Lonely Planet Travel Guide Usability

Context & Background

Lonely Planet Travel Guides have long been ubiquitous in the travel guide industry. However, I’d heard various users complaining of pain points with the practicality of these books, so I wanted to get a sense of whether or not users still consider these travel guides helpful in planning a trip. For my Capstone project in Coursera's "Understanding User Needs" course, I conducted a usability study for Lonely Planet travel guides.

I found that despite a few lingering pain points, users find hardcopy Lonely Planet guides to be not only helpful in planning travel but as desirable artifacts of the trip once it has concluded. Nonetheless, the primary constraint is that information can become outdated in-between printings.

Findings & Recommendations

Lonely Planet’s hardcopy books are helpful for planning, and their purpose changes after the trip. Despite the relatively heavy weight of Lonely Planet books, all participants indicated that they prefer the physical book to an E-reader:
- Users liked being able to turn actual paper pages.
- Users liked not having to rely on an e-reader’s battery.
- Users said they hang onto the books after the trip for a keepsake.
Lonely Planet books are designed with enough info to start with but leave enough room for users to improvise and customize their trips. Users expressed that they trusted Lonely Planet books and indicated that they felt Lonely Planet helps them plan trips that are unique to them.
Lonely Planet should continue to produce books with relevant pre-planning and planning tools. Users used Lonely Planet guides at very different points in their planning process: Some users began using a LP book as early as three years in advance, and some didn’t start using the book for research until they were on the trip.
Lonely Planet should implement a regularly-updated application that coincides with their hardcopy books. Participants did note that a pain point of printed media is information goes out of date. Therefore, I designed a supplemental app (see below) that coincides with the hardcopy book. This app is meant to be used in conjunction with the hardcopy version before actually planning to ensure printed information is up to date.

•From the home screen, users are informed of changes related to information within their current Lonely Planet books. Users can see these changes immediately, or they can go to their library of Lonely Planet books.

•Users can also go to the guide they want and cross reference the page that contains the info they’re interested in to see any changes.

The red highlights indicate places where there is updated formation, and are detailed below the page.
The plan is for this app to precede any concrete planning for up-to-the-day planning but still allow users to continue to use the hardcopy books they prefer.

Timeline

• One week to design the study

• One week for user interviews

• Two weeks for data extraction and analysis

Research Goals

Determine if users find Lonely Planet guidebooks trustworthy and useful
Learn about aspects of LP books that users have found helpful/frustrating
Explore the ways users navigate Lonely Planet books
Examine the role these books play before, during, and after trips.

Methodology

User Interviews: I interviewed three users about their history and perspectives on Lonely Planet guides.
Talk Aloud Protocols: I had the participants walk me through a Lonely Planet book, speaking aloud regarding their thoughts and navigation.
Affinity Diagram: I created an affinity diagram to cluster common ideas and extract insights.

Recruitment

I recruited people through online forums such as Reddit. The criteria were people who:

Have used a hardcopy Lonely Planet book to plan a trip in the past three years
Are currently using a hardcopy Lonely Planet book to plan a trip
Still Possess hardcopy Lonely Planet books used in planning past trips

Sample Questions and Tasks

These mainstay questions we utilized were:

At what point during the trip-planning process will a Lonely Planet book come into play?
Can you tell us about a time when the Lonely Planet book helped you solve a problem or make a decision?
Can you tell us about a time when you could not complete a task or were frustrated with a Lonely Planet book?
What role does the book play while on the trip? How about after the trip?
[With a Lonely Planet guide in front of them] Can you walk me through how you:
- will start navigating a Lonely Planet book?
- will navigate the book if you have a specific goal like looking for a restaurant? A hotel? An attraction?
Deliverables: Findings and recommendations were reported in a formal business report and used to inform the prototype below.

Impact

My hope is that Lonely Planet uses this information and continues to make legacy products but also finds ways to give users access to important, and regularly updated, information.