Vanlife is a wild adventure.
Created a mobile app that aggregates information from multiple sources (work calendar, weather, distance/time to other venues) to help plan out a vanlifer’s day.
More informed + Better efficiency = More adventuring
Background
"Vanlife" refers to a lifestyle in which people live and travel in a van, typically a converted into an RV by themselves, as their primary residence. This can include full-time travelers, digital nomads, and people looking for an alternative to traditional housing. The van is often equipped with basic amenities such as a bed, kitchen, and bathroom, and people who live this lifestyle may also rely on camping or other forms of outdoor living. The vanlife community is often active on social media and through online forums, sharing tips and experiences related to van conversion, travel, and alternative living.
User Interviews
I conducted interviews with three individuals who are part of the "vanlife" community. The purpose of these interviews was to gain a deeper understanding of those who hold a professional career and choose to live and travel in a van. The individuals I interviewed were a diverse group, including a full-time traveler, a digital nomad, and someone looking for an alternative to traditional housing. They shared their experiences about van conversion and buildout, travel, and the day-to-day challenges and rewards of the vanlife lifestyle. They also provided insight into the tight-knit and supportive community that exists within the vanlife community. Overall, the interviews provided valuable insights into the motivations, experiences, and perspectives of those who choose to live the vanlife.
Affinity Maps
The affinity mapping revealed several key insights about the vanlife experience. These included the importance of flexibility and adaptability due to ever-changing lifestyle, the reliance on outside resources for food/water, hygiene, and wifi, difficulties planning their day with lots of variables to take into account, and immense joy from traveling.
The affinity mapping technique proved to be a valuable tool for understanding the common trends, needs, and pain points of the vanlife community and was used to create the user persona below.
User Persona
From the affinity mapping, several key insights were identified, which were used to create a user persona that represents the typical vanlifer. Allie Benson, 31-year-old software developer who works asynchronous from her team, holding 2-3 hrs of meetings everyday sometime between between 9am - 5pm CST.
Problem Statement
Van-lifers who hold professional, remote jobs use many apps to plan their day with lots of variables to take into account. This is a problem because finding, selecting, and planning venues in an unknown area can be stressful and waste time if not optimized for commute time, proximity to other venues, and weather. Deficiency in planning mean that van-lifers will not have time to adventure in a new city, meaning miss opportunities to adventure.
How might we…
How might we allow Allie to optimize her calendar so she can live the most wild life?
How might we aggregate information (weather, distance to venue, work obligations) into one platform so Allie can make the most informed decisions?
How might we illustrate areas of dense resources (laundry, grocery, shower, wifi) so Allie can complete more tasks in a shortest amount of time?
How might we make Allie’s calendar flexible and responsive to ever-changing changing events?
Sketches
Prototype 1.0 and Testing
A high-fidelity prototype was created and three users were asked to complete three tasks using the prototype. The tasks were designed to simulate real-world scenarios and test the usability and functionality of the prototype.
Task A required users to add a coffee shop, laundromat, library, and hike trail to todays agenda. All users were able to complete this task without any issues, indicating that the prototype's task page to be intuitive.
Task B required users to move a scheduled laundry task to the next day. All users were able to complete this task without any issues, indicating that the prototype's task management functionality was effective.
Task C required users to adjust the auto-reccomended destinations to only recommend vegan options. Users encountered slight difficulties finding the preferences panel, indicating that the prototype's user profile page needed further adjustments.
Overall, the testing revealed that the prototype's navigation, search, and task management functionality were effective, but improvements were needed to the profile page to ensure that users could edit the recommendations to their preferences.
Prototype 2.0
Above is the complete prototype and a second round of testing will be conducted as the project procceeds. I will also be refining the UI to best suit the functionality of the application.
