by Vas Mylko, Roman Bilusiak
Curiosio v21 will allow fine-tuning of travel search requests. UX update is needed to make it useful and usable. We are implementing the product design incrementally. There will be multiple releases in the scope as we are taking it component by component to improve.
The first mission of the UX redesign is aimed at improving the perception, feeling & emotions, understandability, usability of the website. The second mission is dedicated to building a solid UX foundation that will carry out many tuning knobs for the ultimate personalization on desktop and mobile screens. Today we mainly describe the new Homepage — the look & feel and the rationale behind it. Also, will show the kind of tuning planned in v21.
Emotional Design
The biggest travel sites and their mobile apps are designed to do just one thing: sell you flights and hotel rooms. But it’s not just about sitting on the planes and sleeping in the hotels — it’s the experiences in between that make it memorable. How to communicate this viscerally to the website visitors who don’t read?
We are delighted to be noticed by National Geographic as one of the best AI sources for travel. It’s nice to hear about the user-friendly web interface that makes browsing for travel plans more interactive through the use of maps, pre-planned road trip routes, and other features. But what to do with the false perception Curiosio is laid over ChatGPT? It’s vice versa — ChatGPT could call Curiosio API like they call Kayak, Expedia, and WolframAlpha.
So we styled the top of the homepage totally different from other travel planners to be not confused with them. Curiosio is a computational intelligence that makes the travel experience better. Curiosio is being designed to be able to run on top of Google Travel, Airbnb Experiences, Tripadvisor, Facebook Places. Curiosio has its own knowledge graph of points and places. We even want to use our unique viz for POIs.
We embedded an online demo for two use cases right into the Homepage. One use case is about an inspired hesitant traveler from London who needs some guidance. Another use case is about a traveler from New York who knows what he is doing and needs specific trip plans. Both use cases are described below in separate sections.
Tuscan Use Case
The famous Tuscany Breathtaking Countryside described at the beginning of the Curiosio v20 release post has become an official demo case. Follow this link to land on the Tuscan demo on the Curiosio homepage, or navigate to https://curiosio.com and scroll down. You should see this:
A Londoner enjoyed reading National Geographic about Tuscan journeys. The story about Tuscany’s Breathtaking Countryside was particularly captivating for her. She is planning a vacation trip with her husband to Italy on top of that story. Setting her own duration and budget. Expecting the maximum overlap with the original route.
Click MOTIVATION for the context, FLIGHTS defining the dates, ROUTE PLANNING for information input to start researching your options, and COMPARISON for learning what’s possible in your requirements. It’s an interactive accordion, just click the section you want and get the description or screen recording demonstrating how it works. Demo link.
Van Gogh Use Case
Vincent van Gogh has been living inside Curiosio for a while. We showcased him in Two Sides of Curiosio back then when we juxtaposed People & Emotions vs. Science & Engineering. The movie At Eternity’s Gate is here again as a motivator. Follow this link to land on the van Gogh’s interactive demo, or go to https://curiosio.com and scroll down, below the Tuscany demo case.
A New Yorker recently watched the movie At Eternity’s Gate, which is based on the life of Vincent van Gogh. Since his childhood, he has been fascinated by his famous works. He learned how much van Gogh painted in Paris, Auvers-sur-Oise, Arles, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He wants to see all these places in vivo. He and his fiancee are going to France.
Opening the top four sections — MOTIVATION, FLIGHTS & DATES, ROUTE PLANNING, and COMPARISON — is highly encouraging and appreciated. Especially if you are new to Curiosio. There will be descriptions and screen recordings of how to enter what you know and want, and how to learn what’s possible in your requirements. Demo link.
Tuning & Fine-Tuning
EN ROUTE a lot could and will happen. Examples of the reasons to change the plans in-destination or en route:
- I like this place so much, I want to stay here longer.
- The weather is too hot, we need to leave sooner.
- My friend will be traveling nearby, I want to add a waypoint to meet her.
- The launch of the first Starship to Mars was scrubbed by an errant cruise ship. The next window for the launch opens on the day after tomorrow.
- We’ve just watched the National Geographic episode and learned about the sacred trail 100km away from us, and we decided to do a pilgrimage hike there.
- My daughter caught a cold, we have to cancel all booked activities for the next few days. Then, we have to re-plan the rest of the journey after she feels better.
Where to put all those knobs? How to make them efficient on desktop and mobile screens? A new UX is needed. Most probably accordions — vertical accordions as an IxD pattern. Google officially recommends accordions. Simplification of the UX could help with making hybrid apps (like Amazon, Netflix, Twitter, Uber).
Serendipity
Curiosio might suggest and recommend cool new opportunities according to your location in time and space. You can have more fun from the luck on certain dates, even hours, in certain geography:
- You are currently in NYC. Manhattanhenge is happening today in several hours.
- Angelina Jolie is drinking coffee with croissants in the cafe nearby.
- A movie is being filmed in the next town. It’s a chance for you to be a mass-scene actor.
- A meteorite hit the ground yesterday, the crater is along the route, the place was confirmed as non-radioactive by the local authorities. You can go collect a piece of the space traveler.
- A lot of fluorescent butterflies visited the cape pretty close to the driving route. You could decide to make a detour and enjoy the shining and the glow tonight.
Some fine-tuning might be needed by you to update the trip plan. Curiosio will advise for sure, proposing options, but it’s you who decides. Which knobs to turn to adjust to the opportunities? A new UX is needed. It will be a long-awaited product version 21. Stay tuned and always follow your curiosity.
#StandWithUkraine
Curiosio is being designed and implemented in Ukraine. If you are from the democratic part of the world then we appeal to you to support and push your governments to gift or lend or sell long-range heavy weapons to Ukraine en masse to help defeat rashists, rashism, and ruzzia.
