by Vas Mylko
The most important post for the next few months. We are scoping the product. What is the product? We know what we are doing — we are capturing the mental process of a traveler. We know it starts from inspiration. We know it doesn’t stop on booking — it is exactly the opportunity to assist travelers during the journey.
Here is our attempt to gather all pieces we know and don’t know. Our thinking process: list it all → find patterns → define structure → rank → estimate → prioritize → program. Meanwhile, check out and let us know what not to do! Design is about removing things, isn’t it?
Dreaming
Travel is shifting towards well-being. Travel inspiration is becoming a periodical emotional exercise. National Geographic: “Looking ahead to your next adventure could benefit your mental health. Even if you’re not sure when that adventure will be. Even during a pandemic, thinking about travel can make you happy.” Here is one of many possibilities for 4 day cyclic road trip from San Franscisco with mandatory waypoint Oakville, CA (the link points to beta10.curiosio.com which will work for a while until we rollout beta11).
Supporting your travel dreams is the inspiration function of Curiosio. You can experiment with your own ideas. You can take travel stories from others and play with them. Dreaming concepts & questions to elaborate for 4–7 day road trips in own car starting and ending at home:
- Does one point define the theme of the whole road trip? Examples: national park, winery, small town with rich history.
- If you add a waypoint, is it the right moment to ask why? The same point could define very different themes: Grand Canyon NP for vigorous hiking vs. scenery photography vs. helicopter flying between the walls. This could be done ad hoc via the context menu.
- You can enter multiple waypoints. What if each such point has a reason behind it? Examples: Grand Canyon NP for hiking, Desert Rock Winery for wine, Peach Springs for diving into Indian history. What is the theme of this trip? Is one theme dominating?
Then, if you are exploring with multiple points, more conceptual questions pop up:
- Curiosio could try to recognize the theme from the multiple waypoints automatically. Example: you entered Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Arles in France. It is “obviously” van Gogh theme.
- Elaborating the previous concept— if you specify the high-level theme such as “van Gogh” — shall Curiosio automatically propose both Saint-Rémy-de-Provence and Arles? This will require 10x more semantics in the knowledge graph :-O
Planning
This phase is less or more clear. Just throw the known/required parameters onto the algorithm to get a trip plan with the route and itinerary. Make subsequent searches, more and more specific, until you are good with the low-level logistics. Concepts & questions to elaborate:
- The topology of the route if you decided to stay multiple nights at the same point, and want to return to the “same bed” every evening. Internally, we call such daily rides “petals of the flower”.
- Elaborating the previous concept — multiple “flowers” possible during the same journey. There are signals that families don’t like to switch accommodations [often or at all].
Booking in advance is useful and rational. Simple question here:
- Booking. Is there a dominant point that must be booked in advance while the half of the trip shall be kept flexible?
- Where would you like to book? With your favorite booking site/app? Will the one-stop shop be more convenient? Will you book with Curiosio if the price is the same for the same property?
Probably you knew the information up to this moment. We are not stopping at booking. The real deal is happening during the journey. En route.
Concierge
En route, all this is going to change, and this is exactly the coolness of the road trips! You are going to continue dreaming and experiencing. You are just following your curiosity. Several concepts and questions to elaborate on here:
- You are liking the place so much that you are deciding to stay longer. What else to see and do here and there? This is a typical concierge question.
- Friends are suggesting you cool eatery, you are deciding to try it. Need to book a table in advance.
- Weather is intercepting your plans. Could the outdoors be replaced by the indoors? Are tickets or a reservation needed?
- Dynamic interesting things are appearing here and there, let’s catch a surprise.
- You are deciding to change your plans. Can Curiosio re-plan from now till the end of the journey with new requirements?
- Your journey has a rhythm — physiological and psychological — how to keep the good cadence of physical and emotional load?
- Traffic, assistance, cancellation, refunding, insurance, etc.
This is the concierge function — the most valuable function of Curiosio. Most probably this is that missing piece that people who love Curiosio are telling. Concierge service is going to be smart and automated. Some requests are “pull” when you are telling what you want, e.g. fine dining reservation at the specific restaurant. Some information is “push” when the concierge is telling you proactively, e.g. time for a stop… or SpaceX landing, visible from your current location.
Curiosity
The naming is hard. We already did it. Conceptually Curiosio is a friend of your born instinct — curiosity. You are following your curiosity. It seems that in the new world all dots are connecting. National Geographic: “Road-tripping has shown me that the core of travel — curiosity, exposure to newness, and wonder — is a perspective, not a destination…” Foreign Policy: “We will keep traveling because curiosity cannot be expunged…”
