Team: Binru Liu & Yitong Han
After the last case study, I learned more about intergenerational travel and identified some user pain points which were not mentioned in the secondary research. Next, I plan to do more in-depth research on user behaviours and find more factors that can effectively improve the travel user experience.
Questionnaires
In order to get more information about the users, I developed two questionnaires. One was offered to middle-aged and older users (45+ years old) and the other to younger users (20–30 years old). The questionnaires were designed to gather information on the characteristics of the users and their perceptions of intergenerational travel.
Results of questionnaires
AEIOU
Observation is also a good way to understand user behaviour. I used the AEIOU method to observe intergenerational travel tourists at tourist attractions and to analyse their behaviours. With their consent, I interviewed them briefly to understand their perceptions of intergenerational travel.
In-depth interviews
In-depth interviews often take more time but can help designers get useful information directly and efficiently. I invited six young people aged between 23 and 28, two middle-aged couples and two older people over 70 to be my interviewees. The interviews helped me to understand the different user groups’ satisfaction with intergenerational travel and their concerns at different stages of travel.
Questions and results of the interviews
1. What do you do if you fall ill while travelling?
Young people: If it is a serious health problem, they go to the nearest hospital as soon as possible. If the problem is not serious, they will go to the nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.
Middle-aged couples: They prefer to ask for help from local people or take a taxi directly to the hospital. If the problem is not serious, they will go to the nearby pharmacy to buy medicine.
Older people: They prefer to ask for help from their children. They sometimes feel helpless.
2. What do you do if you have transport problems during your trip and it affects your following itinerary?
Young people: They will use the map APPs to find alternative transport routes or change their destinations.
Middle-aged couples: If they are travelling in a group, they will listen to their guide.If they are travelling on their own, they will find a place to rest and then discuss what to do next
Older people: They hope that others can solve the problem.
3. What do you do if you have weather problems during your trip and it affects your next itinerary?
Young people: They will look for other indoor attractions through the map APPs.
Middle-aged couples: If they are travelling in a group, they will listen to their guide. If they are on a self-guided trip, they prefer to go back to the hotel to rest.
Older people: They prefer to go back to the hotel to rest.
4. When you recall a trip, what impressed you?
Young people: sights of the destination, good food at the destination, accommodation, things to do with partners
Middle-aged couples: sights of the destination, accommodation, company of family members
Older people: revisiting the same place, company of family members
5. Have you encountered any difficulties during your travels? Or something that affected the travel experience?
Young people: Someone had a conflict with a friend in the pre-trip planning stage because people ignored his opinion. Many tourist attractions suddenly closed because of covid-19.
Middle-aged couples: Many tourist attractions suddenly closed because of covid-19. Conflict on the trip because of disagreement with their children. Not enough information to help them deal with unexpected situations.
Older people: Poor quality of rest during the trip. There is not enough information to help them deal with unexpected situations. They are not good at using smart products, which causes them to not have access to many services.
Reflection
Through user research, I have gained a deeper understanding of user behaviours and needs. In design work, it is not possible to determine user needs through second-hand research alone because it is not comprehensive and not current. In the process of primary research, I found that each user has his own unique ideas. Even users in the same age range had different concerns when travelling. Therefore, when doing user research, designers need to increase the size of their user sample as much as possible, rather than relying on guesswork to determine user needs.
In the next stage, we plan to analyse the results of the user research and identify user needs. Then, we will find our design direction from the user needs.
