trust in the service. The following is our final prototype presented after user testing:
6. Results
Our design process and deliverables were pitched to the owner of Localeur as a solution to increase their subscription user base and gain a younger demographic of users. Our design team found that younger travelers wanted the option to travel alone or with girlfriends and had a common unmet need of wanting to understand the safety of the areas they were looking to visit and lodge in. Our design solution focused on providing safety information to travelers which supported two business goals: providing more value to a subscription service and attracting female users ages 21-27.
Our pitch was accepted with enthusiasm as an easy to implement solution that could be done as immediately as the company desired. Localeur appreciated that our design flowed with the company's current website design, avoiding the requirement to overhaul a web interface and the low cost of implementing safety information to their existing itineraries and guides as a way to add value and meet the needs of its subscribers.
