Adding a Feature to the My Disney Experience App
Overview
Client: My Disney Experience App
My Role: Principal Designer, UX/UI Specialist
Summary: The Walt Disney World Resort has become accessible to guests on a new technological level since the release of the My Disney Experience App. Although this app has many features to make any Disney vacation a breeze, with all the activities available on the property it can be overwhelming to keep track of all there is to do. This project focuses on adding an activity tracking feature to the My Disney Experience app.
Goal: Make vacation planning more manageable at the one of the worlds largest resort properties by allowing users to review prior activity at the parks, hotels, and restaurants.
Process: Research - Define - Design - Testing & Iteration
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Please note- I am not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company, this is purely a practice in design.
Introduction
The My Disney Experience App used at the Walt Disney World Resort is loaded with features to bring the classic magical Disney vacation experience to its contemporary audience. With all the tools and features there is not yet a way for guests to access their prior activity at the resort and make a wishlist of activities they would like to do in the future. The Walt Disney World Resort covers forty three square miles of central Florida which includes 4 major theme parks, 2 water parks, a shopping and entertainment district, 32 hotels and resorts, and over 200 restaurants.
There is so much to do it is easy for guests to lose track of what they have done, and also to miss out on experiences that they might not even be aware are available. With all of the options available Walt Disney World is not a one-time destination, and the current app has the opportunity to help guests discover what other memories they can make by helping them organize all of the activities available to them- and sort them into a list for them to use as they are making reservations.
Research
Quick Take
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None of the other local theme parks have an app with a tracking feature.
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A tracking feature similar to those found in retail and travel apps will help users with vacation planning without getting too overwhelmed.
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Many users are already tracking their own activity at WDW.
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The activity tracker can be used to make a wishlist, which would allow the user to find and organize new activities on the property.
“I am already tracking what I have and have not done at WDW. I would love for that to be integrated into the app!”
I first conducted research into the other theme parks in the Orlando FL area by reviewing the features of the Apps available for Universal Studios Orlando, Seaworld Orlando, Legoland Florida, and Busch Gardens Tampa. The apps did not have a feature to track activity, or create a wishlist. Although the other theme park properties had their own apps, the properties are not nearly as large as Walt Disney World, and this feature would not be as useful for those properties.
I looked at the past activity and wishlist features for AirBnB, Amazon, and Goodreads. These apps provided a way for the user to view their past activity, current activity, future activity, and save rentals/items/books into a wishlist. The My Disney Experience App is already equipped with a way to view future and current activities- but the past activity and wishlist features utilized by AirBnB, Amazon, and Goodreads could be restructured in order to allow guests access to a great new tool to use in their vacation planning.
I interviewed several users to talk about their experience with using the My Disney Experience App in their trips to Walt Disney World. These users are all Annual Passholders and visit the report property frequently, weekly to monthly, and stated that there is no way to visit the property without using the app. Although the app is great at making reservations, linking guest accounts, and viewing current and future activity, there is no way for the users to track that activity. Some users even use a spreadsheet provided online for free that was developed by another Annual Passholder to track their activity. Many users expressed a desire to be able to see what they have done, be able to filter that out to see what they have not done or if an activity has been updated, and create a wishlist to use for their frequent visits to the resort property. Although the initial focus of the feature was to create an activity tracker, the research showed the users need to take it a step further by making the data work for guests by creating a way for the user to view attractions experienced versus those not experienced and create a wishlist. From the wishlist the user would be able to make reservations using the current system.
Define
Quick Take
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Site map was reconfigured to improve the usability of the hamburger menu and make it easier to find items in their own category.
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User persona wants to be able to find out what else there is to do on WDW property without having to dig through the app or websites.
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Task and user flows created to emphasize users finding and reserving new activities.
After conducting interviews with users, I created a basic map of the current My Disney Experience App. As I did this I found an opportunity to improve the layout for the current hamburger menu, and create a more intuitive way to take the user to the tools for planning their vacations, without being overwhelmed by the many options and features in the current hamburger menu.
I also created a user persona to keep the users goals of easy access to data to help plan their next vacation or free time at the Walt Disney World Resort. Although any guest will have access to the new feature, the target user for started will be the annual passholders who visit at least monthly and have a hard time keeping track of what they have done on property and what is new. Although this persona loves the how much they can accomplish with the app, they wish there was a way to organize their past activity and also see what else there is to do that they have not done yet.
A task flow and user flow were also created, and in the process of creating these I found how the end goal of the feature was not to just be able to see what activities have been experienced in the past, but to be able to create a wishlist from a tab where they will able to see what they have experienced and what they have not experienced.
Design
Quick Take
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Wireframes designed the hamburger menu to better serve the user by presenting categories for them.
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Activity tracker designed using three tabs leading the user to build an activity wishlist.
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Interface in the prototype was built to match existing UI in the app so the user would not have to relearn a new interface to use the feature.
I began the design phase by sketching out three different wireframes each for the hamburger menu, the category screens, and the activity tracker. The hamburger menu currently has over twenty different options for the user to choose from which range from account properties to ordering food for pickup while in the parks. I decided that when the user selects the hamburger menu it would be more efficient for them to be able to choose what category of features they need- from features to make plans and set reservations, to controlling their account. The activity tracker would fit into the “My Activities” category for making plans and reservations. I decided to base the new hamburger menu style off the home screen for the app as this will be familiar to users.
