Her Voyage is an app designed to help solo women travelers connect with like-minded companions, ensuring a safer and more enriching travel experience. It offers features such as personalized matchmaking based on shared interests, destination preferences, and hobbies, as well as tools to explore verified profiles, plan trips together, and build meaningful connections. The app empowers women to travel confidently while fostering a sense of community and support.

As part of our academic project, we chose to address a significant issue faced by women: the challenges of traveling solo and enabling them to do so confidently and independently. Our aim is to create a solution that empowers women to explore the world on their own terms while ensuring safety, connection, and support throughout their journeys.

How might we help women who want to travel find compatible travel companions to share their journey and experiences?

The main goal of the first interview was to understand why women don’t travel solo, what the barriers are, and what their needs might be. We decided to interview three users with different profiles to better understand their reasons for traveling, why they don’t travel solo, and what they enjoy about it.

Woman 37 years old, moved to Canada 2 years ago, she is fine travelling by herself

After interviewing these three women, we discovered how adventurous they are and how they have been held back from exploring the world over the years.

Women traveling with companions may sometimes face conflicts due to differing interests and preferences.

“I like to eat at different places, but another friend might prefer going to tourist spots, which could lead to disagreements.”

Women are open meeting new friends while traveling, but have some hesitations

“Are you comfortable meeting others while you are travelling?
I’m fine knowing more people, and when I meet others I can learn from them and they can be my future friends.”

“What might stop you from trusting others?
When I don’t know their background and what is her intention of getting close to me.”

In order to better understand our core demographic of female travellers, we sent out a short survey, which gave us insight on key features of the app.

After conducting all the interviews and surveys, we gained valuable insights into what our target users expect from our app. With this understanding, we felt confident to move forward to the next stage of our journey: Define.

To gain a deeper understanding of our target users, we developed two personas: one represents a traveler who enjoys having companions on solo trips, while the other reflects someone who avoids traveling by herself due to safety concerns.

As we can see, these two personas have very different characteristics, and we need to design an app that can meet the needs and motivations of both, encouraging them to travel more.

Empathy maps were created to illustrate what users think, feel, say, and do, helping us understand their experiences, motivations, and challenges. They provided a deeper insight into users’ emotions and behaviors, allowing us to design more user-centered solutions.

Choose a safe destination
Choose a companion from an agency or app
Decide on activities

Relaxed travelling to Asian countries
Afraid to travel solo
Excited about new experiences
A companion could be dangerous

Safety concerns
Disagreement on activities with a companion
Expenses

Wants to travel to know herself better
Have a new experience and enjoy the new food

To improve the design of our travel app, we reviewed various travel and matching apps to identify features similar to ours and determine how we could benefit from them. Below is a list and a table outlining the pros and cons of each app.

Visualizing the problem helps to clearly understand and represent the user challenges, making it easier to identify potential solutions and design a more effective user experience.

A story map is a tool used to organize and prioritize user stories or tasks, breaking down complex features into manageable steps. It helps teams visualize user interactions, align on key features, and ensure a cohesive, user-centered app flow during the ideation phase. We used these maps to illustrate how users will interact with three key sections: Onboarding, Profile, and Search for a Travel Buddy.

After understanding the sections and deciding what to include in each, we divided the work to create wireframes for the three key sections. We focused on developing low-fidelity wireframes to map out the basic structure and functionality of the app.

The app is designed with four key features to better support women who want to travel solo.

Browse detailed profiles to ensure compatibility and aligned travel goals.

We designed a user test to evaluate whether the app’s features effectively meet the needs of the users. This test involved real users interacting with the app to complete specific tasks, such as signing up, searching for a travel buddy, and exploring user profiles. By observing their behavior and gathering feedback, we aimed to identify areas where the app excels and areas that require improvement. This process helps ensure the app is user-friendly, functional, and aligned with user expectations.

After testing the app with three users, the primary concern that emerged was security. The women expressed uncertainty about how to trust their travel companions, especially when meeting people through the app. They were also apprehensive about the security of their personal information shared within the app. This highlights a key issue for solo travelers—ensuring that they feel safe not only in their interactions with others but also in how their data is handled. Addressing these trust concerns will be crucial in making the app more appealing and reassuring to users.

To address the security concerns raised during the user test, we found a few strategies:

Verified Profiles: Introduce a verification process for users, such as linking their profiles to trusted platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, social media) or using ID verification. This would help users feel more confident about the identity of their travel companions.

User Reviews and Ratings: Implement a review and rating system where users can share feedback on their experiences with travel companions. Positive reviews will help build trust, while negative feedback can signal potential issues.

Safety Features: Include safety measures such as emergency contacts, real-time location sharing with trusted friends or family, and an in-app panic button. These features can reassure users that they have a support system in place.

Clear Privacy Policy: Ensure the app has a transparent and easy-to-understand privacy policy that outlines how user data is stored and protected. This will help users trust that their information is handled securely.

Guidelines for Safe Interaction: Provide guidelines on how to communicate and meet safely with other users. Offering safety tips and advice will empower users to make informed decisions and mitigate risks.

These suggestions have provided us with valuable insights into enhancing safety for future app improvements and any other matching apps we design moving forward.

A style guide ensures consistency throughout the app and helps build trust and ease of use for the user.

Finally, a mid-fidelity prototype was created and prepared for further testing. This prototype is more detailed than the initial wireframes, including key interactions, basic visuals, and functionality. It serves as a tangible representation of the app’s flow and design elements, allowing us to test specific features and gather user feedback on its usability and design. Unlike low-fidelity wireframes, the mid-fi prototype provides a closer look at how the final app will work, offering a better sense of user experience. With this prototype, we can refine the app further based on real user input before moving to high-fidelity design or development stages

The link to the Figma file is

https://www.figma.com/design/iw4B6lsTliKbxrFvbSDm6g/HerVoyage—Style-guide%2C-components%2C-prototype?node-id=90-3038&t=M8M4Wt46TYECqLbf-1

Solo travel for women presents a unique set of opportunities and challenges. While many women are eager to explore the world on their own for the purposes of self-discovery, adventure, and independence, concerns about safety, trust, and loneliness often hold them back. By addressing these issues through thoughtful app design—such as profile verification, safety features, and travel buddy matching—travel apps can create a secure and supportive environment that encourages women to travel more confidently and comfortably. Ultimately, empowering women to take control of their travel experiences while ensuring their safety and well-being is key to fostering a vibrant community of solo female travelers.

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