User Research and Interviews

Because this was a quick project, we weren't able to conduct an extensive research process and, we narrowed our ideal audience down to people who were our age because they were easily accessible. Based on our team's experiences, after interviewing a couple of friends, and researching on the Internet, we identified three qualities I wanted to prioritize in the travel recommendations Wisp offered: uniqueness, affordability, and a social community aspect. When talking to young adults, we found a desire to have experiences that did not give some superficial clout but allowed the sharing of unique and generationally relatable memories. A question I was asking was what could our app offer that is not offered on competing sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor? Do people in our target range actually use these apps and how did they feel about them? The answer was yes, they did use them, but they preferred far more to lean on the recommendations of friends and for the more Internet-savvy, internet forums like Reddit or TikTok. Now, this was definitely not everyone, but it was a significant subsection of at least half of the about six people's opinions we took into account. 

After our brainstorming and research, I realized I was far more interested in how people could share what connected them to places than whether they were objectively good places. Upon looking back at the project, capturing the connected memories tethered to a shared location is an idea I think I can keep expanding on because although I like the concept of Wisp, I believe its design can be pushed further beyond ordinary tropes associated with a recommendation app's design.