I love Foursquare and have used it since I lived in Tokyo. After I moved to San Francisco, I was impressed that I could use it seamlessly. It helped me discover a new place anywhere in the world. Last summer, I also planned a trip to Portland with Foursquare but I realized a problem while using the iOS app.

So I set out to explore feature enhancements and improvements that would help users plan their trips, and attract new users.

Problem & Hypothesis

Last year, I tried using both Foursquare’s desktop and mobile versions to plan a trip. I noticed that it was easy to search for locations near and far on the desktop version, however when using the mobile version it was significantly harder when searching for further travel destinations. I really loved using Foursquare, so I wanted to find a way to make the mobile app easier to use. A way to do this would be to create a way for users to bookmark potential travel destinations, then they would be much easier to navigate to when using the mobile app.

Foursquare’s desktop version

I researched the philosophy that guides Foursquare. They suggest to their users to make a list of favorite spots, plan a trip, and save places you want to go. I was confident that their aim was same my hypothesis.

The screenshot in Foursquare on the App Store — iTunes (Nov 2017)

Persona

First, I created a provisional persona of a potential Foursquare user based on online research and people around me who are using Foursquare. Since Foursquare is about discovering new places, I envision the ideal user is a curious and adventurous person.

Job Story & Scenario

I created the following job story with the Jobs To Be Done framework and a scenario.

Job Story

Scenario

Guerrilla Usability Testing

Testing People in Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco

Based on my job story and the scenario, I conducted guerilla usability testing to test my hypothesis.

I found seven people in a park and asked a few qualifying questions before starting the usability test.

Before I asked them to do tasks, I asked them to imagine they were planning to travel to a new destination (either city or country is fine).

Seven users were asked to do the following tasks on the iPhone:

If you are looking for a place where you’d like to travel, how would you do that? Let’s say you found a place you like, what do you do to check out that place? You’re interested in the place, and you decide to plan on travel there, what would you do next?

Identifying and Prioritizing Pain Points