This post is the official start of my research and ideas generation for IXD104 project 1 - Designing user interfaces for a travel app.

Just quickly I want to take a closer look at the project briefs out by my teacher Paul, It always helps me so much to understand what exactly is required of me in a project before I start the research.

After a rereading my briefs, I understand that my project should contain the following;

• an emphasis on illustration, icons, diagrams and charts
• a minimum of at least six screens, which should include: a home/app launch screen, destination/journey screen (whatever range of locations the app may include), at least three screens illustrating three destinations or one destination with two additional screens providing more information.
• An icon set for app navigation
• Illustrations/diagrams showing the places the travel app will take the user.
• Appropriate selection of typographic elements to support visual content

Having understood what I need to include in my project, the first thing that I'm going to do is idea generation. After all, there is no point in starting to prototype in Figma if I have no idea behind the concept of my travel app.

And for Idea generation, I feel like I first need to look at existing travel apps/app prototypes to get an idea of what I want for my travel app. One of the places where I found loads of inspiration and ideas is from looking at the project brief and the slides from week 1. In these places, my teacher gave us many examples of  past students' work, and they had some amazing designs;

This one is by Rachel Donaldson, the idea of a space travel app is so cool and I love the space background. The idea of space travel or exotic travel is definitely on the top of my list for my own space app. looking at the function of the app, it seems to be recommending different planets that you can travel to, and different Spaceships can you can use; it also gives information on specific planets. One of my favourite functions of this app is the badges you can earn. I feel that it has the availability to gain awards and looking back on these awards really keeps the user more emotionally invested.

This is one by Rachel Donaldson, what attracts me the most about this app is how serene it is. Perfectly matches the nature/mountain/hiking theme of the app. It also reminds me of one of my all-time favourite IOS games - monument valley. I will keep the design of this app in mind if I ever decide to do a travel app that relates back to nature or hiking, I think I too would like to do something in a similar art style. Lastly, I really like the 3rd screen where it shows off all the main attractions in a simple and easy manner, I think that is a really important element of a travel app.

(Monument valley game)

This one is by Garry Irwin. I like how "clean" this app is at the first glance, but as you look closer, you can see all the lovely details of the images. similar to the first two travel app that I have shown, the machines of this one is recommending good places that you can travel/skate in. I really like the map function on the 3rd screen, seeing a physical map in the background really helps.

Now I want to show 2 more apps with a different approach to perhaps the traditional travel app, these case studies are also provided by my teacher Paul;