Client
Municipality Governing Multiple Cities
Tools Used
Figma, Hotjar, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, Flutter/Dart, VS Code
My Role
UX/UI Designer at yucon digital GmbH
Project Time
3 Months (May 2023 - July 2023)
For ~1.2M visitors per year, key tasks were fragmented: tourist tax, schedules, tickets, and activity info lived across multiple sites.
The fragmentation frustrated visitors and created extra work for the municipality. As a UX/UI Designer at yucon digital GmbH, I led a three-month design effort to bring these services into one mobile app.
The client, a municipal authority, aimed to launch this solution in one city as a pilot, with plans to offer it as a white-label product to others. My role spanned research, prototyping, and testing, with development beginning in parallel and currently in beta.
The Process: A Hypothesis-Driven Design Approach
We kicked off with stakeholder interviews to align on goals: improve tax compliance, reduce admin work, and make discovery/booking easier. I also spoke with local experts (guides, vendors, ferry operator) to understand the current info flow. A guide put it simply: "Visitors rely on us for event schedules because online info is scattered."
We mapped the visitor journey—arrival, tax payment, activity discovery, departure—capturing pain points and opportunities. This exercise, documented in a sprint map, set the foundation for our work.
Sprint map showing actors on the left, their required steps in the middle, and goals on the right.
Research: Defining User Needs
To inform the design, I combined interviews, short on-site observations, and a survey. In interviews, a retiree couple told me they missed the paddle steamer because they couldn’t find the schedule. A parent put it bluntly: "I’ve got ten minutes to plan, not an hour." On site, I saw people give up on a glitchy website and ask vendors directly instead. The survey backed this up: people wanted one place for schedules, tickets, and basic info — fast and easy to understand.
Everything's spread out and confusing—I just want one place to figure it all out without the hassle.
The problem statement emerged that guided our hypotheses: Visitors need a single platform to pay taxes and explore offerings, as the current system wastes time and reduces satisfaction.
Ideation and Prototyping: Testing Assumptions
We tested two browsing patterns (swipe cards vs. grid) with visitors and iterated quickly. Below are the interface iterations and what we learned.
Exploration 1
Swipeable Offerings
- Hypothesis: A swipeable card interface will feel modern and engaging, encouraging users to explore offerings.
- Testing: Younger users liked it, but older users found it confusing.
- Insight: Swiping wasn't obvious to everyone. Simplified design needed.
Exploration 2
Simplified Swipe Cards
- Hypothesis: Cleaner cards with visual cues for swiping.
- Testing: Users liked the design but missed the swipe functionality.
- Insight: Visual cues weren't enough. Moving to simpler layout.
Exploration 3
Grid Layout
- Hypothesis: Grid layout for immediate overview of offerings.
- Testing: 90% task completion rate. Users found it clear and easy to scan.
- Insight: Grid met user needs. Adding more details for better usability.
Exploration 4
Enhanced Grid with Ticket Details
- Hypothesis: Using greyscale icons to signify that a service card must be purchased first.
- Testing: 30% faster ticket purchases.
- Insight: Reduced friction confirmed. Ready for development.
Development and Iteration: Learning from Early Errors
We learned to test earlier. Swipe navigation failed for part of the audience, so we shifted quickly. In ticket purchase, dropoff at payment went from ~20% to about 5% after reducing clicks.
The UX Toolkit: How We Found Our Way
Throughout this journey, I relied on a strategic combination of research and testing methods that guided our decision-making:
Understanding the Landscape
- Stakeholder interviews with municipal managers revealed business goals and constraints
- Contextual inquiry with local experts showed how tourists struggled in real-time
Capturing User Needs
- User interviews with visitors uncovered frustrations with the fragmented experience
- Surveys quantified pain points across hundreds of responses
Synthesizing Insights
- Affinity mapping transformed scattered feedback into clear patterns and priorities
Validating Solutions
- Usability testing across all iterations revealed what worked and what didn't
- A/B testing directly compared swipe vs. grid interfaces with real users
These methods kept us honest: instead of optimizing for what we assumed, we optimized for what visitors actually needed — without losing sight of municipal constraints.
Results & Takeaways
After three months, the design achieved:
- 90% user satisfaction in final tests.
- 30% faster ticket purchases.
- A beta-phase app, with development refining backend features like tax processing.
- Client approval for a scalable white-label solution.
Learnings from the project:
- Early testing saves time. Our initial prototyping error highlighted the need for rapid validation.
- Stakeholder collaboration sets clarity. The kickoff aligned us with business goals, avoiding scope drift.
- User feedback drives success. Each iteration tested hypotheses so the solution actually addressed real pain points.