Overview
WeTravel is a marketplace platform for packaged trips around the world. Independent Trip Organizers create these packaged trips via their own Vendors and advertise them on the WeTravel site. Participants sign up and pay for trips directly through the site.
To better serve their users and grow the platform, WeTravel wanted to explore a new feature to help Trip Organizers to manage their Vendor interactions and payments directly through the site.
Key Product Features
Making Vendor Management Simple
Our research found most vendor management was scattered across numerous unreliable, off-platform methods and processes. Bringing key vendor activities onto the platform improved users’ experience and achieved the client goal of increasing transaction growth.
Dashboard
“Who Owes Who & What Should I Do Next?”
Vendor Hub
“Who’s Our Driver in Krabi & Where’s Their Number?”
Vendor Contact Profile
“Who’s Their Best Instructor & What’s Their Rate?”
Payment Flow
‘Did They Get The Payment We Sent?'
Vendor payments can be made directly through the WeTavel platform with the simple, two-screen payment flow:
Validation
Do Users Trust & Understand The New Features?
Design Process
Below is the standard map that guided the process:
Research
How Can WeTravel Be a Better Option?
A better option to what? We relied on user interviews to understand the current vendor management processes and provide insight into the activities the new feature would need to address.
How do we make ‘better?’ A review of how similar problems were being solved by industry leaders helped guide our designs.
User Interviews
With buy-in from both groups needed for the feature to work, we interviewed Trip Organizers and Vendors from around the world to understand their current process, gauge interest in the new feature, and gain insights.
User Group 1: Trip Organizers
Existing users - familiar with WeTravel
Create packaged trips using various Vendors
Use WeTravel to advertise trips and collect payment from participants
WeTravel put us in contact with select Trip Organizers from around the world to better understand:
How users were currently managing their Vendors and making payments
Identify any barriers or pains the new feature could address
Whether users felt WeTravel was delivering on their current value proposition
User Group 2: Vendors
Potential users - may be familiar with WeTravel
Usually located internationally
Include lodging, activity, transportation & other services
Since WeTravel did not have access to Vendor contacts, we targeted travel vendor types that would typically transact with WeTavel Trip Organizers (transportation services, lodging, retreats, excursions, tours, etc.) in locations that WeTravel often books trips (Thailand, Costa Rica, Nepal, etc.).
These international Skype interviews provided insights into:
How to build credibility and trust into the platform
Vendors familiarity with WeTravel
Current transaction processes
Concerns with receiving payment via the platform
Prioritizing Requests
Key Interview Insights & Feature Requests
Both Groups Interested in Payments via Feature
Trip Organizers willing to send payments via WeTravel
Current users happy with WeTravel services
Building Trust Key for User Adoption
Trip Organizers need confidence that payments have been received
Vendors distrust payments from unknown sources
Feature Requests Focus on Convenience
Place to save contact and payment info
Easy way to track the status of payments
Ability to request payments and send reminders for late payments
Competitive Analysis
We reviewed leading Payment and and Vendor Management Platforms for best practices and design inspiration regarding user onboading, information architecture, payment & communication flows and security strategies.
Below are some of the key platforms we reviewed:
Payment Platforms
Vendor Management Platforms
Design
Building A Better Option
After presenting our findings and proposed direction for the new feature we received client sign off to move forward with the design process.
Based on our research, client engineering capabilities and business priorities we focused on three primary areas:
Key Components
Dashboard
High-level view of account activity
Ability to send money, make transfers and request payments
Ability to make payments and remind debtors
Vendor Hub
List of vendors with contact and payment info
Favorite, message and add notes
Invite a new vendor to the platform
Send money and check transaction history
Transaction History
Search all past transactions
Granular filtering options
Manage past transactions
Process Flows
After whiteboarding basic flows, I find mapping out complete, detailed flows helps to align everyone’s understanding, identify needs & ensure details don’t get missed.
The flow below explores the invitation process for new Vendor & new Trip Organizers:
Test & Iterate
Further iterations of the designs were guided by User Testing with LoFi & HiFi prototypes. After passing basic usability tests, scenarios were used to test basic feature goals with Trip Organizers & Vendors.
Vendor Contact Information Iterations
Design Focus
Building Trust With Vendors
With large amounts of money being transacted and vendors having varying prior knowledge of WeTravel, proving that this was a reputable platform was key for gaining vendors’ trust and convincing them to accept payment via the platform.
We focused on accomplishing this from the very first invitation email by attracting the vendor’s attention with a clear value statement and including familiar elements to build credibility.
New Vendor Platform Invitation Email
Design Focus
Creating a Simple & Easy Experience
Along with building user trust, user adoption depended on the feature being simple and intuitive. By incorporating various design elements from our competitive analysis we ensured this applied not only to the main screens but also to the payment, invitation and onboarding flows.
These design elements included:
Easily understandable terminology rather than technical
accounting terms ie. (You Owe/Owed to You) vs. (Credit/Debit)Simplified input sections using dynamic suggestions, autofill and clear error states
A guided walkthrough to ensure current and future users
understand the new featureFriction as a tool to ensure user understanding and prevent
user error
Final Thoughts
Lobby To Bring Engineering In Early
Designing this product proved the value of constantly getting buy-in and perspective from all stakeholders. Whether its 4am Skype calls to gain key insights from international users or bringing the engineering into the design process to help client leadership understand their capacity.
In the future, I would lobby to include engineering earlier in the design process to help the client make more informed decisions and help focus the design effort.
Want to learn more about my process or discuss this case study? I’d love to chat! ZachDierberg@gmail.com