THE CUSTOMER
Journhey wants to be the reference platform for the experiential tourism market: is a hub dedicated to all those who want to share their own travel experiences and read about the adventures of other travellers.
It is a platform where telling one's story, creating and sharing one's travel diary with the community and friends; an aggregative space where to exchange rifflections, questions and useful tips with other travellers; a digital library created by real people in which cercing travel experiences in all parts of the world.
THE CHALLENGE
The collaboration between our team and Journhey dates back to the days when the idea was still in its infancy. Together we have built an ambitious project, a travel-themed social network.
On the one hand, the need was to give users the possibility to create and develop one's personal travel diary by creating a profile and guided sharing of experiences. On the other hand, there was a need to make travel information available to all users, through a structured search function to compare all the experiences on the platform, using a series of filters and criteria essential for aoriginal and unprecedented user experience.
We have been working with Synextya since June 2021, even before the Journhey project was born. We are an innovative start-up and I must say that Synextya has accompanied us from the very first moments with great willingness, even beyond the scope of the contract we agreed upon. We entrusted Synextya with the realisation of our software platform, starting only with a graphic mock-up. There was immediately a special understanding between the members of both teams, and this led us to achieve the results we hoped for within the timeframe we had set ourselves. We worked both with in-person meetings at Synextya's offices in Bologna and Ferrara, and remotely from different parts of Italy and the world, always with the same professionalism. This more than anything else is the added value we recognise in Synextya, the constant proximity independent of the team's geographical location. We still have a long way to go, and many ideas to put on the ground, what I can say is that without the support of a partner like Synextya, realising this first step would hardly have been possible.
THE SOLUTION
We started from the development of the platform interface, gradually implementing the necessary functionalities to improve the user experience, based on the elements that emerged from thecontinuous project analysis and testing of the platform itself.
We have structured a guided path for uploading and sharing users' travel experiences, with a focus on interaction with the entire community.
Also the experience search function required an ad hoc development to facilitate the consultation of information via theapplication of various types of filters and the implementation of travel route maps.
Also, in the final stage, we integrated several travel portals into the platform for generating links to automated affiliate programmes and related to travel experiences written by users.
DESIGN ELEMENTS
Meta-design and prototyping
Design thinking, definition of buyer personas, user research, field research, led to the definition of the first interactive mockup.
User Experience and User Interface
The study of the user experience and interface was based on collecting feedback from target users and testing the prototype, leading to the definition of the final design.
End-user frontend
Design and development of the end-user-visible platform for interaction with the Community, entry of travel experiences and consultation.
Administration panel
Design and development of an internal management panel for content moderation and data visualisation.
