intrepid travel
UX/UI Conceptual Redesign of Travel Site
about
Intrepid Travel is the world's largest small group adventure travel company. Their main clientele are “gap” year or younger travelers in their mid-twenties seeking rugged adventure trips. But, now they want to broaden their customer base and attract an older demographic.
Task
In two weeks, working with Vicki Kim, Michael Tseng and John Pak, redesign Intrepid Travel’s “comfort” style tours to attract the baby boomer generation and create a responsive iPad site.
task analysis
We asked users to go through the steps to book a comfort style tour on the current website.
Main pain points:
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Convoluted steps to book a trip
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Information was poorly laid out
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Stock images are not engaging and don’t give a realistic idea of destinations
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Reviews don’t feel legitimate (many trips have duplicate reviews)
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Limited private group and solo trip options
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Inability to purchase excursions and daily activities a la carte
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Difficult to book trips based on destination and availability
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Comfort style trips weren’t prominently displayed and definition of "comfort" wasn't clear
User Survey
The results that informed our design process the most were:
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93.2% Book their vacation online
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59% Typically stay in mid-range hotels
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31.6% Have an individual income of $100,000+
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44.4% Would go on a group trip organized by a third party


Intrepid Travel's current home page
Next, we reached out to a handful of survey respondents who were over the age of 50 and asked them to answer additional questions for us. We were mostly interested in understanding what they defined a “comfort” trip as and what they would be willing to spend extra money on to make their vacation better.
The majority of the respondents defined a “comfort” style trip as:
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Leisurely
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Included nice hotel accommodations
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Great food
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Not structured
You can see the complete follow-up survey here
User Interviews
Needs:
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iPad friendly site
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Quick and simple booking process
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Realistic images of destinations
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Ability to book vacation three months in advance
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Stay in a secure, private hotel room with amenities such as Wi-Fi, laundry/cleaning services, central A/C, and room service
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Clearly visible trip descriptions and fine print
Pain Points:
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Hard to navigate site
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Hard to find trip descriptions and fine print
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Inability to customize trip excursions
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Group trips with strangers
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Tours with lots of scheduled excursions and food plans built in
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Inability to book a private group or solo trip
My full case study can be viewed here.

personas
Names: Barry & Pat
Ages: 67 & 66
Location: New York City
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Freelance Editor & Lawyer
Education: Bachelors & Law Degree
About: They both enjoy going to museums, traveling, reading & trying new restaurants
Needs: To book an anniversary vacation for just the two of them
Budget: $4000 per person
user flow & sketches
The revised user flow can be viewed here and sketches of the home page and trip detail and listing pages can be viewed here.
prototype
We used Axure to create the high-fidelity prototype.
The clickable prototype can be viewed here
Please note that the prototype was created with a specific purchase in mind. Therefore, not all the of the navigation, products or images are clickable. I would be more than happy to walk you through the pages.
Intrepid Travel Prototype