The 7 Wonders — Chichén Itzá

Project #3

Located in the Yucatán State of México we have one of the 7 wonders of the world — Chichén Itzá. As a young couple in their early to mid-twenties, the users want to explore the ancient Mayan ruins. Planning 6 months ahead, saving, and organizing to gain the most out of the trip, finding the most efficient travel service is of utmost importance.

I compared Kayak, SkyScanner, and Hopper. I liked that Kayak and Hopper both had colors on their charts that showed which dates were most expensive. However Kayak and SkyScanner had obvious options to change from best, cheapest, fastest, flights whereas Hopper showed just the cheapest. Given the same dates and airports, Hopper actually found the cheapest. Although the filter option would hypothetically be more easily found on Kayak and SkyScanner. Given the young age group who would probably have a more restrictive budget, I chose Hopper. Hopper was more visually appealing overall, and when it came to looking at other accommodations I believed it to be the best in terms of how it filters and automatically asks for budget.

I was able to interview 3 users and required them to select a 2 person trip from Washington, D.C., to the closest airport to Merida, which is Mérida (MID). All users had questions about COVID restrictions due to the current pandemic, a question that was raised earlier in all three interviews. Hopper did not display this information, but it did show suggestions for when flight prices would rise. Adding a covid information page could be helpful. Due to the exchange rate, I found it best that they use an Uber to get around, versus renting a car. There wasn’t an option for other forms of transportation other than a rental car. Maybe adding availability of transportation such as Uber would be helpful. One more painpoint uncovered in interviews was that in order to put all of the options together, the user had to make an account.

I found that maybe that main issue to tackle would be displaying exchange rate, and services such as Uber being used. I could have a feature that shows past and current exchange rate, and transportation services outside of rental cars in the area. I planned to incorporate this into the (Rental Cars) Section on the main page. Instead of rental cars it would say local transportation which would have the option for rental cars as well as display other transport services in the area. This would also change things due to age restrictions of rental cars on people under 25. While on this page, there would also be the current exchange rate and rates for the past year, which would calculate the average of the past 6 months. This way a possible idea of what the rate could be at the time of the visit, 6 months in the future. Then, someone could decide which form of transportation would be cheaper.

Here is my lo-fi wireframe that implements more local transportation options as well as exchange rate.