In the first iteration of the mid-fidelity wireframes I had left all of the hamburger menu options on the same page but split them up using four headers, as well as buttons at the top to allow the user to jump to the different categories. After laying out the wireframe I determined that even with the headers separating categories, having all of the features laid out was still too overwhelming. I redesigned the hamburger menu to display the four categories, with a brief summary of what the different categories are, and then from there the user is taken to the category menu where they will find no more than six options that are relevant to the category selected.
I designed the activity tracker as a mid fidelity wireframe in Figma with three separate tabs. The “Past Activities” tab would show the user exclusively their past activities organized by date. The “All Activities” tab would show all activities available on the resort property and have them marked as a completed activity, incomplete activity, and updated activities. The updated activities marker would include restaurants, parks, and resorts that have had some sort of change or update since the last time the user had visited those experiences. I made sure to include a way to manually add an activity, and filter the activities on the “All Activities” tab.
In the first iteration I had organized all of the activities under the “All Activities” tab alphabetically. This also seemed overwhelming, as there are hundreds of activities available on the resort. In the second iteration I added a way to filter activities by category as well as a search option- similar to how users can filter and search through activities when making a reservation through the app.
When I created the high fidelity wireframes and prototype I made sure to rebuild the existing user interface in order to ensure that users would not get lost in using the new feature. This included the activity cards, buttons, icons, and logos, which were all recreated in Figma.
During the design phase I enjoyed rebuilding the UI elements and seeing how the original designers of the app brought the Walt Disney World style and quality to a modern app with their color choice of blues and grays which is reminiscent of Cinderella’s castle.
Testing & Iteration
Quick Take
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Activity status types were changed to help user to better understand the status of their activities.
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Wishlist icons changed to help users understand if they are adding or removing the activity from the list.
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Search function added to allow user to check past activities.
“Did you have access to the app to help copy the style? It looks like it already belongs in the app.”
I tested the feature by building the prototype on figma and presenting it on a mobile device using the Figma App. Users who use the app weekly, annually, and once every few years were presented with the mobile app and asked to add an activity to their wishlist. All users who participated in the test were able to navigate through the new menus to the activity tracking feature and add an item to their wishlist within minutes. All users commented that they preferred the newly organized hamburger menu and subcategory menus as this took away a lot of the time spent digging through the menu and trying to decide what they needed. Users were glad to find a way to manually add an activity as not all activities have a reservation the app can track. Overall users found the feature helped make the planning process less straining mentally as they were able to add items they wanted into a list they could refer to instead of having to keep track of everything independently or off the top of their heads.
Users all had difficulty deciphering the meaning of the classifications on the activity cards under the “All Activities” and “Wishlist” tabs. The colors selected were not all effective in conveying meaning and the terms “Complete/More Magic/ New!” were confusing to the user, and not completely in theme or on brand with Walt Disney World. One user asked for an additional classification for the “All Activities” tab that would show when an activity was no longer available. The “Complete” status used for activities that have been completed was changed to “Visited”, and the lettering remained green. The word change will keep this language more in theme to the resort environment. For activities that have been updated the “More Magic!” status in blue was changed to “New Magic!” in purple, as the blue is used more for action buttons and filters. The “New!” status for activities the user has never done before was changed from purple to a gold color.
A “second-star-to-the-right” themed icon was created for the users to add activities to their wishlist. Although some users enjoyed the theming they stated that it was too small to be recognized easily, and did not convey any meaning to them. I decided a plus and minus sign would be easier to understand and recognize and changed out the buttons.
Users also stated that they felt like they had to do a lot of digging through the “Past Activities” tab to reach an activity or date. A way to search a specific date or month or year was created. The “Add Past Activity” button was made to look more like other action buttons found throughout the app.
Conclusion
I started this project intent on only creating a way for users to access their past activities in order to help them more easily process their activity at the Walt Disney World Resort when making plans. Through the process I found that the best way to help the user was to take the goal a step further than making a list of activities completed by user, but allow them to see what else there is to do that they have not done yet, and then be able to select items of interest for a list they can use as they make future plans. This will help the user to not just know what they have done, but to also more easily make future plans with access to information on activities that they would already need to know about in order to find more details. Initial user interviews revealed a need beyond what I had already identified as a useful feature, and also the need for an improved user experience with the hamburger menu and the abundance of options present there.
During testing users stated that the feature looked exactly like it already belonged in the app and that the user interface was already so familiar to them. Some users were under the impression that I had obtained elements directly from the app builders to help build the prototype because I was able to recreate the style and theming but integrate it into a feature that does not yet exist. I spent a lot of time perfecting the design of the feature to ensure the interface would be distraction to the user or force them to learn a new interface that may deter them from using the feature. I appreciated that the users testing the feature took note of the attention to detail that went into the prototype.
A next step this feature could take would the gamification of completing activities on the resort property and getting a recognition, ranking, or badge on the users account which can be shared to social media. This would drive users to continue to come back and do more in order to gain more recognition within their community as they complete more activities and try new experiences.